School safety incidents can escalate in seconds. But the warning signs often appear weeks or even months in advance. The challenge for schools isn’t just responding to crises when they happen—it’s identifying risk signals earlier, before they become emergencies. To address this need, some states are mandating behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) policies. These policies typically require putting teams in place to identify potential threats, assess risks, and intervene before incidents occur.

However, doing this effectively requires more than just policies. BTAM teams need the right tools and systems to help them separate genuine concerns from everyday student behavior. To stay compliant and safeguard their students, district administrators will want to have a thorough understanding of how they can support BTAM teams to be successful.

Read on to learn:

• The critical role that BTAM teams play
• 5 common challenges that BTAM teams must overcome
• How AI solutions can help them be as effective as possible

Why States Are Prioritizing Behavioral Threat Assessment & Management

Recent incidents of school violence have exposed gaps in traditional security approaches. While locked doors and security cameras help deter external threats, they do little to prevent internal risks, such as those that stem from bullying, mental health issues, or targeted violence. 

Research shows that warning signs are often present before an act is carried out. Behavioral threat assessment and management is a proactive approach used in schools to identify, assess, and manage potential threats before they lead to violence. Unlike punitive disciplinary actions, BTAM focuses on early intervention, support, and de-escalation, helping at-risk students receive the resources they need, while maintaining a focus on school safety.

According to Everytown Research and Policy, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to gun violence prevention, 11 states currently require in-school BTAM teams: Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington. Bringing that number to 12 is Michigan, which just passed BTAM legislation in January of 2025. Several other states are also actively developing BTAM legislation, including Idaho and Georgia. 

BTAM Implementation: Team Composition and Structure

BTAM involves assembling a multidisciplinary team representing diverse expertise. This team is responsible for evaluating concerning behaviors, determining the level of risk, and implementing intervention strategies. 

These teams typically consist of:

• Administrators: Provide leadership and ensure that safety protocols align with district policies.
• Mental Health Professionals: School counselors, psychologists, or social workers who assess behavioral concerns and provide intervention strategies.
• School Resource Officers (SROs) and/or Law Enforcement: Offer expertise in threat mitigation, safety enforcement, and legal considerations.
• Teachers and Staff Members: Act as frontline observers who can provide insight into student behavior and potential concerns.

Once formed, BTAM teams can be structured at different levels, depending on state mandates and a district’s needs and resources:

• District-Level Teams: Some school districts centralize their BTAM efforts, creating a district-wide team that assesses threats across multiple schools. This approach ensures consistency in risk assessment and decision-making, particularly in large districts.
• School-Based Teams: Other districts establish individual BTAM teams within each school, allowing for a more immediate response to concerns. This model ensures that those closest to students—principals, counselors, and resource officers—are directly involved in risk assessment.
• Hybrid Approach: Some districts use a combination of school-based and district-wide teams, where individual schools handle initial assessments, but a centralized district team provides oversight, training, and policy enforcement.

Regardless of the structure, districts must ensure that BTAM teams receive ongoing training to stay aligned with best practices and legal requirements. School districts should consult their state’s specific regulations and guidelines to ensure compliance when establishing and operating BTAM teams.

5 Challenges BTAM Teams Face

BTAM provides a proven framework for identifying, assessing, and managing potential safety risks. However, BTAM teams often face five key obstacles that challenge their ability to operate and act effectively.

1 | Managing Large Volumes of Data

BTAM teams rely on behavioral data to identify risks, but processing this information manually is overwhelming. Teams must find the balance between too much data, which can result in critical warning signs being buried under irrelevant noise, and too little data, which can lead to gaps in risk assessment.

2 | Distinguishing Real Threats from False Alarms

Not every concerning behavior signals a legitimate threat. Without a validated risk assessment model, teams will struggle to differentiate between transient threats, such as emotional outbursts, and substantive threats, which are valid indicators of planned violence.

3 | Limited Time & Resources

Most BTAM teams operate with limited budgets and tools. If threat assessments are completed manually, the process of reviewing case files, analyzing trends, and compiling reports is a time-intensive process. Teams may spend more time processing data than actively supporting students at risk.

4 | Coordinating Multi-Disciplinary Teams

BTAM teams are multi-disciplinary by design, but this can create challenges when it comes to communicating and sharing data. If they lack a centralized system for collaboration, they may not be able to see the full picture of a student’s behavior across data silos and different platforms, inhibiting their ability to interpret information consistently and function effectively. 

5 | Balancing Student Safety with Privacy Concerns

Monitoring student behavior is a necessary part of BTAM, but extreme care must be taken to protect students’ privacy. A lack of rigor and transparency around data privacy can make students feel watched rather than supported. Remember, the goal of BTAM is to create safer, more secure school cultures.

How AI Solutions Help BTAM Teams Be Most Effective

BTAM team duties are typically considered part of a staff member’s existing responsibilities, with no additional compensation. This can mean a lot of extra work for already-busy professionals. AI solutions can lighten the load. When you let these tools take on the heavy lifting of monitoring, data collection, and analysis, your BTAM team is freed up to focus on decision making, intervention, and management.

AI-Powered Student Wellness Monitoring

Student wellness monitoring, also known as student online activity monitoring, is used by many districts and schools to analyze students’ online activities on school-managed devices for signs of potential safety concerns. It’s most often praised for its ability to detect signs of self-harm and suicide. But AI-powered student wellness monitoring, like Securly Aware, is equally effective at detecting a range of risk signals, including indicators of violence.

For BTAM teams, it can be an especially powerful tool, continually monitoring students’ digital interactions for risk signals, providing risk analysis capabilities, and providing a centralized platform for collaboration.

Here are some of the capabilities that Securly Aware student wellness monitoring brings to BTAM teams:

• Manageable Behavior Monitoring: Let AI continually monitor students’ online activities, including interactions in web searches, drives, documents, chat messages, social media, and more.
• Early Threat Detection: Be notified when early indicators of violence are detected.
• Centralized Data Collection: Review all concerning (aka flagged) activities in a single shared system.
• Collection of Observed Behavioral Data: Make it easy for teachers and school staff to record observed behavior data in the same system.
• Risk Analysis: Get an AI-generated risk analysis of the flagged activity based on the student’s typical behaviors.
• Case Management: Automatically generate cases from flagged activities, assign them for analysis or intervention, and maintain a centralized record from creation to resolution.
• Data Privacy: Anonymize student identity unless a credible threat is identified.

Prepare Your District for the Future of Student Safety

Whether your district is required to implement BTAM or not, taking a proactive approach to school safety is always a smart decision. The right tools can make all the difference in helping BTAM teams identify risks early, intervene effectively, and ultimately create a safer environment for students and staff. AI student wellness monitoring can streamline the process, ensuring that teams have the data and insights they need to act with confidence.

To learn more about how student wellness monitoring can enhance your BTAM efforts, download the Student Wellness Monitoring Buyer’s Guide.