1. First Step to Success is a collaborative school and home early intervention program designed to address the problem of emerging antisocial behavior patterns among at risk kindergartners. It is delivered by someone who can set the program up, demonstrate its effective operation, support the kindergarten teacher’s role in implementation, train parents and caregivers in teaching school success skills, and provide overall coordination of the implementation. Effective First Step coordinators (coaches) have included early intervention specialists, school psychologists, social workers, counselors, and behavioral interventionists. First Step has three modules (early screening and detection, school intervention, and parent training). It requires approximately three months per application and is applied to one child at a time. The program coach invests approximately 40 to 45 hours in the program’s implementation from the start to the finish.

2. The First Step to Success program was developed via a four year grant from the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs from 1992-1996 and is a collaborative effort of the U of O Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior, the Eugene 4J School District, the Oregon Social Learning Center, and the Oregon Research Institute.

3. The program was initially developed and tested on two cohorts of at risk kindergartners screened and selected in succeeding school years ( 1993-94 and 1994-95). Cohort 1 had 24 students and Cohort 2 had 22 students. Currently these cohorts are in grades 5 and 4 respectively. The program produced powerful intervention effects for kindergartners, in each cohort, from pre- to post-intervention (approximately three months) time points as measured by teacher ratings and structured behavioral observations recorded by professionally trained and supervised observers. Follow-up measures of the students we are able to find in these two cohorts indicate continuing success for the great majority of them.

4. The procedures used in the three First Step modules are based upon decades of research in psychology and education that document best, effective practices in the areas of universal, proactive screening to detect at risk children, school intervention to address key outcomes such as responding to the teacher, making friends, getting along with others, and school readiness, and finally parent training to teach essential skills in developing school success skills in their children.

5. Approximately $500,000 in research and development has been invested in the program’s development and testing to date.

6. The First Step program has been adopted by several school districts in eight states and three Canadian provinces. Several states are implementing First Step state wide i.e. Oklahoma and Oregon. In Oregon, the following agencies have built the program into their recurring budgets: Deschutes County Commission on Children and Families, the Lane County Education service District, Eugene School District 4J, and the Prevention Program Office of Portland Public Schools.

7. The final version of the First Step to Success program was published by Sopris West, Inc., of Longmont, Colorado in 1997 and is available through the publisher. Recommended training for implementation can be arranged through the publisher or by contacting Annemieke Golly or Jeff Sprague at (541) 346-3582.

8. First Step was features in the October, 1995 segment of ABC-TV News’ 20/20 program on teaching emotional intelligence. The program was included as recommended best practices in a 1998 collaborative federal-agency study of effective school interventions entitled, Safe, Drug-Free and Effective Schools for ALL Students: What Works! Finally, First Step to Success was featured as a promising model intervention for reducing youth violence in the just-released White House Report Card on School Safety.