About the Toolkit
The Student Affairs Forum, a research membership within the EAB, is pleased to provide this collection of resources for behavioral intervention teams (BITs). The Forum gathered these materials through an extensive literature review and during more than 130 interviews with Student Affairs practitioners at a diverse group of institutions in the United States and Canada. The resources provided for members include policy and procedure manuals, outreach and training materials, diagnostic audits, assessment reports, and email templates.
In addition, the Forum created templates to supplement institution-specific resources to address implementation gaps surfaced in the research. The Forum’s implementation tools include a procedure manual template, a gap-analysis spreadsheet, and a website audit. Members can use these resources to streamline the launch of their BIT, implement new outreach strategies, or quickly optimize current team processes.
Tools
1. Assessment Materials
2. BIT Websites
3. Databases and Recordkeeping
4. Job Descriptions
5. Legal Resources
6. Outreach and Community Education Materials
7. Post-Referral Communication Templates
8. Procedures Manuals and Policy Statements
9. Team Training Materials
Assessment Materials
Effective BITs aggregate data on caseloads, types of concerns, referral sources, and other performance indicators to communicate team impact to senior administrators and fine-tune processes and procedures.
The materials in this section, consisting primarily of reports and data aggregation tools, offer a glimpse at the types of information that teams should be tracking and sharing with institutional stakeholders.
Institutional resources
- Student Care Team Report (University of Alaska Anchorage)
- Student of Concern Committee Data Report (University of California at Berkeley)
- Monthly Case Manager Report (University of Miami)
- BIT Diagnostic Audit (Buffalo State College)
- Annual Dean of Students Report – Excerpt (University of Utah)
- Helping Individuals At Risk Annual Report (University of Alberta)
Forum resources
BIT Websites
When faculty, staff, and students notice concerning behavior, they often turn to the web for guidance. Unfortunately, many behavioral intervention teams do not maintain a prominent online presence. Even at institutions with dedicated BIT websites, faculty, staff, and students may struggle to find the site through browsing or institution search engines.
Model BIT websites all include basic information such as team mission, instructions for referrals, team membership, and guidelines for how to proceed in an emergency. When designing websites, administrators should also ensure that high-traffic sites such as counseling services, faculty and staff portals, the office of the dean of students, and campus safety include links to the dedicated BIT website.
Institutional resources
- Student Care Team Website (University of Alaska Anchorage)
- Student of Concern Committee Website (University of California at Berkeley)
- Behavioral Intervention Website (Ozarks Technical Community College)
- Behavioral Intervention Team Website (University of South Carolina)
Forum resources
Databases and Recordkeeping
Keeping records of BIT work ensures that team members perform their duties thoroughly and without oversights. In addition, it allows administrators to provide documentation of the team’s actions if needed.
Many institutions choose to go with a database system developed by a third-party vendor. Other institutions opt for a password-protected Excel spreadsheet that one or multiple team members manage. The resources below will assist team leaders in their choice in a system, and will allow for streamlined record-keeping if the Excel option is selected.
Institutional resources
- Students of Concern Excel Tracker Template (University of North Carolina Wilmington)
Forum resources
Job Descriptions
Working with students of concern is complex and time-consuming, yet the job descriptions of many administrators who serve on BITs fail to outline the duties associated with the individual’s role on the team. Exemplary institutions write BIT duties into the job descriptions of the administrators who sit on them.
Additionally, many institutions support BIT members with a formal case manager position within student affairs. The below resources include examples of case manager job descriptions that can prove useful in crafting a job posting for this position.
Institutional resources
- Concern and Response Team Chair Job Description (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)
- Case Manager Job Description (American University)
- Case Manager Job Description (Southern Oregon University)
- Case Manager Job Description (University of California Riverside)
Forum resources
Legal Issues
Responding to and assisting students of concern presents several legal challenges. Recent changes to Title II regulations regarding harm-to-self and the direct threat standard have complicated the work of behavioral intervention teams. Many student affairs professionals have expressed concern that the loss of involuntary withdrawal on the basis of threat to self has removed a last-resort tool for convincing students of concern and their families to focus on treatment. In many cases, administrators have been forced to route these difficult cases through student conduct proceedings.
