BTAM: There Are No "Typical" Cases

In 2021, Ohio House Bill 123, the Safety and Violence Education Students (SAVE Students) Act (H.B. 123), was enacted. It requires that each school district create a behavioral threat assessment plan for every school building serving grades 6–12 to be incorporated into the school’s emergency management plan [3]. The bill also stipulates that each school building have a behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) team, and that members of the multidisciplinary team complete an approved threat assessment training program. One consequence of the legislation was that it created a need for a follow-on plan at the local level. Thus, if behavioral threat assessment teams were going to identify youths at risk for committing acts of terrorism or targeted violence, there must be a structure in place to assess these individuals and connect them with the resources required to prevent violence from occurring.

When designing and implementing a terrorism or targeted violence prevention program, it can be tempting to outline a single process for identifying and handling relevant cases. CNA’s evaluation of targeted violence prevention efforts in Wood County, Ohio, makes clear that even the processes for identifying the cases can be highly variable, requiring a flexible and adaptive approach to assessment and management.