The partner
District name: Hortonville Area School District
State: Wisconsin
Enrollment (approximate): 4,214 students
Number of schools in this story: 7
Program referenced: SSIS2 Brief Universal Screener
Partnership length: Year 5
The challenge
Before partnering with Resonant Education, the district did not have a system for collecting Social Skills data. To gauge student needs, staff tracked behavior referrals and manually mapped them to the five CASEL competencies. District leaders recognized this method was inaccurate, because behavior incidents do not line up directly with Social Skills. Relying on discipline referrals also meant the district was missing many students who would benefit from additional support, such as students who needed help with responsible decision-making or quieter students who did not show outward behavior concerns.
The district also used an intensive mental health screener, but it could not be used with younger students. The district needed a consistent way to screen all students, connect mental health and Social Skills data, and put targeted Tier 2 interventions and competency groups in place.
The approach
Resonant Education sat down with the district team to talk about how they worked together to support students and staff with the SSIS2 Brief Universal Screener. Resonant helped the district operationalize survey administration and reporting. Rather than treating the work as a standard software rollout, the partnership focused on building a consistent, systematic approach to universal Social Skills screening. In the early stages, Resonant team members worked alongside district leaders, holding regular check-ins and providing sample documentation, workflow templates and guidance until the district's process could run on its own.
The district built the screener into its regular routines, making screening results one of the goals in its continuous improvement plan. Universal screening now runs alongside the district's intensive mental health screener, which simplifies communication and follow-up with families and Pupil Services. Electronic report distribution and a data warehouse integration put Social Skills competency and Tier 2 intervention data in teachers' hands for classroom instruction and IEP development.
The result
Now in Year 5 of the partnership, Hortonville screens students districtwide with the SSIS2 Brief Universal Screener and has held a 100% completion rate on the teacher screening portion for multiple years, with the student screening portion at around 98%. Screening data reaches the district's data warehouse within 48 hours of survey completion, so teachers can use it to plan classroom instruction, place students in Tier 2 competency groups and track progress in IEPs.
District leaders describe a change in how staff see behavior: as a skill that can be taught, with screening data showing which skills to focus on. Making SSIS2 results part of the continuous improvement plan keeps building principals involved in Social Skills goals.
What's next
The district plans to build on its self-sufficient model at its regular leadership retreats, refining how screening data connects to classroom interventions and district-wide continuous improvement goals.
For other districts considering a similar approach, the district shared these takeaways:
Skip "plug-and-play" expectations. Screening works when the district puts in the effort to plan how results will be used.
Map screening data to daily classroom work. Decide in advance how each result connects to instruction, skill groups and follow-up.
Build staff buy-in. Dedicated staff ownership keeps the work going year after year.
In their words
"I think that human support is amazing. But the other thing that I really like about the SSIS is that and I have recommended it to lots of colleagues is that it hits those five SEL competencies and we also have a universal way for all of our students to be quickly screened on mental health as well. And so, it just lends itself so well to all of our interventions. It just is easy."
— Lori Smits, Director of Pupil Services
"Until you figure out how to make it work within your system, it's going to be clunky. But once you figure out how to make it work for you, then it's easy sailing."
— Lori Smits, Director of Pupil Services
