Published on: September 17, 2025
A NABITA Tip of the Week by W. Scott Lewis, J.D., and Tim Cason, M.Ed.
As K-12 school- and district-based practitioners, we rely on tools that don’t just check boxes but truly help to accurately assess and manage risk. That’s why we recently completed updates to the NABITA K-12 Risk Rubric. This resource has served schools for years, and with this latest version, we clarify, streamline, and strengthen the tool to help you and your behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) teams make more confident, data-informed, and consistent decisions.
Join NABITA on September 26, 2025, from 2:00 to 3:15 PM ET for a virtual event exploring the latest updates to the K-12 Risk Rubric. This session, Talking BITs: Updates to the K-12 Risk Rubric, is free and open to the public. Learn more and register here.
Four Improvements to the NABITA K-12 Risk Rubric
Although the previous version of the rubric was trusted and widely used, we heard from practitioners that there were areas where scoring seemed ambiguous or challenging. In this update, we focused on four goals: Enhancing the research base for the rubric, offering greater conceptual clarity, detailing more concrete intervention strategies, and providing a comprehensive guide to application.
- Enhanced Research
The last major update to the K-12 version of this tool was made in 2020. Since then, significant new research has emerged about targeted violence, especially in schools. This revision incorporates those findings to keep the rubric grounded in the newest research about assessing risk.
- Conceptual Clarity
We focused on creating more principle-based understandings of risk, moving away from overly specific examples. We now use broader, behavior-based descriptions. We’ve also reduced diagnostic terminology to support more consistent, contextual decision-making.
- Strategic Interventions
This version includes clear examples of what intervention looks like at each level, generally and specifically, for both the D and E scales. You’ll find not just general ideas, but concrete responses tailored to the level of risk.
- Comprehensive Application Guide
We’ve developed a detailed user manual focused on real-world applications. It walks you through exactly how and why to apply the rubric effectively and consistently.
The Importance of Anchoring
In the latest revision of the K-12 Risk Rubric, NABITA continues to emphasize the importance of anchoring assessments in observable behavior, rather than assumptions. Instead of debating intent or trying to read between the lines, the updated rubric prompts you to ask, “What is the specific behavior? What does it look like?”
For example, instead of saying, “This student seems upset,” you’re scoring based on what the student did, such as expressing suicidal ideation, submitting a concerning writing sample, or making a specific threat. It helps you move from general feelings to tangible, documentable behaviors to identify the risk factors.
Collaboration and Shared Language
The updated rubric provides a common language that enables effective communication among BTAM members. School administrators, school counselors, student discipline, special education services, and school resource officers (SROs) can now come to the table with their own valuable lenses and expertise, sharing common terminology. The enhanced rubric bridges those perspectives with definitions that are behaviorally grounded and accessible across roles.
The goal is to support each member’s judgment and knowledge. With a consistent framework, the BTAM team can spend less time negotiating terminology and more time objectively assessing risk and planning effective interventions.
Integrating the Rubric Into Daily Practice
This isn’t a tool you dust off once a quarter or only at the beginning of an academic year. It’s designed to be woven into your daily work. Here’s how we recommend you incorporate it:
- Assess each and every case during your regular BTAM meetings to align on urgency and needed interventions.
- Use the rubric to track escalation or de-escalation over time, helping you identify patterns and adjust support accordingly.
- Revisit the rubric to ensure that interventions match the assessed level of risk and care needed.
- Revisit it again once risk has been reduced or stabilized, rather than closing a case based on feeling, speculation, or assumption that everything is okay.
In short: make it a habit, not a hoop to jump through.
Ready to Strengthen Your Team’s Practice?
We’ve done the hard work of refining the rubric; now we want you to put it into practice. Whether you’re a longtime NABITA member or new to the community, this K-12 version of the Risk Rubric is designed to support more efficient, transparent, and consistent decision-making to better shield your school from harm and protect the members of your community.
Visit NABITA’s K-12 Risk Rubric Tool Hub to level up your BTAM strategy.
Ready to go deeper on the NABITA Risk Rubric? Enroll in an upcoming certification course for K-12 settings.
NABITA’s Risk Rubric is also part of the K-12 Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Standards and Best Practices curriculum. Enroll in this foundational course and learn how to apply the rubric.