BTAM: Pros and Cons of Different Cadences

Behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) is a systematic, fact-based process designed to help practitioners bridge the gap between identifying and mitigating potential threats and, by extension, to prevent acts of terrorism and targeted violence. Federal guidance notes that BTAM teams should be multidisciplinary, have established protocols and procedures, meet on a regular basis, and have a relatively low threshold for intervention. The guidance does not specify optimal meeting cadences and thresholds for intervention, however, and states, counties, and cities with BTAM requirements have articulated different expectations around both issues.

Ohio state law requires that all school buildings serving grades 6 through 12 have a threat assessment team, but it leaves issues of cadence and threshold to the individual schools. Thus, in Wood County, different schools have adopted different approaches to BTAM. At one end of the spectrum, teams at some schools take a more inclusive approach to the process (i.e., including more cases), meeting frequently and operating at a lower threshold for activation. For example, at one school, team members reported conducting approximately 50 threat assessments per year (1 for every 29 students) and holding weekly meetings to discuss cases. At the other end of the spectrum, teams at some schools may choose to be more exclusive about initiating a BTAM process, meeting less frequently and with a higher threshold for activation. At another school, the BTAM team has conducted only two formal threat assessments (1 for every 284 students) but uses threat assessment guidance informally to assess other situations of concern (Figure 1).

Both approaches have pros and cons, and policy-makers and practitioners will have to weigh these when choosing their approach.