As summer winds down and educators prepare to begin a new school year, many are reviewing the effectiveness of last year’s interventions and making adjustments to this year’s plans. This is the time of year when individual teachers are preparing to support a new group of students, and it can also be a time when teams convene to review, adjust, and refresh their procedures from last year. Some teams may find that the last few weeks of summer, or the first few weeks of school, are a good time to revisit their Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS).
MTSS is a structure that provides an appropriate level of support to all students, and although it is designed for all students, it can be particularly helpful for those at higher risk, as it helps identify and track students who might benefit from more support. In this way, MTSS might be an important structure for ensuring the well-being of, for example, students who are experiencing high levels of stress, frequent transitions or school changes, or changes related to family structure or obligations at home.
Military-connected students may come to school with many strengths, such as resilience, adaptability, and life experiences that differ from those of their peers, which often provide them with a unique perspective. However, they may also experience challenges such as frequent relocations, parental deployments, changing family roles, adjustment to unfamiliar school environments, and stress from parental injury. These transitions, and the stress that can come with them, can temporarily affect some students’ academic performance, attendance, behavior, or social-emotional well-being.
Schools do not necessarily need a separate identification, tracking, and service-delivery system for military-connected students, since well-designed systems can support all students. When implemented with fidelity, MTSS can provide a framework for identifying student needs early, delivering appropriate supports, and monitoring progress over time. Many of the systems that help military-connected students succeed can benefit all students, including creating a welcoming environment, providing a consistent routine, maintaining relationships with families, and implementing proactive interventions.
By refreshing MTSS, schools can ensure that all students’ needs are met in the 2026-27 school year.
The Foundation
The general structure, procedures, and ability to make data-based decisions are the foundation of an effective MTSS team. Your team can ask:
- Are all of our student support teams working efficiently, or are there redundancies between teams?
- Do MTSS team meetings follow a structure, and do members leave understanding the next steps?
- Does your MTSS team have a way to collect and sort general student data, such as attendance, grades, and discipline reports?
- Are the criteria for inclusion at each tier clear?
Tier 1
The first level of MTSS is high-quality universal instruction and the implementation of schoolwide supports. This level of programming can help students feel welcome and provide a sense of predictability and security. To ensure that your school’s tier 1 is functioning effectively, your team can ask:
- Have we outlined schoolwide behavioral expectations, and are these being clearly taught and reinforced?
- Do new students understand school routines and expectations?
- Do teachers know and use good classroom management strategies to manage minor behaviors and build positive relationships with students?
- Do all students know how to seek help or support?
Tier 2
Even with strong universal supports, some students will need additional assistance. Military-connected students experiencing a stressor may temporarily benefit from targeted interventions without requiring long-term intensive services. To ensure that Tier 2 is functioning effectively, your school can ask:
- Do we understand how to identify students requiring more targeted supports?
- Do we understand how to select interventions based on student needs?
- Do we have a variety of support options delivered by experienced practitioners, such as check-in/check-out, small-group psychoeducation and counseling, and mentoring programs?
- Is data being collected and used effectively to track student progress?
Tier 3
Some schools may consider Tier 3 to be special education services; some schools may consider anything referred out to be Tier 3; others may consider any individual or ongoing intervention to be Tier 3. Despite different definitions of Tier 3 services, your school can ask:
- Are Tier 3 inclusion criteria clearly defined?
- Does your team have procedures in place to manage student crises?
- Does your team maintain a list of local organizations that either partner with the school to provide services or that parents can be referred to?
- Has your school established procedures for identifying students who need special education services?
By combining strong MTSS practices with an understanding of the unique experiences of military-connected students, schools can create responsive systems that support every learner throughout the school year. The School Resources website offers a series of MTSS training sessions covering topics ranging from building an effective MTSS framework to selecting data sources, implementing progress monitoring, and providing Tier 1 classroom supports and Tier 2 interventions.
If you would like to learn more about or refresh your knowledge of MTSS, you can visit this series of trainings. If you would like to learn more about or refresh your knowledge of military-connected students, you can visit this series of trainings.