Coaching and Leadership in Autism Support Settings

Part of paid clinical trials in Los Angeles, California.

Sponsor
University of California, Los Angeles
Study ID
NCT07276750
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
5 Years - N/A
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • RUBIES — OTHER
    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.
  • HELM — OTHER
    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.
  • Educator Psychoeducation — OTHER
    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.

Study Details

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.

Key Dates

Start date
Feb 1, 2026
Status verified
Sep 2025
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2030
Completion
Aug 31, 2030

Study Design

Enrollment
373 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: RUBIES + HELM
  • Experimental: RUBIES
  • Active Comparator: Psychoeducation

Primary Outcome Measure

Reported Externalizing Behavior - SESBI-R [ Time Frame: Baseline to 24 weeks after baseline ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
UCLALos AngelesCalifornia90025-

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By research site
UCLA· Los Angeles, CA

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