When schools see a spike in referrals, the instinct is often to look for more intervention. More pull-out support. More behavior plans. More counseling referrals. More Tier 2 and Tier 3 responses. But in many cases, the real problem starts earlier. We are often over-engineering interventions while under-building instruction. As a district leader overseeing social […]
Brenda Ortiz
Brenda Ortiz McGrath is a district-level administrator overseeing social work, social-emotional learning and specialized student support in an urban public school system. She serves as a school committee member and is the founder of CoreKind360, a family-centered MTSS and SEL platform designed to strengthen whole-child success through intentional systems alignment. Brenda is also an Ed.D. candidate researching the impact of SEL within MTSS frameworks on dropout prevention in urban districts. Her work focuses on strengthening Tier 1 instructional practices, building equity-centered systems and cultivating relationship-driven school cultures that improve student outcomes.