From Policy to Operation: Building a School-Wide MTSS Framework
Mon Nov 10 2025
(Featuring Andrea Lillis of Senia International and Cheryl Brown of ISCA)
For too long, the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) has been confined to academic or behavioral teams. This episode, a preview of the course Building a School-Wide MTSS Framework, tackles the crucial shift required to make MTSS a school-wide operational system. Andrea Lillis and Cheryl Brown explain why MTSS must go beyond counselors and learning support to include departments like HR and facilities, ensuring absolute operational consistency for student academic, behavioral, and social-emotional success.
Memorable Quotes 🗣️
"You can't Tier 2 or Tier 3 your way out of a Tier 1 problem." — Andrea Lillis
"That's the beauty of MTSS, is coming up with a plan... to answer the needs of students, no matter where they're at." — Cheryl Brown
"[MTSS] can't just be an office on the second floor. It has to be baked into the way HR recruits staff and the way facilities designs space." — Andrea Lillis
"The core success of MTSS is the psychological shift from 'This is the learning support team's problem' to 'This is our school's challenge.'" — Cheryl Brown
Key Discussion Points
The Core Challenge: Moving from the older, academic-focused Response to Intervention (RTI) to the holistic, unified MTSS model, which integrates academics, social-emotional, behavioral, and home-school relationships.
Core Concept: The fundamental psychological shift is realizing, "We're all in this together". MTSS must be a systematic effort that involves every staff member across the school.
The Crucial Shift: Implementation must be a multi-year, planned process, starting with desired outcomes. MTSS involves everyone across the school working together.
Practical Application: The necessity of operational teams (HR and Facilities) to provide sensory-friendly spaces, quiet intervention rooms, and specialized staffing, essential for the MTSS model to function.
The Final Takeaway: Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in team meetings and communication protocols to reduce barriers and minimize misunderstandings.
Resources & Next Steps
The Course: The conversation is a preview of the course: Building a School-Wide MTSS Framework.
Connect with Andrea Lillis (Senia International):
Find the organization at seniainternational.org.
Email: andrea@seniainternational.org.
Connect with Cheryl Brown (ISCA):
Find ISCA on the web at ISCAINFO.com.
Email: cbrowne@iscainfo.com.
Sign Up: Find details on the MTSS course and other events at ISS.edu/events.
More
(Featuring Andrea Lillis of Senia International and Cheryl Brown of ISCA) For too long, the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) has been confined to academic or behavioral teams. This episode, a preview of the course Building a School-Wide MTSS Framework, tackles the crucial shift required to make MTSS a school-wide operational system. Andrea Lillis and Cheryl Brown explain why MTSS must go beyond counselors and learning support to include departments like HR and facilities, ensuring absolute operational consistency for student academic, behavioral, and social-emotional success. Memorable Quotes 🗣️ "You can't Tier 2 or Tier 3 your way out of a Tier 1 problem." — Andrea Lillis "That's the beauty of MTSS, is coming up with a plan... to answer the needs of students, no matter where they're at." — Cheryl Brown "[MTSS] can't just be an office on the second floor. It has to be baked into the way HR recruits staff and the way facilities designs space." — Andrea Lillis "The core success of MTSS is the psychological shift from 'This is the learning support team's problem' to 'This is our school's challenge.'" — Cheryl Brown Key Discussion Points The Core Challenge: Moving from the older, academic-focused Response to Intervention (RTI) to the holistic, unified MTSS model, which integrates academics, social-emotional, behavioral, and home-school relationships. Core Concept: The fundamental psychological shift is realizing, "We're all in this together". MTSS must be a systematic effort that involves every staff member across the school. The Crucial Shift: Implementation must be a multi-year, planned process, starting with desired outcomes. MTSS involves everyone across the school working together. Practical Application: The necessity of operational teams (HR and Facilities) to provide sensory-friendly spaces, quiet intervention rooms, and specialized staffing, essential for the MTSS model to function. The Final Takeaway: Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in team meetings and communication protocols to reduce barriers and minimize misunderstandings. Resources & Next Steps The Course: The conversation is a preview of the course: Building a School-Wide MTSS Framework. Connect with Andrea Lillis (Senia International): Find the organization at seniainternational.org. Email: andrea@seniainternational.org. Connect with Cheryl Brown (ISCA): Find ISCA on the web at ISCAINFO.com. Email: cbrowne@iscainfo.com. Sign Up: Find details on the MTSS course and other events at ISS.edu/events.