Coaching and Leadership in Autism Support Settings (CLASS)

Schools serve a large number of autistic children, yet face two critical gaps that stifle the delivery of evidence-based practices: 1) an intervention gap characterized by limited availability of evidence-based practices educators can use to address externalizing behaviors when they occur in the classroom; and 2) an implementation gap consisting of insufficient evidence-based practice fidelity and sustainment over time. To address these gaps, this project proposes a hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation trial that simultaneously tests: 1) the clinical effectiveness of an efficient, educator-delivered clinical intervention to reduce autistic children's externalizing behaviors (Research Units in Behavioral Interventions in Educational Settings; RUBIES), and 2) the implementation effectiveness of an organizational implementation strategy designed specifically to enhance sustainment of evidence-based practices in public schools (Helping Educational Leaders Mobilize evidence; HELM). Consistent with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)'s experimental therapeutics approach, the project also examines the mechanisms through which RUBIES impacts clinical outcomes and through which HELM influences implementation outcomes. The proposed study directly responds to high priority research areas of the US Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee's Strategic Plan for Autism Research, which calls for expanded research on the translation of proven-efficacious interventions into the community, NIMH Strategic Priority 3.3 to test interventions for effectiveness in community practice settings, and NIMH Strategic Priority 4.2 to expedite adoption, sustained implementation, and continuous improvement of evidence-based mental health services. If successful, this study will have substantial public health impact because it will produce an effective intervention for a prevalent problem among a high impact population in schools across the United States of America and will determine how to sustain this (and other) intervention(s) with high fidelity, to the betterment of health.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: RUBIES; Other: HELM; Other: Educator Psychoeducation

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 373
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Jill J Locke, PhD; Phone Number: 818-384-3554; Email: locke@seis.ucla.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90025
      • Recruiting
      • UCLA

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Special or general education teachers, paraeducators, and other staff who provide direct instruction and/or behavioral support to autistic children during the school day (e.g., speech therapist, school psychologist).
• Autistic children with:
• a documented autism spectrum disorder diagnosis via school records (i.e., Individualized Education Program; IEP)
• are enrolled with a participating educator
• are in grades K-5
• ages 5-12
• Sutter Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory-Revised (SESBI-R) total score >=101
• EDI sum score of >=8 at baseline

Exclusion Criteria:

• SESBI-R total score <101 (i.e. T score 51+)
• EDI sum score <8

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Psychoeducation	Other: Educator Psychoeducation; Autistic children in schools assigned to the educator psychoeducation condition will receive standard of care school-based interventions at the professional discretion and direction of educators (no research intervention). To support enrollment and provide an active clinical comparator to RUBIES, participating educators in schools randomized to this condition will receive an online, self-paced, 8-module independent studies webinar program broadly focused on supporting autistic children in schools. The program includes: 1) Introduction to Autism, 2) Autism in Schools, 3) Interventions for Supporting Communication, 4) Executive Functioning, 5) Inclusion in Schools, 6) Autism EBPs, 7) Social Functioning in Autism, and 8) Recess Engagement Strategies. Each module is 20-35-minutes and does not discuss behavioral management strategies.
Experimental: RUBIES + HELM	Other: RUBIES; RUBIES is a promising, but unvalidated, educator-delivered intervention that directly engages mechanistic antecedents of externalizing behavior of autistic children and is ready for large-scale testing. RUBIES is an 8-module intervention designed to help educators functionally evaluate and understand behavior as communication and to account for autistic characteristics including rigidities and sensory sensitivities.; Other: HELM; School principals and district-level leaders (e.g., Special Education Director, Special Education Administrator/Liaison, Inclusion Specialist, etc.) will participate in HELM. HELM is a 9-month, data-driven organizational and leadership implementation strategy that entails eight components: 1) Assessment and Feedback, 2) Initial Training, 3) Leadership Development Plan, 4) Individual Coaching; 5) Organizational Strategy Development; 6) Optional Group Coaching; 7) Professional Learning Collaborative; and 8) Graduation.
Experimental: RUBIES	Other: RUBIES; RUBIES is a promising, but unvalidated, educator-delivered intervention that directly engages mechanistic antecedents of externalizing behavior of autistic children and is ready for large-scale testing. RUBIES is an 8-module intervention designed to help educators functionally evaluate and understand behavior as communication and to account for autistic characteristics including rigidities and sensory sensitivities.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Reported Externalizing Behavior - SESBI-R	The Sutter Eyberg Student Behavior Inventory-Revised (SESBI-R) is a teacher-report measure used to assess conduct problems in youth ages 2-16. It contains 38 items where teachers are able to indicate the current frequency of behavior problems (Never to Always) and determine whether or not they find the behaviors to be problematic.	Baseline to 24 weeks after baseline
Reported Externalizing Behavior- EDI	The Emotion Dysregulation Inventory (EDI) is a questionnaire that assesses emotion regulation and is validated for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Response options are on a 5-point Likert scale from "not at all" to "very severe" for observed functioning over the past 7 days.	Baseline to 24 weeks after baseline
RUBIES Fidelity	Educator Homework Completion is rated by the coach after the completion of each module, with evaluation focused on three domains, each evaluated on a 4-point scale: 1) homework data collection , 2) correct implementation, and 3) frequency. Homework Completion is then calculated as the sum of coach ratings across the 3 domains/12 (total possible score). Educator Behavior Support Plan (BSP) Implementation is rated by the Coach after the completion of each module on a scale of 1-8 (1=none of the components of the BSP are implemented; 4=BSP is partially implemented and with some implementation errors; 8=The BSP is implemented consistently and effectively in its entirety). BSP Implementation is calculated as a proportion: sum of coach ratings/12 (total possible score). These measures allow for a calculation of educator weekly as well as total average Homework Completion and BSP implementation across the course of RUBIES	Baseline to 16 weeks after baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sustainment	Sustainment is defined as 1) the level of fidelity to Research Units in Behavioral Interventions in Educational Settings (RUBIES) post coaching during the second year of study enrollment; and 2) an exploratory binary outcome where the educator achieves ≥60% in RUBIES fidelity ("1") or does not sustain RUBIES ("0"). Sustainment will focus on fidelity ratings of BSP Implementation.	52 and 76 weeks after baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles
• Collaborators: University of Washington

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Locke J, Williams NJ, Sridhar A, Shih W, Espeland C, Tagavi D, Bearss K. Study protocol for coaching and leadership in autism support settings: a cluster randomized controlled hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation trial. Implement Sci. 2026 Mar 28. doi: 10.1186/s13012-026-01497-0. Online ahead of print.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2030
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2030

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 18, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 10, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): December 11, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 7, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2026
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: autism; schools; implementation; behavior management
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Autistic Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB-25-1558; US NIMH 1R01MH135924-01A1 (Other Grant/Funding Number: NIMH)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The investigators will make data from our study available for access by the research community via NDAR on a semi-annual basis as set forth in the NDAR policy. Data from descriptive measures will be submitted by July 15 and January 15 or the next business day, annually.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The research community will have access to data when the award ends in 2030.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Data will be available in NDAR.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No