The Achieving-Behaving-Caring (ABC) Program is an evidence-based approach to addressing the needs of elementary students at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties and promoting successful home-school collaboration. This practical guide demonstrates how classroom teachers and parents can work together to boost individual children's strengths, reduce problems that interfere with learning, and provide classwide social skills training. The use of trained parent liaisons is a special feature of the program. Detailed, step-by-step instructions for implementing ABC are accompanied by many useful case illustrations and tips. The book includes more than two dozen reproducible handouts and forms, in a convenient large-size format with lay-flat binding.

pages: 221 + index

"The ABC program was an opportunity to help my daughter gain lifelong social and academic skills in a constructive, caring way. During our participation, our team would meet regularly to discuss progress and plan next steps. By becoming more familiar with my daughter's teacher, I was able to communicate more easily with her. My daughter and I also both came away with important skills for communicating with each other proactively and speaking openly about our feelings. I would encourage any parent to become involved with this program, as it can really help improve your child's school experience and your family life over the long term."

-Diane C. Cummings, parent, Burlington, Vermont

"I am very impressed with the clarity of the description of the program, its benefits, the research behind the components, and the steps to implement the program. The book is presented in a user-friendly manner that will enable any school to adopt the ABC Program. It provides excellent checklists and other reproducibles for administrators to use. The focus on social skills and positive perspectives makes ABC especially appealing, and the book gives excellent suggestions on how to successfully incorporate these two elements."

-Mary K. Sherrer, EdD, former superintendent of schools, Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union, Vermont

"This book is an invaluable resource for supporting prosocial behavior and academic success. The ABC Program enables schools to work with parents using a collaborative, problem-solving process that includes class-wide social skills instruction, secondary intervention for selected individuals, and tertiary-level support through the use of a parent liaison. Home-school collaboration is an evidence-based strategy, and this user-friendly manual provides materials and guidelines for implementing it. The book can also be used to train preservice teachers and school staff in important parent-conferencing skills."

-Debra Kamps, PhD, Senior Scientist and Director, Center for Early Intervention in Reading and Behavior, Juniper Gardens Children's Project, University of Kansas