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Daily Report Card Procedures
Behavioral Parent Support Sessions
Collaborative Teacher Consultation

Daily Report Card (DRC) Procedures

The DRC procedure is used to identify, monitor and change individual target behaviors, provide daily communication between home and school, and provide a positive context that motivates children to improve their behavior. Using this procedure, target behaviors are identified and agreed upon by the parents, teacher, and child (e.g., math productivity, classroom interruptions). On a daily basis, the teacher provides feedback to the child at the point of performance, documents these occurrences on the DRC, reviews daily performance with the child at the end of the day, and sends the DRC home with the child. When the child delivers the DRC, parents provide a home-based rewards program that is based upon the child’s performance on his target behaviors. Thus, this procedure when used appropriately, incorporates several effective techniques such as praise and ignoring, token economy systems, and reward and response cost procedures, each of which are effective tools in changing child behavior. Kelley’s (1990) book is devoted to describing the empirical literature supporting the DRC procedure, as well as describing how to develop and implement the procedure. In her review of the literature, she describes several studies that demonstrate a reduction in disruptive behavior or an improvement in academic behavior as a function of use of the DRC.

In addition, research has demonstrated that when academic productivity or accuracy is targeted on the DRC, reductions in disruptive classroom behavior are also observed, likely because the positive academic behavior (e.g., completing class work) is incompatible with the disruptive behavior (e.g., being out of seat, talking to peers). However, the converse does not seem to apply. That is, targeting disruptive classroom behavior does not necessarily result in increased academic productivity. Furthermore, some studies have shown that type and method of rewards and consequences impacts the effectiveness of the DRC procedure. For example, simply providing verbal praise to the child is less effective in changing behavior than the use of praise and a privilege.

DRC procedures are available on-line (http://ccf.buffalo.edu/resources_downloads.php). Included in the downloadable packet are instructions for establishing the report card, sample letters to engage teachers, sample report card target behaviors, sample daily report cards, sample home and school rewards, tracking sheets, and troubleshooting guidelines.

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Behavioral Parent Support Sessions

Similarly, evidence from over 100 studies provides support for the efficacy of parenting interventions in improving child compliance, reducing disruptive behaviors, and improving parent-child interactions. Treatment gains can be maintained several months to several years after the program has terminated. Further, parenting programs improve other aspects of parent functioning, such as parental stress and self-esteem.

There are six parenting programs that have received extensive evaluation and support:
1. Gerald Patterson’s Living with Children
2. McMahon and Forehand's Helping the Noncompliant Child
3. Carolyn Webster-Stratton’s The Incredible Years 
4. Sheila Eyberg’s Parent –Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
5. Russell Barkley’s Defiant Children
6. Charles Cunningham’s Community-Oriented Parenting Education (COPE)

These programs have several similarities. First, all six programs are designed to target noncompliance and to interrupt the cycle of coercion. Second, all six are based on Hanf’s (1969) two-stage program for child noncompliance. The first stage involves teaching parents to pay attention to appropriate behaviors and ignore inappropriate behaviors. The second stage involves teaching parents effective, consistent disciplinary techniques (e.g., time out, response cost). Third, all six programs focus on teaching parents behavior modification techniques to shape children’s behaviors and assigns weekly practice activities between sessions. Finally, the behavior management principles taught in all six programs are most applicable to preschool and elementary school children.

The Y.E.S.S. Program uses the Defiant Children,  Helping the Noncompliant Child, and COPE Program manuals. 

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Collborative Teacher Consultation

Evidence from the education literature suggests that collaborative consultation between mental health professions and teachers results in improved teacher perceptions of their most challenging children, a reduction in unnecessary special education placements, and a reduction in unnecessary psycho-educational testing (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bahr, 1990). The Y.E.S.S. Program prioritizes teacher engagement and collaborative consultation, as teachers are critical front line providers of evidence-based interventions for children with disruptive behavior. Our consultation follows the recommended problem-solving approach that involves forming a consultative relationship with the child's teacher, identifying the problem/s to be targeted, selecting an intervention, implementing an intervention, and evaluating outcomes (Kratochwill et al., 2002). The process is characterized by co-education, joint decision making, and shared responsibility for implementing the interventions.

Although most teachers indicate that fostering children’s mental health is part of their role, many teachers feel ill-prepared to meet the educational needs of a child with behavioral challenges. In addition, many studies suggest that consultation needs to be of sufficient duration to adquately help teachers implement the procedures with high quality. Thus, the Y.E.S.S. Program provides collaborative consultation sessions on a bi-weekly basis for the duration of the school year. School districts employ a “floating” substitute teacher to relieve teachers from their classrooms for the 30-minute consultation sessions.

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