Client Progress Monitoring and Feedback in School-Based Mental Health

• Research in evidence-based practice tends to focus on treatment protocols and less on evidence-based assessment
• Progress monitoring is an important aspect of evidence-based assessment
• We describe two studies on school-based mental health and progress monitoring
• The ‘lessons learned’ from project implementation are described
• Recommendations are provided for incorporating mental health and academic indictors in progress monitoring

Research in children’s mental health has suggested that emotional and behavioral problems in are inextricably tied to academic difficulties. However, evidence-based programs implemented in school-based mental health tend to focus primarily on treatment practices, with less explicit emphasis on components of evidence-based assessment (EBA), such as progress monitoring and feedback. The current paper describes two studies that incorporated standardized assessment and progress monitoring/feedback into school-based mental health programs. Barriers to implementation are identified, recommendations for clinicians implementing EBA in the school setting are provided, and examples of mental health and academic indicators are discussed.