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Welcome to The Principal’s Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I’m Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we explore strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.

From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, I’m Barb Flowers. Together, we’ll navigate the complexities of school leadership. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.

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Welcome everyone! Today, I’m excited to have Kurtis Hewson joining us to talk about collaborative response teams. Kurtis, can you share a bit about your background and how you got to where you are?

Kurtis Hewson: Thanks, Barb. It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m approaching 30 years in education—more than 25 at least. Over that time, I’ve worked as a teacher, school administrator, taught at the post-secondary level, and now consult with school divisions across Alberta, Canada, the U.S., and even places like Iceland and New Zealand.

My journey wasn’t planned from graduation, but it’s been fulfilling. My fundamental purpose has always been: how can we best support kids and make a difference?

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Barb: Tell us about collaborative response and your work in schools.

Kurtis: When I became an administrator at a smaller school in Southern Alberta, we had great teachers doing great work, but there was a lot of isolated practice. We supported one another, but collaboration wasn’t focused. Students were slipping through the cracks.

We realized that despite the staff’s combined experience—literally centuries—we weren’t leveraging collective expertise well. So we began exploring professional learning communities (PLCs) and Response to Intervention (RTI), which was just gaining traction at the time.

Our goal was to create strong systems to ensure every child’s success, no matter their classroom or teacher. We started putting structures in place that evolved organically and eventually became known as collaborative response—a framework designed to respond to every student’s needs while building the collective capacity of every adult through conversation.

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Barb: How does collaborative response compare to PLCs and RTI?

Kurtis: Schools familiar with PLCs and multi-tiered systems often say collaborative response fills the gap between general classroom practices and specialized supports.

Collaborative response has three foundational components:

1. Highly intentional, layered collaborative structures and processes—including four layers of teams.

2. Use of data and evidence to guide conversations.

3. Developing continuums of support that clarify what to do when students struggle.

A key mantra is: We don’t tier kids; we tier supports. Supports are flexible and adjusted to student needs—not fixed labels.

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Barb: I love that distinction. We often unintentionally “tier” students, which can limit flexibility. In my experience, students needing the highest-tier supports sometimes get less attention because of resource allocation.

Kurtis: Exactly. Before we aligned our teams and supports, we overwhelmed special education with referrals because classroom supports weren’t clear or consistently implemented. We found teachers often felt they’d “done everything” before involving specialists.

Collaborative response emphasizes it’s not a handoff but a layering of supports, building capacity across tiers.

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Barb: I see this a lot—teachers overwhelmed and hoping to hand off students. Can you explain the four layers of teams?

Kurtis: Absolutely. From least to most intensive:

1. Collaborative Planning – This aligns with strong PLCs focusing on cohorts, data, and common plans at the grade level. Teams meet regularly to set and work toward goals.

2. Collaborative Team Meeting – A mix of teachers, specialists, and administrators discussing students needing support beyond the classroom but not yet at the most intensive level.

3. School Support Team – Usually what some call the special education team, focusing on students requiring specialized support beyond what the classroom can provide.

4. Case Consult Team – Meetings focused on individual students with deep dives into their stories, history, and needs involving all relevant personnel.

Most schools have layers 1, 3, and 4, but layer 2—the collaborative team meeting—is often missing. It acts as a bridge, helping build classroom capacity to support students before escalating to more intensive layers.

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Barb: What happens in collaborative team meetings?

Kurtis: We use a process called establishing key issues. For example, a teacher might say, “My key issue is Marcus’s lack of independence.” We clarify the issue, see who else has students with similar challenges (just names, no stories), then brainstorm classroom strategies.

This builds continuums of support so teachers can reference strategies before referring students up. It’s a solutions-focused, professional learning space where everyone is both expert and learner.

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Barb: I love the focus on avoiding the “story” in these meetings. Sometimes PBIS or case management meetings get bogged down in individual stories, which can be distracting.

Kurtis: Exactly. In collaborative team meetings, focusing on practice and shared challenges rather than detailed individual stories keeps the conversation productive. The in-depth stories belong in case consult meetings.

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Barb: How do you use data to identify students for these conversations?

Kurtis: We focus on the “bubble kids”—students just on the cusp of struggling. The goal is to intervene early with classroom strategies to prevent bigger issues later.

If a student has multiple complex needs, that’s a case consult conversation.

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Barb: What mistakes do districts make when implementing collaborative response teams?

Kurtis: Two big ones:

1. Not clearly defining the purpose of each team layer.

2. Assuming collaboration happens naturally without formal structures or norms.

We’ve seen schools resist formalizing meeting norms and processes, thinking collaboration is “already good enough.” But structured processes enhance collaboration dramatically.

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Barb: I agree—every team needs norms to foster a safe, respectful, solution-focused environment. Even basic reminders like “Let’s focus on solutions” can transform meetings.

Kurtis: Absolutely. Early in my career, I thought norms were unnecessary in a small team that got along. But when conversations got deeper and more challenging, norms were critical.

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Barb: Your framework works in both small and large schools?

Kurtis: Yes. We’ve worked with schools from 25 students to 2,500. In small schools, the layers might happen in the same meeting; in large schools, there may be multiple teams at each layer.

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Barb: How do the team layers connect to tiers of support?

Kurtis: We use a four-tier model:

• Tier 1: Universal supports with non-negotiable classroom practices for all students.

• Tier 2: Differentiated strategies for some students, some of the time.

• Tier 3: Intensive supports beyond the classroom.

• Tier 4: External supports outside the school.

The team layers align with these tiers to ensure coordinated support.

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Barb: Where can listeners find more about collaborative response?

Kurtis: Visit jigsawlearning.ca. We offer workshops, webinars, resources, a free overview article, and the introductory chapter of our book published by Corwin—all great starting points. Collaborative response is simple in design but complex in practice.

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Barb: Thanks so much, Kurtis. It’s been great to learn about this important work.

Kurtis: Thanks, Barb. It’s been a pleasure.