Student Crisis Intervention System

The Vendor is required to provide for a crisis intervention system which will provide alternative for working with agency students with challenging behaviors and teach agency educational staff to recognize conflict and escalating behaviors and how to develop effective strategies for address those students’ behaviors.
- The system must prioritize early intervention, relationship-based de-escalation, trauma-informed practices, and the use of the least restrictive responses, while supporting safe school environments for students and staff.
- provide a crisis prevention and intervention system designed for use in public school settings and appropriate for students with a broad range of behavioral, emotional, communication, sensory, and developmental needs, including students with autism spectrum disorder and students impacted by trauma.
- The system shall support students with challenging behaviors by equipping staff to recognize early signs of escalation and implement proactive, evidence-based, and trauma-informed strategies to prevent and effectively respond to behavioral crises.
- The crisis intervention system shall include the following components:
• A structured Prevention-Focused, Nonviolent Framework emphasizing:
• Recognition of early signs of distress, dysregulation, and escalation;
• Verbal and nonverbal de-escalation strategies that promote safety, dignity, and regulation;
• Proactive, positive behavior support strategies to reduce the likelihood of crisis; and
• Alternatives to restrictive interventions, with clear emphasis on prevention and crisis avoidance, consistent with agency stated interest in interventions that do not rely on restraint as a primary response.
• The system must be grounded in a trauma-informed approaches and include training on topics such as:
• The impact of trauma on student development, regulation, learning, and behavior;
• Recognizing how trauma may affect student responses to adult direction, correction, touch, sensory input, and transitions;
• Strategies for co-regulation, relationship-building, emotional safety, and restoring student readiness to learn;
• Approaches that reduce re-traumatization and support student dignity during and after behavioral incidents; and
• Post-crisis recovery and reintegration practices for students and staff.
• The system shall include content and strategies addressing the needs of students with autism and students with communication, sensory, social-emotional, and self-regulation differences and include training on topics such as:
• Understanding behavior as communication;
• Prevention strategies for students who experience sensory overload, rigidity, anxiety, communication breakdowns, or difficulty with unexpected change;
• Use of predictable routines, visual supports, transition supports, and regulation strategies;
• De-escalation methods appropriate for students with limited expressive/receptive language or atypical communication profiles;
• Response strategies that account for sensory needs, processing time, personal space, and trauma history; and
• Guidance for adapting crisis prevention strategies across settings, including classroom, regional programs, developmental centers, and specialized autism programs.