Check-In/Check-Out: The Tier 2 Intervention That Works

Every teacher knows the student Tier 1 almost reaches. The class expectations are taught, the reinforcement is consistent, and most of the room is humming — but one or two kids still start each day on the wrong foot and collect redirections all morning. Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) was built for exactly those students, and it happens to be the most thoroughly researched Tier 2 intervention in the whole PBIS framework.

What is Check-In/Check-Out?

CICO wraps a student's day in two short, positive conversations with an adult who is rooting for them:

• Check-in (morning). The student meets a designated adult — a counselor, aide, or teacher — for two or three minutes. They pick up their daily point card (often called a Daily Progress Report), review their behavior goals, and hear an encouraging word before class starts.
• Teacher feedback (all day). At natural break points — end of a lesson, after specials — the classroom teacher rates the student on a few positively stated goals like followed directions or kept hands and feet to self, usually on a 0–2 scale.
• Check-out (afternoon). The student returns to their CICO coach, totals the points, compares them to the goal, and gets specific praise for what went well. Many schools send a copy home for a parent signature.

That's the whole machine. No elaborate curriculum, no pull-out program — just structured adult attention, clear goals, and frequent feedback, repeated every single day.

Why does something this simple work?

Because the ingredients are the ones behavioral research keeps pointing to: clearly defined expectations, feedback that comes soon after the behavior, and positive adult attention delivered predictably instead of only when something goes wrong. (This is the same engine behind the science of praise — CICO just systematizes it for the students who need more reps.)

The evidence base is unusually deep for a school intervention:

• The original elementary implementation study by Todd, Campbell, Meyer, and Horner (2008) found CICO was functionally related to reductions in problem behavior during academic routines.
• A 2014 systematic review by Leanne Hawken and colleagues gathered 28 studies across elementary and secondary settings, concluding results were promising though effects varied by study design.
• The strongest summary to date is the 2019 meta-analysis by Drevon and colleagues, which pooled 59 outcomes across 32 studies and found an overall effect of g = 1.22 — meaning CICO improved student outcomes by more than a full standard deviation. That's a large effect by any educational standard.

One honest caveat from the research: effects vary, and CICO works best when the student's behavior is maintained by adult attention. A student who acts out to escape work may need the intervention adapted — because a plain CICO card gives them attention, but doesn't touch the work-avoidance itself.

Setting up CICO that actually helps

1. Pick the right students. CICO fits students with frequent, low-level disruptions who haven't responded to strong Tier 1 support — not students in crisis, and not the whole class.

2. Keep the goals few and positive. Three to five goals, phrased as what to do. They usually mirror your school-wide expectations, so the card reinforces the same language students already know.

3. Set the point goal at about 80%. Most programs aim for roughly 80% of possible daily points (some set 70–85% depending on the student). The point of the point goal is frequent success — a student who meets it most days stays invested; a student who can't ever reach it learns the card is just another way to fail.

4. Make check-ins warm, not corrective. The morning meeting is a greeting, not a lecture. "Good morning! Yesterday afternoon was your best yet — let's do it again" beats a recap of last week's incident every time.

5. Use the data. The daily percentages are a built-in progress monitor. Review them every couple of weeks: consistently meeting the goal means it's time to fade toward self-monitoring; consistently missing it means something needs adjusting — the goals, the reinforcement, or the fit of the intervention itself.

Making the feedback loop visible

The magic of CICO is that reinforcement becomes immediate and countable instead of vague and occasional. That's the same principle a positive-points classroom runs on. If your room already uses Chou Chou Teach, the habit transfers naturally: points only go up, feedback lands the moment the behavior happens, and a CICO student's card simply gives that feedback a second, more structured home. Pairing the card with your existing positive reinforcement routines means the student hears the same encouraging language from every direction.

The heart of it

Strip away the acronym and CICO is this: one adult who reliably notices a kid, twice a day, on purpose. The point card gives structure, the data keeps everyone honest, but the relationship is the active ingredient. For a lot of students, that predictable moment of being seen in the morning is the difference between a day that spirals and a day that works.

References

• Todd, A. W., Campbell, A. L., Meyer, G. G., & Horner, R. H. (2008). The effects of a targeted intervention to reduce problem behaviors: Elementary school implementation of Check In–Check Out. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 10(1), 46–55.
• Hawken, L. S., Bundock, K., Kladis, K., O'Keeffe, B., & Barrett, C. A. (2014). Systematic review of the Check-In, Check-Out intervention for students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Education and Treatment of Children, 37(4), 635–658.
• Drevon, D. D., Hixson, M. D., Wyse, R. D., & Rigney, A. M. (2019). A meta-analytic review of the evidence for check-in check-out. Psychology in the Schools, 56(3), 393–412.
• Missouri Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support. Tier 2 Team Workbook, Chapter 5: Check-In, Check-Out.