Behavioral Threat Assessments (BTA) enable schools to analyze and mitigate threats of intentional violence. By determining the context of a threat, evaluating external stressors, and assessing the student’s mental health and emotional status, BTAs help schools determine what specific actions they can take to help move a student off the pathway to violence. Following a methodology and including it in the policies and procedures within your district are important to building a program that is consistent and trusted among your community.
The origin of Behavioral Threat Assessments in schools
In 2002, the US Secret Service and the US Department of Education conducted a study through the Safe Schools Initiative, and the findings led to a guide for schools: Threat Assessment in Schools: A Guide to Managing Threatening Situations and to Creating Safe School Climates.
This guide is the foundation for all Behavioral Threat Assessment models, though the NTAC methodology follows it most closely. The other methodologies were created because their authors saw ways—unique to their own perspectives as a forensic psychologist (Dewey Cornell, CSTAG) and a school psychologist (John Van Dreal, Salem-Keizer Cascade)—to accomplish the same goal.
While all BTAs are predicated on making assessments, intervening, and then monitoring the situation, there are nuanced differences that may make one methodology a better fit for your district.
Let’s compare the three most common methodologies.
The three most common methodologies of threat assessment:
- National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC)–also known as the Federal model or SIGMA model
- Comprehensive Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG)
- Salem-Keizer Cascade (SK)
All three models are designed to guide district personnel through behavioral threat assessments using a multi-disciplinary approach. They look at the facts of the situation as a whole—as well as precipitating events and the nature of the threat—to help schools determine what they can do going forward to get the student off the pathway to violence.
It’s important to note that the purpose of a Behavioral Threat Assessment is to take a factual, well-rounded view of a situation that may threaten the safety of one or more students. The goal is to provide the student with the appropriate support and resources—not to punish them.
Through guided questions, all three of these methodologies lead school personnel through their interviews and subsequent analysis—it’s in the structure of the questions and how the methodology helps schools analyze responses that they start to differ.
Differences
| NTAC | CSTAG | Salem-Keizer Cascade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Background information: | Backed by empirical research and pioneered by the United States Secret Service, the NTAC threat assessment model provides schools with actionable steps to approach a threat assessment. |
Developed by Professor Dewey Cornell of the University of Virginia with a team of educators and researchers, CSTAG is an evidence-based, peer-reviewed threat assessment model.
This method includes a 7-page mental health assessment to be completed by a licensed practitioner. |
Created by educators in the Salem-Keizer school district after Columbine in 1999, this threat assessment emphasizes integrating supports from the outside community—such as mental health supports, juvenile services, and law enforcement experts—in addition to the school’s educators, counselors, and administrators. |
| Assessment Structure: |
NTAC’s Analyzing and Assessment questions provide 11 key questions to guide districts through their investigation interviews.
NTAC's questions are open-ended and elicit anecdotal responses, which allow for greater flexibility and situational responsiveness than the other models. |
CSTAG provides a highly structured, 5-step decision tree to guide school personnel step-by-step through the interviews. Detailed and complete with clear directions, it leaves little room for interpretation. | Salem-Keizer Cascade provides a sliding scale to document aggression, and its questions are anecdotal like NTAC, but it provides more guided support like CSTAG. |
| Best suited for: | Because of the greater flexibility and open-endedness, NTAC may be better suited for schools that have staff with interviewing experience. | CSTAG’s forms provide clear direction and a yes/partial/no/unknown structure to its questions. Districts looking for a more supportive, guided structure should consider CSTAG. | The Salem-Keizer Cascade Threat Assessment leaves room for interpretation, but it also offers structured guidance. This makes it a good choice for districts that want structured support without losing situational responsiveness. |
Additional considerations to keep in mind
- Staff comfort level with Behavioral Threat Assessments
Does your staff have any experience being part of a BTA team, interviewing students and parents, being impartial, and focusing on facts? If not, a more prescriptive model such as CSTAG may be a good option. On the other hand, those with some BTA or similar experience may appreciate the open-endedness of NTAC. - State-level support
Consider what level of support you can expect from your state for a given BTA method. Some states, such as Florida and Virginia, have adopted a specific methodology—in their cases, CSTAG. Other states, while they may not have adopted a methodology at the state level, do show a greater adoption rate of a particular methodology. In Texas, for example, NTAC is the most common methodology.
While your district may be free to choose any of these—or other—methodologies, you may see greater access to resources for your state’s preferred methodology. - Provide Annual Training
BTA teams need professional training on an annual basis, regardless of the methodology they are using. This will help ensure the program is conducted with fidelity—helping to create a program that is trusted in your school’s community
How Raptor Can Help
Raptor StudentSafe helps schools recognize, document, support and manage the wellbeing of individual students—and it includes abilities aligned with behavioral threat assessment (BTA) methodologies to help schools recognize a student in need of early intervention and support for their wellbeing. Through the StudentSafe platform, schools can:
- Document and manage low-level concerns
- Create student chronologies
- Run Behavioral Threat Assessment workflows
- Manage Behavioral Threat Assessment cases
- Gain immediate insight through alerts and robust dashboards
- Determine trends and gaps with full-scale reporting—and more.
And—available at additional cost—Raptor offers Behavioral Threat Assessment model-specific training on the development and implementation of your chosen process, with added emphasis on recognizing and recording low-level concerns across various types of threats to students.
Learn more about Raptor StudentSafe by scheduling a demo today.
Related Resources
Guide to K-12 Student Wellbeing
Strategies to Recognize, Document, and Support Students in Distress
