School safety requires a proactive approach to campus emergency management when planning for, responding to, and recovering from an act of school violence. One of the latest strategies considered best practices in prevention, intervention, and case management involves the formation of a Student Behavioral Threat Assessment Team. Such teams must be afforded the authority to make decisions, provided functional operational guidelines, and adopt a research-based threat assessment model to work from.

1. The Necessary Components of
Student Behavioral Threat
Assessment Procedures
By Dr. Sandra Ellis

2. The Necessary Components of Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Procedures
School safety requires a proactive approach to
campus emergency management when planning for,
responding to, and recovering from an act of school
violence. One of the latest strategies considered best
practices in prevention, intervention, and case
management involves the formation of a Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Team. Such teams
must be afforded the authority to make decisions,
provided functional operational guidelines, and
adopt a research-based threat assessment model to
work from.

3. The Necessary Components of Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Procedures
Behavioral experts now recognize that there are common
procedural components for effective threat assessment regardless of
the threat assessment model adopted by the team. First and
foremost, sound policy and administrative procedures must be
developed to support, guide, protect, and embed the Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Team into the daily operational
procedures of the schoolhouse. Consistency in operational
procedures and application of policy by all members of the threat
assessment team are essential when responding to real or perceived
threats of violence. Such policy and procedures will not only address
membership and general operating parameters, but also specify
decision-making authority, investigatory power, ability to conduct a
formal threat assessment, and memorandums of
understanding/agreement (MOU/MOA) delineating resource
functions from integrated community-based systems.

4. The Necessary Components of Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Procedures
The multi-disciplinary core team embodies a cohesive
unit of professionals typically representing school
administration, faculty, and support services personnel
specializing in the fields of psychology, counseling, social
work, and nursing. Auxiliary team member personnel
often include a school resource/juvenile officer,
community mental health professional, and school legal
counsel. Once the core team membership has been
formally established, recognition of training,
information sharing, and confidentiality must be
addressed. A multi-disciplinary team naturally broadens
the scope by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness
of threat assessment while reducing the risk of myopic
viewpoints.

5. The Necessary Components of Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Procedures
Although all faculty, staff, and students are
ultimately involved and responsible for school
violence prevention, it is the Student Behavioral
Threat Assessment Team that will formally guide
the investigation, intervention, and case
management process regarding the student(s) of
concern. The need for confidentiality is paramount.
Activities and deliberations of these teams should be
shared with only those individuals who are deemed
necessary in supporting the student behavioral
threat assessment process.

6. The Necessary Components of Student
Behavioral Threat Assessment Procedures
Recognizing that students of concern can be located in one or
several school buildings, information and communication
flow should be both intra-organizational and inter-
organizational. Threats of violence or observed aberrant
behavior must be examined to determine if the subject of
concern poses a threat. By acting proactively, educators will
always honor the threat of violence by taking it seriously and
processing the information objectively. Current research and
best practice understands and yields to the nonexistent profile
of any individual school violence perpetrator. Yet, there are
specific factors and student behavioral characteristics that can
assist in the identification of youth at risk of violence. The
FBI’s four-pronged assessment serves as an excellent
reference guide.

7. About the Author
Recognizing that students of concern can be located in one or
several school buildings, information and communication
flow should be both intra-organizational and inter-
organizational. Threats of violence or observed aberrant
behavior must be examined to determine if the subject of
concern poses a threat. By acting proactively, educators will
always honor the threat of violence by taking it seriously and
processing the information objectively. Current research and
best practice understands and yields to the nonexistent profile
of any individual school violence perpetrator. Yet, there are
specific factors and student behavioral characteristics that can
assist in the identification of youth at risk of violence. The
FBI’s four-pronged assessment serves as an excellent
reference guide.