Riverside Insights Unveils DESSA® x Move This World, a Connected System for Student Behavioral Health

As student behavioral and mental health needs rise, the new MTSS solution unites screening, instruction and progress monitoring

ITASCA, Ill., Aug. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Riverside Insights, a leading provider of trusted, research-backed assessments and student support solutions, today announced the launch of DESSA® x Move This World, the first integrated student behavioral health system that connects universal screening, instruction, intervention, and progress monitoring within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). For the first time, districts can approach student behavioral health as a truly connected system rather than a collection of separate tools, helping educators identify needs early, deliver aligned supports, monitor growth over time, and deepen services when needed.

Districts are facing unprecedented demand for student behavioral health support while navigating limited staff, competing priorities, and disconnected systems. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 58% of schools reported increased demand for mental health services compared with the previous year. Yet many districts still rely on separate tools for screening, classroom instruction, interventions, and progress monitoring, making it difficult to consistently translate data into meaningful action.

“For too long, schools have had to piece together separate tools to understand student needs, deliver support, and track whether that support is working,” said Vivek Kartha, CEO of Riverside Insights. “DESSA x Move This World changes that by helping educators see what skills students need to build, take meaningful action, and monitor progress over time, all within one connected system.”

DESSA x Move This World combines DESSA’s screening, assessment, and progress monitoring with Move This World’s daily, evidence-based social-emotional and behavioral instruction. Together, they connect insight to action and create a continuous cycle of support across Tiers 1 through 3. DESSA helps educators identify which students need support and where, while Move This World provides consistent instruction to build the skills students need.

Sara Potler LaHayne, founder of Move This World and head of Behavioral and Mental Health at Riverside Insights, affirmed the impact of joining assessment visibility with instructional content. “The problem has always been that the data lives in one place and the instruction lives somewhere else,” LaHayne said. “Uniting DESSA and Move This World closes that gap, so teachers aren't just seeing what a student needs, they're immediately equipped to do something about it.”

The new solution reflects Riverside Insights' broader mission of transforming fragmented student mental health and well-being programs so educators can identify learner needs earlier, act with confidence, and see measurable behavioral benefits districtwide.

About Riverside Insights

Riverside Insights is a leading provider of trusted, research-backed assessments that bring the clarity needed to help every student grow. With over 14 million students assessed annually, Riverside Insights’ tools pinpoint every student’s unique needs and reveal what each learner needs next. The company supports early learners, multilingual learners, gifted learners and students receiving specialized services through psychometrically rigorous and clinically validated assessments that measure cognitive abilities, reasoning, communication, early development and life skills. For more information, visit https://riversideinsights.com/.

Media Contact

Sophia Lammers
VP of Clinical Marketing, Riverside Insights
sophia.lammers@riversideinsights.com

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