Creating a SIS-A Annual Review Protocol to Determine the Need for Reassessment.
Run the quick annual review first; skip the full SIS-A when life is stable.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Erickson et al. (2016) built a short yearly checklist.
The checklist helps teams decide if they must give the full SIS-A again to adults with intellectual disability.
No new data were collected; the paper simply maps out the review steps.
What they found
The team produced a one-page protocol.
It lists questions about life changes, new goals, and risk events.
If none apply, staff can skip the full reassessment that year.
How this fits with other research
Frazier et al. (2018), Kirby et al. (2021), and Reichow et al. (2018) all build quality checklists for single-case studies.
Like R et al., they give clear yes/no steps to avoid wasted work.
Bassett-Gunter et al. (2017) trimmed a social-communication tool to ten items; R et al. use the same idea—brief screen first, long test only if needed.
Shapiro et al. (2016) taught staff to run preference tests with a self-instruction packet; R et al. offer a similar self-guided flow chart for SIS-A reassessment decisions.
Why it matters
You can tape the one-page protocol inside the assessment binder.
Before scheduling the full SIS-A, answer the yearly questions with the team.
If nothing has changed, note "no reassessment needed" and move the time to direct services.
This keeps funding, staff hours, and client energy focused on support, not paperwork.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Supports Intensity Scale - Adult Version (SIS-A) has been widely adopted throughout North America and the world since its publication a little over a decade ago. Many organizations and jurisdictions operate under regulations that require an annual assessment of people who receive services and supports that are financed through public funds. The time and energy devoted to an annual SIS-A reassessment has become a concern in cases where the resulting information is largely redundant with information from a prior assessment. This article presents findings from an investigation of two approaches to creating a protocol to assist SIS-A users in distinguishing situations where there is a high likelihood that support needs have not changed in meaningful ways from situations where there is a reasonable possibility that support needs have changed. The SIS-A Annual Review Protocol was created based on these analyses as well as consideration of conceptual issues associated with support needs assessment. Ways in which this protocol might be used, as well as data that need to be collected to evaluate its usefulness, are discussed.
Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-54.3.217