Using MTSS to Support Student Well-being: New Fact Sheets for Schools

Youth are experiencing unprecedented rates of mental health distress. Depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behavior among high school students have been on the rise for years prior to COVID but were further exasperated by the pandemic. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, more than 42 percent of students felt persistently sad and hopeless in 2021--up from 31 percent in 2017.¹ Moreover, 22 percent of students seriously considered suicide and 10 percent attempted it, compared to 17 and 7 percent, respectively, in 2017.² To address this crisis, many schools and districts are turning to multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)--a framework for implementing a cohesive set of evidence-based programs and practices.

Due to the urgent need and interest in this topic, REL Northeast & Islands brought together educators from across the region for a series of coaching sessions with social and emotional learning (SEL) expert Dr. Shai Fuxman and public health educator Bonnie Lipton, beginning in November 2023.

Recently, we distilled the strategies and best practices discussed during these meetings into a series of new fact sheets to support educators' use of MTSS for SEL and mental health. "MTSS is about a single, cohesive and comprehensive system with a lot of different pieces that have to work together," says Fuxman.

"These fact sheets are about paying attention to all the individual elements and how they interact with each other to make one good system."

This blog introduces each of the five new MTSS fact sheets and their topics--including understanding MTSS, meeting the SEL and mental health needs of students, using data to promote student well-being, promoting educator well-being, and ensuring equity is at the center of MTS efforts.

What are Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports?

MTSS is a three-tiered framework that offers a continuum of supports to students at increasing intensity. "Although often used for instructional interventions," says Lipton. "The framework is also used to promote social and emotional competencies among all students and to ensure that students with social, emotional, and mental health challenges are identified and helped."

Using MTSS for SEL and mental health is associated with improved social-emotional competencies, coping skills, symptoms, and functioning in students with mental health disorders.³ Our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and the Importance of Promoting Student Well-being fact sheet offers an overview of an MTSS approach to promote student well-being, explores the research base for MTSS, and provides examples of each of the three tiers of continued support.

Meeting Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs with MTSS

MTSS uses a three-tiered approach with Tier 1 interventions as the foundation. These universal supports are provided to all students through classroom-based and school-wide programs and practices. "It's important to make sure you have a strong Tier 1 for SEL," says Fuxman. "The stronger your Tier 1 schools implement Tier 1, the fewer students need Tiers 2 and 3."

For students who need additional supports, there are three steps in the MTSS framework:

1. Identify students with elevated needs
2. Support these students with Tier 2 and 3 interventions
3. Monitor their progress over time

Students with elevated needs fall into two categories--those with low to moderate needs not met through Tier 1 supports receive Tier 2 supports (often in small groups) through targeted interventions, and students with the greatest needs receive Tier 3 supports, typically through individualized mental health interventions. For students getting Tier 2 and 3 supports, a student support team meets regularly to develop a plan for each student and to assess their progress. This multi-disciplinary team is typically comprised of educators, special education professionals, school counselors, and administrators.

Check out our Meeting the Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs of All Students fact sheet to learn more about identifying, supporting, and monitoring students; the role of student support teams; and key considerations for creating these teams.

Data is Key to Taking an MTSS Approach

Data is essential for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of MTSS efforts to support students' SEL and mental health needs. SEL and mental health data enable educators to identify student, classroom, and school-wide needs; track SEL and mental health growth over time; and evaluate the effectiveness of mental health and SEL programming.

Our Using Data to Inform MTSS Efforts to Promote Student Well-being fact sheet can help educators identify key questions and sources of existing SEL and mental health data--including student-, school-, and community-level data to guide decision-making. "Taking stock of this existing data can help pinpoint the elements of your MTSS efforts that need additional resources so you can decide where to focus your efforts," says Lipton. The fact sheet also provides tips on helping educators consider equity in their data collection and assessment efforts.

Don't Forget about Educator Well-being

It's not just students who are struggling with mental health and well-being. "Since the pandemic, teachers are feeling stressed and burnt out and are actually leaving the profession," says Fuxman. "So, if you are going to talk about SEL and mental health in the school system, it's important to not only talk about students, but teachers too." Increased workloads, lack of support from administrators and families, and concern about student mental health are a few of the many factors that take a toll on educators' well-being.

Our new fact sheet, Supporting Educator Well-being Using Evidence Based Supports, explores the root causes of educator stress through a socio-ecological lens--an approach that considers the individual, their peer relationships, and the environment teachers work in. The fact sheet provides strategies for how to support educators at each of these levels so they can better support the mental health needs of their students.

MTSS Efforts Thrive When Equity is at the Core

Inequities, stigma, and all forms of discrimination can cause significant harm to students' mental health,⁴ and historically marginalized students have reduced access to behavioral health services.⁵ "When you are not thinking about equity, it can make your SEL work less effective at reaching students," explains Lipton. "For example, schools may focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions for students who are struggling, instead of taking a step back and identifying and addressing issues of school climate and sense of belonging at Tier 1. That is why it's important to disaggregate data by different student demographic indicators to gain a better understanding of students' experiences."

Our Bringing an Equity Lens to Student Well-being through the MTSS Framework: Guiding Questions for Implementation fact sheet offers strategies to ensure equity is at the core of school and districts' MTSS efforts. The fact sheet provides guiding questions to consider when planning and implementing MTSS for SEL and mental health with an equity lens.

Coaching Series Impact

We are excited to present these five MTSS fact sheets to educators in the Northeast & Islands region and beyond to disseminate key learning from the MTSS coaching series.

Bethany Ambrose, a school psychologist who participated in the coaching series with Dr. Fuxman and Lipton, says "Despite having a well-oiled [MTSS] system in place, the coaching sessions have helped add clarity to certain components of our process, making our work even more effective and efficient."

For links to the five fact sheets and for additional resources on implementing an MTSS framework to support students' SEL and mental health, see below.

MTSS Fact Sheet Series

• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and the Importance of Promoting Student Well-being
• Meeting the Social, Emotional, and Mental Health Needs of All Students
• Using Data to Inform MTSS Efforts to Promote Well-being
• Supporting Educator Well-being Using Evidence-Based Supports
• Bringing an Equity Lens to Student Well-being through the MTSS Framework: Guiding Questions for Implementation

Related REL Resources

• REL Northeast & Islands Event: Using Multi-tiered Systems of Support to Address Students' Mental Health: An Evidence-Based Approach
• REL Northeast & Islands: A Review of Instruments for Measuring Social and Emotional Learning Skills Among Secondary School Students
• REL Pacific: How to Grow: Teacher Wellbeing in Your Schools