By: Makenzie Schiemann, M.S., Ph.D., Partner, TNG; President, NABITA
Last week, I shared insights about our impressive lineup of certification courses and conference tracks at the 16th Annual NABITA Conference. I also highlighted strategies for maximizing your conference experience, such as registering your entire team across all four tracks and using your break time to pick our experts’ brains. Today, I want to discuss how our conference sets up your team to manage the full spectrum of risk successfully. While other conferences also offer a practical approach, we uniquely provide a meticulous breakdown of our tools and methods, ensuring you leave prepared to implement your newfound knowledge immediately. Read on to learn more.
Two Keynote Addresses
This year’s opening keynote speaker is particularly noteworthy. For the first time at NABITA, a journalist—not a practitioner—will address the audience. Nationally acclaimed investigative journalist and the author of a highly regarded book on mass shooting prevention, Mark Follman, will bring his unique perspective on reporting on numerous high-profile mass attacks and school shootings. His insights from communicating directly with victims’ families and administrators will make us all reflect on the broader societal impact of such tragedies in a new light.
Our closing keynote by Scott Strader, Ph.D., will reflect on grieving, coping, thriving, and advocating in Florida’s political landscape.” This will be especially powerful in the conference venue’s backdrop of West Palm Beach. Florida’s political shift to the right has substantially transformed the state’s higher education landscape. Strader will use Florida as a case study to navigate the political winds shifting in your educational setting. He will examine ways to best care for students, colleagues, and yourself, foster a sense of belongingness for all who work in and are served by your offices, and renew your commitment to advocacy.
Featured Sessions Within Each Conference Track
A Session for All Tracks
I am excited to co-present a featured session on NABITA’s state-of-the-field survey findings. This session is relevant for all conference tracks—Case Management, BIT Operations, K-12, and Safety & Threat Assessment. Conducted every two years, our state-of-the-field survey identifies trends and patterns in behavioral intervention and threat assessment efforts across the country. Our latest survey reflects the sweeping changes to the survey’s structure and questioning to better align with trends, which help us gather better data to inform the field. During the session, we will explore the survey results and discuss their implications for BIT work.
Case Management Track
I am also co-presenting a featured session on the case management track with the President of the Higher Education Case Manager’s Association (HECMA). This session aims to integrate our two association’s standards for case management and establish best practices across the field, showing how the standards align and can be implemented together. It is a solid testament to collaboration, and I hope you will attend.
BIT Operations Track
One session I am looking forward to in the BIT Operations track explores integrating a risk management process into the work of Threat Assessment Teams (TATs). This session provides a case study to illustrate the types of challenges that TATs face when managing high-risk cases. It will propose a checklist of questions that teams can use to evaluate how their work aligns with emerging standards within the field. Implementing an evaluative process that ensures alignment with industry standards and best practices is NABITA’s bread and butter, and I can’t wait to hear what you learn from this session.
K-12 Track
One valuable K -12 session features two NABITA experts, who will discuss NABITA’s updated standards for Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) in K-12 education. These revised industry standards offer a straightforward and streamlined set of best practices tailored to meet the evolving needs of K-12 schools and districts. Building on the foundational standards established by NABITA in 2018, this session will highlight the enhancements made to align with the latest research in the field. Don’t miss this opportunity to understand the latest trends and improve your K-12 school or district’s processes!
Safety & Threat Assessment Track
Two featured sessions along this track explore crisis response and crisis intervention. One session explores the work of mobile crisis response (MCR) teams, with a case study of a 24/7 response team in a higher education setting. Another featured session spotlights Crisis Management Planning and Crisis Intervention Response Teams (CIRT), detailing how BITs can collaborate with these groups to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated response to crises.
We carefully crafted this year’s conference to provide attendees with practical takeaways and skills for immediate implementation. Many of our members, clients, and conference participants understand the fundamental principles underlying the importance of BIT processes. Our goal is to move beyond these basics and drill down into more nuanced skills and techniques that attendees can apply to enhance the excellent work they are already doing. This aligns with our mission to help practitioners create safer school environments, as equipping them with the necessary skills makes their jobs more manageable and effective.
A Single Team to Address Your Full Risk Spectrum
Behavioral intervention and threat assessment work is continually expanding. When these teams first came into existence, they were focused on preventing mass attacks through a threat assessment approach. However, as students’ needs keep changing and growing, and schools, districts, and institutions are expected to provide more comprehensive support, BITs are stepping up to fulfill that role.
We are witnessing a growing number of schools creating systems to assist students grappling with mental health issues, food insecurity, housing instability, and relationship challenges. BITs are becoming central hubs for processing these concerns and connecting students with essential resources. NABITA is attuned to these shifts, and our model has always endorsed the notion that a single team should address the full spectrum of risk.
As teams encounter an increasing volume of referrals, they are broadening their scope of work. We are dedicated to equipping these teams with the necessary skills to address broader concerns. That is particularly poignant this year, and in the future, so we expanded the content for the case management track. Additionally, we revamped our curated suite of resources in the BITKit, featuring templated procedure manuals aimed at streamlining the growing responsibilities of these teams. Super Members can access the BITKit as a complimentary benefit; all other members enjoy preferred pricing.
Learn how a single team can address the entire risk spectrum at your school, district, or institution at the 16th Annual NABITA Conference. Register today: https://www.NABITA.org/conferences/16th-annual-NABITA-conference/. Become a NABITA member for preferred event pricing and upgrade to a Super Membership or K-12 Professional Development Package to enjoy exclusive perks at the event. Join or upgrade today.