Exploring Cloud Computing Tools to Enhance Team-Based Problem Solving for Challenging Behavior

Data-driven decision making is central to improving success of children. Actualizing the use of data is challenging when addressing the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of children across different types of early childhood programs (i.e., early childhood special education, early childhood family education, Head Start, and childcare). Exploring tools that are available through cloud computing, within systems that are being increasingly adopted by education agencies, may be advantageous. This article will describe a research-based approach to enhancing the capacity of early childhood programs to gather and use a data-driven, team-based problem-solving model that relies on cloud computing tools. A description of a cloud-based knowledge management system for behavioral incident data will be provided along with descriptions of its use by a group of early childhood programs seeking to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness when addressing challenging behavior.