NTAC Guidance

In 2024, the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) tasked the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) with conducting a study to advance the field’s understanding of behavioral threat assessment and management practices in K–12 schools.

This research was sponsored by the U.S. Secret Service and conducted in the Infrastructure, Immigration, & Security Operations Program of the RAND Homeland Security Research Division (HSRD), which operates the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC).

The National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) was established as a component of the U.S. Secret Service in 1998 to provide research and guidance in direct support of the Secret Service’s protective mission and to others with public safety responsibilities.

Through the Presidential Threat Protection Act of 2000, Congress formally authorized NTAC to conduct research on threat assessment and various types of targeted violence;

NTAC’s staff is composed of a multidisciplinary team of social science researchers and regional program managers who support partners in law enforcement, schools, government, and other organizations to combat targeted violence impacting communities across the United States.

For more information on NTAC, see www.secretservice.gov/ntac.

As part of its long-standing effort to improve and foster the adoption of BTAM as a strategy to prevent targeted violence, the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) has sponsored a multiyear research effort carried out by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) that is focused on BTAM practices and their implementation in K–12 schools.

“A behavioral threat assessment is a proactive approach to identify, assess, and provide appropriate interventions and resources for students who display a behavior that elicits concern for the safety of themselves or others”

The impetus for early adoption of the BTAM model dates back to the joint U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education’s Safe School Initiative, which examined 37 incidents of targeted school attacks between 1974 and 2000 following the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado (Vossekuil et al., 2004).

The initiative introduced BTAM as a violence prevention model for schools, emphasizing the importance of identifying students who display behavior that elicits safety concerns, assessing the behaviors and their context, and managing any potential risk of harm through interventions and supports.

During this time frame, the Secret Service continued to publish updated research on targeted school violence and guidance for the implementation of BTAM programs in K–12 schools (see, e.g., NTAC, 2018; NTAC, 2019; and NTAC, 2021), and there was increasing research into—and focus on—approaches for preventing violence in K–12 schools more broadly.

NTAC guidance for defining the types of behaviors that might be referred to a BTAM team includes objectively concerning behaviors, such as “threatening or engaging in violence, bringing a weapon to school, bullying or harassing others, and criminal behaviors” (NTAC, 2018, p. 4).

NTAC guidance also identifies a constellation of “other concerning behavior” that may warrant an assessment and response by the BTAM team, including a variety of indicators of stress, inappropriate interest in violent topics (e.g., past school attackers, weapons), interpersonal conflicts, suicidality, or other concerns that might lead to a potential harmful outcome if not addressed.

NTAC recommends that BTAM teams meet “on a regular basis” to provide time for the team to work together and learn their individual responsibilities so they are able to operate more readily as one cohesive unit (NTAC, 2018).

Additionally, prominent and widely used frameworks for establishing BTAM in schools include those created by U.S. federal government agencies, such as the U.S. Secret Service’s NTAC (NTAC, 2018).

These frameworks largely align with best practices identified by the U.S. Secret Service’s NTAC.

NTAC guidance for effective BTAM implementation in K–12 schools emphasizes standardization across cases, through the establishment of “clearly defined processes and procedures to guide assessments” (NTAC, 2018, p. 7).

This list is based on guidance provided by existing BTAM frameworks, such as guidance provided by NTAC and such named models as the Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG).

Ensuring that this happens is a strong driver behind recommendations or even requirements for BTAM teams to be multidisciplinary (see, e.g., NTAC, 2018).

Such monitoring should ideally continue until the BTAM “team is no longer concerned about the student or [their potential] risk for violence” (NTAC, 2018).

Note that existing guidance around BTAM, including NTAC guidance, does not expect BTAM teams to be the first line of response for all incidents.

However, guidance does expect these teams to be notified of and to assess situations that present a higher risk of harm.

Fein, Robert A., Bryan Vossekuil, William S. Pollack, Randy Borum, William Modzeleski, and Marisa Reddy, Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, May 2002.

National Threat Assessment Center, Enhancing School Safety Using a Threat Assessment Model: An Operational Guide for Prevention Targeted School Violence, U.S. Secret Service, 2018.

National Threat Assessment Center, Protecting America’s Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence, U.S. Secret Service, 2019.

National Threat Assessment Center, Averting Targeted School Violence: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Plots Against Schools, U.S. Secret Service, 2021.

National Threat Assessment Center, “What Is a Behavioral Threat Assessment in School?”

Vossekuil, Bryan, Robert A. Fein, Marisa Reddy, Randy Borum, and William Modzelski, The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, July 2004.

As part of a longstanding effort to improve and foster the adoption of behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) as a strategy to prevent targeted violence, the National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) has sponsored a multi-year research effort carried out by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) focused on BTAM practices and their implementation in K-12 schools.