Delaware Administrative Code
Title 14 - Education
500 - Curriculum and Instruction
508 - Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)
Section 508-2.0 - Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this regulation, have the following meaning:

"Department" means the Delaware Department of Education.

"Evidence-based" means strategies, activities, or approaches which have been shown through scientific research and evaluation to be effective at preventing or delaying a negative outcome.

"Evidence-informed" means practices that are consciously informed by evidence derived from formal research produced by researchers, practitioner inquiry (investigation), or routinely collected school or local system-level data through collaborative planning, testing, implementing and evaluating of approaches for improving practices.

"Local Education Agency" or "LEA" means a reorganized traditional school district, vocational-technical school district, or Charter School, legally constituted and established under Delaware law for either administrative control or direction of public elementary or secondary schools.

"Mental Health" means an individual's emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing and is based on how one thinks, feels and acts, including how one handles stress, relates to others, and makes healthy choices. Specifically, positive mental health in childhood includes reaching developmental and emotional milestones and learning healthy social and emotional skills to enhance wellbeing and employ strategies for coping adaptively with challenges.

"Multi-Tiered System of Support" or "MTSS" means a framework that is designed to meet the needs of the whole child through an integrated multi-level prevention system that optimizes team-based leadership and data-driven decision making to meet the academic and non-academic needs of all students. High quality core academic instruction and non-academic practices are provided as universal supports to all children. Evidence-based intervention and supports are matched to student needs and informed by ongoing progress monitoring and additional formative assessments.

"Parent" means a biological or adoptive parent of a child; a guardian generally authorized to act as the child's parent, or authorized to make educational decisions for the child (but not the State if the child is a ward of the State); an individual acting in the place of a biological or adoptive parent (including a grandparent, stepparent, or other relative) with whom the child lives and for whom a Caregiver's School Authorization executed in compliance with 14 Del.C. § 202 is on file; an individual who is otherwise legally responsible for the child's welfare; or a surrogate parent who has been appointed in accordance with 14 DE Admin. Code 926.19.0.

"Social and Emotional Learning" or "SEL" means the process through which students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.