Project Summary

The primary purpose of this project is to develop and validate a social, emotional, and behavioral risk screener for early childhood. The assessment will be an online and application-based universal screening system available in both English and Spanish.

There is a clear need to provide early intervention services to all children to support social-emotional and academic development. This can best be accomplished through the use of efficient screening systems to identify social-emotional needs and inform preventative services. Although a range of early childhood screening tools have been developed to date, these tools have limited psychometric and usability evidence.

The tool developed through this project will be aligned with the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS), a universal screener for K–12 settings that has been adopted in all 50 states, with the aim of supporting transition planning between early childhood and K–12 settings as well as informing intervention.

Funding Period: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2028

Amount: $2,000,000

Funder: National Center for Education Research

Awardee:  University of South Florida, subcontract with University of Wisconsin–Madison

Principal Investigator: Nate von der Embse

Co-Principal Investigators: Katie Eklund, Steve Kilgus, Jason Anthony

Research Project Coordinator: Nicole Brys