Return to School 2025 Virtual Event

In anticipation of the Fall 2025 return to school, the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) will host a virtual event to highlight the Center’s latest release, titled Aligning Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management with a Multi-tiered System of Support: Building a Continuum of Prevention and Intervention. NTAC’s newest publication focuses on how education practitioners can best align BTAM programs alongside multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) in K-12 schools. This event will further highlight key findings and implications from NTAC’s decades of research and guidance on school violence prevention.

Dr. Kelsey Morris, NTAC’s Education Program Specialist (biography below), will share insights from NTAC’s research on school safety by discussing the backgrounds, thinking, and behaviors of school attackers and how some schools have discovered and stopped plots before violence occurred. A case study of a student attacker will also be shared and highlight the role of social, emotional, behavioral health and wellbeing. Dr. Jennifer Freeman (biography below) will join on behalf of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to introduce new guidance from a joint publication with NTAC on aligning supports. Together, Drs. Morris and Freeman will discuss how aligning and integrating BTAM with MTSS can create a more comprehensive, proactive approach to prevention and intervention and lead to a safer school environment and better outcomes for students and staff.

This free virtual event is appropriate for educators, school and district administrators, counselors, school psychologists, BTAM team members and coordinators, MTSS and PBIS leadership teams, state education agency personnel, law enforcement officers, and other school safety partners.

Registrants will be emailed a Microsoft Teams link prior to the event

Event date: August 13, 2025

Event time: 12:00-2:30 PM EST

Register Here

About Dr. Kelsey Morris, Education Program Specialist for NTAC

Dr. Morris is the Education Program Specialist for the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC), where he oversees the analysis, study, and training of behavioral threat assessment programs in K-12 schools and institutes of higher education. The goal of these programs is to prevent school violence and other unwanted behaviors by providing early interventions and supports for at-risk youth. In this role, Dr. Morris applies an extensive professional knowledge in the fields of adolescent development, special education, and early childhood education. Dr. Morris brings nearly 20 years of experience working with K-12 schools as a classroom teacher, building administrator, and district liaison for schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). Prior to joining the Secret Service, Dr. Morris was an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Missouri (MU) where he was Co-Director of the MU Center for Schoolwide PBIS and an implementation partner for the national Center on PBIS. He is a national scholar with technical assistance, publications, and research focused on PBIS; classroom management; data-based decision making; and district-wide implementation of PBIS and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) emphasizing social, emotional, behavioral supports.

About Dr. Jennifer Freeman, Implementation Partner for the Center on PBIS

Dr. Freeman has over 20 years of experience in public education at the K-12 and higher education levels. She is currently a professor in educational psychology at the University of Connecticut, and an implementation partner for the national Center on PBIS. Her work focuses on applying multi-tiered systems of support, such as PBIS, to improve outcomes for students and educators. Dr. Freeman leads a national crisis preparation response and recovery workgroup within the Center on PBIS and has 10 years of experience supporting schools, districts, and states in recovery efforts following incidents of school or community violence. This work focuses on supporting short- and long-term recovery efforts as well as prevention and preparation efforts at the district and state levels.