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Abstract: 

This special issue of the Report on Emotional & Behavioral Disorders in Youth includes two articles that introduce the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) and describe efforts within and across North and South Carolina to advance the interconnection of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and School Mental Health (SMH). The ISF merges PBIS and SMH, which, separately, have empirically demonstrated positive student outcomes through complementary approaches to promotion and intervention in schools. PBIS provides an implementation framework within which to build sustainable systems of mental health support to increase access, efficiency of delivery, continuity of care, and the monitoring of outcomes, and SMH provides a broad range of mental health practices that are often missing in the implementation of PBIS. Seamlessly blended, the evidence-based strengths of PBIS and SMH have the potential to create a school environment marked by efficient delivery of a full continuum of evidence-based mental health and educational services in the least restrictive settings. The two articles included in this issue of EBDY introduce the ISF and its practical and theoretical underpinnings while also describing and examining efforts in the Carolinas to advance ISF implementation.

Keywords: Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF), Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

Affiliations:  1: University of South Carolina; 2: University of South Carolina.