Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
help with decisions about when safety- and security-related actions are necessary (e.g., searching student belongings, implementing schoolwide lock down) (64 percent)
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
provide a public safety perspective about school dynamics and student behavior to help assess and manage behavioral concerns (58 percent)
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
participate to initiate public safety responses when necessary (e.g., arrest or other criminal justice intervention) (33 percent)
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
consult on the potential legal repercussions of student behavior (19 percent)
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
provide information from police and court records so the team can understand past student behavior (18 percent).
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
Two responsibilities were clearly predominant: helping with security-related decisions (64 percent) and providing a public safety perspective to the BTAM process (58 percent).
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
Forty-two percent of schools said their law enforcement personnel only performed one or both of these actions.
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
Another 46 percent of schools said their law enforcement personnel performed at least one of these roles on their BTAM team but also identified law enforcement as performing one of the less common roles: initiating public safety responses, consulting on legal repercussions, or providing information from police or court records.
Sample (N = 854) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
Only a small minority of schools (12 percent) responded that they included law enforcement on their BTAM team exclusively to perform at least one of these previous three functions.
Altogether, these findings are counter to some perceptions of the roles that law enforcement personnel play as BTAM team members (i.e., they are exclusively there to provide information from police or court records, which was actually the role least selected by principals).
The findings also are counter to concerns that schools treat law enforcement involvement in BTAM as a direct link to the criminal justice system (i.e., concerns that the presence of police in schools is leading to more arrests; see, e.g., Theriot, 2009; Meiners, 2011).
Rather, the specific activities and responsibilities that principals see as most important for the law enforcement members of their BTAM team suggest they view them primarily as sources of expertise (see, e.g., McKenna and White, 2018).
Although BTAM teams are generally made up of experienced practitioners with field-specific expertise, individual members are not necessarily BTAM experts per se and are not necessarily experts at working effectively as part of a larger multidisciplinary team.
This finding means that BTAM-specific training may be important for providing a foundation of BTAM-specific knowledge across all members and as a mechanism for building working relationships within the team.
The National Association of Behavior Intervention and Threat Assessment (NABITA), for example, specifies that training for BTAM teams should target a broad variety of competencies (e.g., risk and threat assessment), mental health and cultural awareness, bias mitigation, effective team communication, intervention strategies, and community engagement (NABITA, 2024).
Sample (N = 1376) · Teams answering community support / challenges / processes / training questions
According to principals’ responses, about half of schools (48 percent) with BTAM teams provide training or professional development related to BTAM to their team members annually (see Figure 5.4).
Sample (N = 1376) · Teams answering community support / challenges / processes / training questions
This includes 36 percent of schools that train their BTAM members once per school year and 12 percent that train multiple times in a single school year.
Sample (N = 1376) · Teams answering the BTAM training-frequency question (Figure 5.4)
Meanwhile, 23 percent of schools provide training on an as-needed basis
This section discusses principals’ responses to questions exploring the training for members of their schools’ BTAM teams.
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