What is the DESSA process for clinic-based programs

In this article, we'll clarify common questions about The Devereux Students Strengths Assessment (DESSA) such as usage, application and reporting. 

What is DESSA?

Originally developed by the Devereux Center for Resilient Children DESSA is a social-emotional learning assessment. It is a standardized, strength-based behaviour rating scale completed in 5 to 8 minutes and used by educators and parents to measure the social-emotional competence for children in grades K-8. Grounded in resilience theory and directly aligned to the CASEL and The Best of Friends framework, the DESSA is a user-friendly, practical social-emotional learning assessment that meets the highest professional standards. The DESSA is commonly used to inform the delivery of SEL at tier 1 or tier 2 as well as measuring the results of that delivery.

The DESSA and The Best of Friends

The Best of Friend (BoF) has selected the DESSA as a monitoring and evaluation tool. The tool is used not only to measure outcomes but for participant selection, planing and ongoing evaluation. Instruction on how to use the DESSA in the context of the BoF program are available on the program manual.

Using the DESSA is mandatory as part of the license agreement both for school and clinics. Monitoring and evaluation are also essential under various other schemes such as the NDIS and Medicare and standard quality health delivery. 

Application and Cost

Quirky Kid covers the costs of the DESSA use scoring and reports for facilitators under accreditation. This means that there is no cost for using the DESSA for each facilitator first group as this is used to evaluate your group outcomes.

Subsequent DESSA uses are provided in two distinct ways. 

1. Your organisation can purchase a DESSA License from the publisher
2. Your organisation can request Quirky Kid assist you with the DESSA entry. There are fees and charge as per the schedule of fees item CL-6 (approx $4 per use)

It is more economical to request Quirky Kid to complete the Data entry