Introduction

Parents rarely have access to research-based interventions. These briefs reflect CECP’s commitment to provide families with useful and usable information about evidenced-based practices. They were inspired by the charge from one family leader, Dr. Jane Adams, executive director of Kansas’s Keyes for Networking. While attending a workshop that focused on the importance of families knowing about evidence-based practices, she said, “You’re right, but how can families get access to this information, and how can we ensure that the information that they have access to is in a format that they can use?”

In response to Jane Adams’s charge, CECP decided to produce 1- to 2-page information briefs, written specifically for family members, on research-based intervention practices and programs. The goal of the briefs is to translate research on effective intervention practices and programs into a format that is understandable, accessible, and useful for family members and practitioners. The purpose is to place information into the hands of families and practitioners that will permit them to select appropriate interventions for their child who is experiencing behavioral problems. The objective is to describe an intervention, delineate its essential components, and synthesize the evidence base regarding for whom the intervention works or does not work; identify assistance that is available to implement the intervention; and provide links to more information about the intervention.

These briefs reflect the work of three groups:

• CECP staff and its partners at the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Heath, who drove the process and wrote some of the briefs
• Researchers and graduate students at Arizona State University and the University of Kentucky who developed some of the briefs
• A diverse panel of expert practitioners, educators, parents, and researchers who conceptualized the work and reviewed the template

CECP staff included Holly Baker, Eleanor Carter, Matthew Green, Debra Pacchiano, David Osher, Trina Osher, Jeff Poirier, Mary Quinn, and Erika Taylor.

The members of the Advisory Panel follow:

• Jane Adams, Executive Director, Keys for Networking
• Nancy Berge, Director of Guidance, Carl Sandburg Middle School
• Fairfax County Public Schools
• Katherine Beaver, Parent & Family Ally, Eugene, Oregon
• Patricia Blackmon, Paraprofessional, Bellevue Elementary School, Syracuse, New York
• Patty Case, Special Education Chair, Fort Belvoir Elementary School, Fort Belvoir, Virginia
• Denise Conrad, Behavioral Specialist, Toledo Public Schools
• Deborah Crockett, School Psychologist, Atlanta, Georgia, and Past President of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
  Michael George, Principal, Centennial School at Lehigh University
• Dixie Jordan, PACER Center, Co-Director of Families and Advocates Partnership for Education (FAPE)
• Trina Osher, Coordinator of Policy and Research at the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health
• Suzanne Ripley, Director of the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHY)
• George Singer, Professor of Education, University of California at Santa Barbara
• Russ Skiba, Professor of Educational Psychology, Indiana University
• Chris Spicer, Parent and Family Ally with Oregon Family Support Network
• Anne Turnbul, Co-Direction BEACH Center, University of Kansas