Despite ongoing confusion about how to assist students who pose a threat to themselves, many institutions have chosen to revise their involuntary withdrawal policies to comply with the Title II changes. In addition, several professional associations have released guidance on the Title II direct threat standard changes.
Institutional and other external resources
- Involuntary Withdrawal Policy (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
- Note on Title II Regulations (NACUA)
- Suicidal Students, BITs, and the Direct Threat Standard (NCHERM and NaBITA)
- Danger for Whom? (Inside Higher Ed)
Outreach and Community Education Materials
An effective response strategy for students of concern requires an informed campus community. Training and outreach to faculty, staff, and students generate referrals at earlier stages of distress, thus increasing student affairs professionals’ chances of helping distressed students. Face-to-face presentations are the primary medium through which BITs educate campus constituents. Progressive teams, however, recognize that faculty, staff, and students may forget their training.
To facilitate referrals, the Student Affairs Forum recommends that BITs create comprehensive campus education campaigns that include in-person training, quick reference materials, and just-in-time reminders.
Institutional resources
- Student Care Team Brochure (University of Alaska Anchorage)
- Student of Concern Committee Brochure (University of California at Berkeley)
- Canes Care for Canes (University of Miami)
- Helping Students Guide (Western Carolina University)
- Faculty and Staff Students of Concern Guide (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
- Students of Concern Brochure (Suffolk University)
- Recognizing and Responding to Students in Distress (Cornell University)
- Dealing with Distressing Student Behavior Folder (University of South Carolina)
Forum resources
Post-referral Communications
Contacting referrers after they submit a concern helps educate stakeholders about BIT procedures and build open lines of communication with them. Yet despite these benefits, most institutions gather referrals without informing referrers that the team has heard their concerns.
The below email template provides a framework that administrators may use to structure their post-referral communication with referrers.
Forum resources
Procedures Manuals and Policy Statements
Formal guidelines help order the complex, difficult work that BITs undertake. Yet many institutions establish and operate BITs without officially delineating how the team will operate, who will serve on it, and how far its authority extends.
The below resources vary in length from six to 72 pages and demonstrate how administrators outline the scope of BITs. These documents provide a sturdy foundation from which to stage BIT operations. They may also offer just-in-time guidance to team members who are unsure about how to proceed on a case.
- Student Care Team Protocol (Oregon State University)
- Students of Concern Committee Policy Statement (College of Charleston)
- Student Mental Health Task Force Report (University of North Texas)
- Team Protocol (Towson University)
- Behavioral Intervention Team Overview (Saint Joseph’s University)
- Student Concern Response Team Protocol (Western Carolina University)
- Student Mental Health Framework (Carleton University)
- Helping Individuals At Risk Policy (University of Alberta)
Forum resources
Team Training Materials
Many teams believe that their subject-matter expertise and experience on committees and working groups prepares them adequately for BIT work. Nevertheless, teams that lack training opportunities often suffer from process inefficiencies and weak group dynamics. The below training materials will help team chairs facilitate team-building exercises and update team members on how to approach students-of-concern cases.
Institutional and other external resources
- Helping Individuals At Risk Meeting Documentation (University of Alberta)
- Invisible Safety Net Recruitment Letter (Saint Joseph’s University)
- Retreat Agenda 2011 (Buffalo State College)
- Student Mental Health Framework Training (Level 2) (Carleton University)
- Student Care Network Referral Escalation Flowchart (University of Rochester)
- Threat Assessment in the Campus Setting (NaBITA)
- The NCHERM 2009 Whitepaper (NCHERM)
- Behavioral Intervention vs. Threat Assessment: Best Practices for Violence Prevention (Sokolow et al.)
- Assessing and Responding to Disturbed and Disturbing Students
- Campus Threat Assessment and Management Teams: What Risk Managers Need to Know Now (Nolan et al.)
- The Book on BIT (NaBITA)
Forum resources
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