Consultation & Coaching Services

NJCIE does not provide direct support to students. We support districts through training, coaching, and strategic planning.

Implementation of Tiered Intervention Systems

NJTSS / MTSS / RTI / PBIS

Whether your district is just starting to investigate tiered systems or has already begun implementing a tiered framework, NJCIE can help make sure that your execution is consistent and dependable.

Ongoing Items:

  • Helping staff select, administer, score, and interpret screening, diagnostic, outcome, and progress monitoring measures.

  • Helping staff develop, implement, and sustain a multi-tier intervention framework through which ALL students have an opportunity to advance successfully.

  • Helping staff carry out innovative and proactive team-driven approaches to support all school personnel in their efforts to meet the diverse needs of students within the general education setting

  • Partnering with the district to build the district’s internal capacity. We will train district coaches and other staff on how to provide the necessary support services. Our goal is to ensure that when we leave, district staff have the training and capacity they need to sustain the framework.

  • Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Coaching for School-Wide Positive Behavior Support System Development

NJCIE offers technical assistance and consultation to help schools develop and implement school- and district-wide positive behavior support systems. This type of comprehensive, systemic, and individualized continuum of positive behavior support is designed to provide opportunities for all students, including those with significant emotional and behavioral issues, to achieve social, behavioral, and academic success.

  • On-site coaching and technical assistance of your team to create a positive learning climate through the use of a continuum of positive behavior support.

  • Your NJCIE “coach” will proactively use a team-based framework to lead your school-based development team in conducting an assessment of the current behavioral intervention and support practices in place at your school.

  • Your NJCIE “coach” and school-based development team will use this assessment data to create a comprehensive plan of action for bringing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to your school.

  • Your NJCIE “coach” will guide your school-based development team in implementing your individualized, school-wide (or district-wide) PBIS action plan.

Academic Consulting for Students with Significant Disabilities

NJCIE’s staff and consultants service over fifty New Jersey school districts annually providing indispensable assistance in the inclusion of students with significant disabilities in the least restrictive environment. We can provide a customized program of supports for your staff grounded on our team’s decades of experience in the state as former teachers, district administrators, and professors of special education.

Ongoing items:

  • Observation and feedback

  • Lead or attend team meetings

  • Adapt curriculum to meet student need(s)

  • Strategies to support IEP academic and behavioral goals

  • Materials and technology suggestions to support specific academic and behavioral needs

  • Conduct individual and group meetings and gather information to provide instructional support for teachers, aides, paraprofessionals and related service providers

  • Support transition from instructional to social settings (i.e. academics to physical education, etc.)

  • Supporting transition from one grade level to another, or one school to

  • Written reports on progress and challenges, with specific goals and strategies for all instructional support

  • Facilitate positive communication with parents and supporting home-school relationships and continuity of services

Developing In-District Inclusive Pre-School Programs

NJCIE’s consultants work with staff and students to maximize opportunities for students in general education classrooms in ways that will improve educational benefits and out-comes. The development or review of goals and objectives that are appropriate and measurable and operationalize strategies for students with a wide variety of needs including those with low incidence disabilities can be addressed.

Providing LRE for preschool students ages 3-5 can be challenging for school districts. Placing students in community preschool programs and providing appropriate services is often inefficient, costly, and difficult to monitor. NJCIE’s consultant will work with administrative staff and teachers to develop in-district inclusive pre-school programs.

Ongoing Items:

  • Classroom design

  • Classroom composition of students: typical and classified

  • Budgeting and potential tuition

  • Curriculum development

  • Staffing needs and training goals

  • Related Services involvement

  • Transportation

  • Classroom support and individual student support

Behavior Consultation Services for Districts

NJCIE's philosophy and approach to consulting and behavior intervention services is to increase in-district capacity to provide a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment to all students with disabilities. A culture of teamwork and collaboration permeates our approach as we work closely with all stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, students, and families to develop positive behavioral interventions and supports.

Our school-based positive behavior support services range in scope from consultation regarding an individual student’s behavioral needs, to help teachers develop classroom behavior management systems and to assist schools to create and implement a system of behavior supports to meet the needs of all of its students. Brief descriptions of the services offered to follow. Workshops and trainings are also available on a variety of behavioral issues.

Individual Student Behavior

Observations, interviews, and brainstorming sessions to assemble a complete "picture" of the student’s interfering behavior(s) will result in a Behavior Consultation Report: comprehensive, individualized recommendations for positive behavioral interventions and supports to meet that student’s unique needs based on the consultant’s interviews with staff members, parents, and the student as well as direct observations of the student. Positive behavior support recommendations for students will be positive, proactive, and focused on preventing the student’s challenging behaviors before they occur. An NJCIE consultant can also assist your school in using this report to develop a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) to be added to the student’s IEP. On-site coaching and demonstrations of any recommended techniques are also available by NJCIE’s consultant. Related materials, including social stories, behavior charts, visual schedules, and other visual supports can be provided upon request. Schools may also arrange for ongoing behavior consultation and behavioral training for teachers and other school personnel as needed.

Functional Behavior Assessment & Behavior Support Plan Development 

NJCIE consultant will conduct a comprehensive Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) of the student’s challenging behavior(s). The purpose of an FBA is to find out what is the “function” of the student’s behavior.  The assessment will include direct observations of the student, interviews (with key stakeholders that may include teachers, child study team members, parents, paraprofessionals, administrators, and the student being assessed), and data collection on the antecedents and consequences that may be maintaining the problem behavior.

This service package will result in an FBA Report that includes recommendations for positive behavioral interventions and supports based on the results from the FBA. An NJCIE consultant can also assist your school in using this report to develop a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) to be added to the student’s IEP. Related materials, including social stories, behavior charts, visual schedules, and other visual supports can also be provided by the NJCIE consultant upon request.

Developing a Collaborative Functional Behavior Assessment Process

An eight-session training package that provides in-depth instruction in the process of conducting Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) using a team-driven process, with the intended outcome being that a team of individuals within your school/district will be able to complete all FBAs and develop quality behavior intervention plans without utilizing outside consultants. The development of an effective FBA or Positive Behavior Support (PBS) “Action Team” elevates a school’s/district’s ability to support the behavior of students with the most intensive behavioral needs using their own “in-house” experts.

This intensive training will provide your team members with an overview of how the process of conducting an FBA can be used to better understand and support the behavior of students with more intensive behavior support needs. Participants will receive eight days of step-by-step guidance in the process of conducting an FBA and in using the information generated to develop a behavior intervention plan. This training is intended as a follow-up to an initial overview session on FBA and offers a more in-depth look at the actual process of completing a technically sound FBA in order to better understand and support the behavior of students with more complex needs.  Participants will engage in small group activities to apply this process to students from their building.

Ongoing Items:

Through professional development trainings and on-site coaching, team members will explore the following concepts:

  • Determining environmental variables that trigger problem behavior, then identifying ways to change these elements of students’ environment to promote positive behavior.

  • Using the function of the student’s behavior to develop and promote social and behavioral skills to reduce a student’s need for socially maladaptive behaviors.

  • Teaching new skills to replace problem behavior and to increase social and academic competencies.

  • Using positive consequences to strengthen desirable behavior.

  • Developing behavior intervention plans collaboratively with implementers.