Current Projects

Vail C.A.R.E.S.

This research project constitutes the program evaluation component of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) inititative recently funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA).

The VAIL C.A.R.E.S. project is dedicated to strengthening healthy child development, positive mental health, preventing violent behavior and drug use and creating safe and drug-free school environments and communities.

The evaluation team at ERAD works closely with VAIL C.A.R.E.S. staff, stakeholders, and partnering organizations to collect and interpret data; to maintain an evaluation database; and to provide annual reports and ongoing feedback that will help the project staff and partnering organizations continuously improve services to stakeholders.

The objectives of the evaluation are:

• to provide process data for reporting and for project improvement;
• to assess the success of the project in reaching the desired short and intermediate outcomes; and
• to assess the impact of the project.

Relevant links

Vail Unified School District
It is the mission of the Vail School District to provide parents with safe and nurturing school communities, where their children can obtain a quality education.

An IEP Team's Introduction To Functional Behavioral Assessment And Behavior Intervention Plans (2nd edition)
Functional behavioral assessment is generally considered to be an approach that incorporates a variety of techniques and strategies to diagnose the causes and to identify likely interventions intended to address problem behaviors. In other words, functional behavioral assessment looks beyond the overt topography of the behavior, and focuses, instead, upon identifying biological, social, affective, and environmental factors that initiate, sustain, or end the behavior in question. This approach is important because it leads the observer beyond the "symptom" (the behavior) to the student's underlying motivation to escape, "avoid," or "get" something (which is, to the functional analyst, the root of all behavior). Research and experience have demonstrated that behavior intervention plans stemming from the knowledge of why a student misbehaves (i.e., based on a functional behavioral assessment) are extremely useful in addressing a wide range of problems.

Functional behavioral assessment
Functional behavioral assessment is generally considered to be a problem-solving process for addressing student problem behavior. It relies on a variety of techniques and strategies to identify the purposes of specific behavior and to help IEP teams select interventions to directly address the problem behavior. Functional behavioral assessment should be integrated, as appropriate, throughout the process of developing, reviewing, and, if necessary, revising a student's IEP.