Mental Health

SUSD Support Services focuses on the prevention of behavioral, social, or emotional difficulties in our children. Prevention and early intervention are keys to ensuring that all children have access to a quality education and make academic progress as well as social strides in school.  
In order to achieve this, SUSD's Mental Health in the Schools team works with SUSD psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses and other staff to implement a three-tier model of support that emphasizes prevention.  

This model is based on the Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) framework as well as the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Both of these prevention frameworks are research based and have been proven to create social and academic success on campuses across the country.  

SUSD has been a National Leader in Response to Intervention (RTI) with a proven track record over the past seven years of increasing academic outcomes for students using strategies such as universal screening, targeted intervention, and frequent progress monitoring. As SUSD takes a leadership role in Arizona in the implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS), we are seeing reductions in discipline incidents, suspensions, and positive culture change on campuses.