The BASC-4 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-4 BESS) is used by school districts and behavioral health professionals to efficiently assess the behavioral health of millions of youth each year. The BESS screening forms are quick to administer and well tolerated by students, teachers, and parents. They provide reliable insights into the behavioral and emotional strengths and challenges of children and adolescents from preschool through college.
BASC-4 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System
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BASC-4 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System

BASC-4 BESS

Randy W. Kamphaus, PhD,Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD
The BASC-4 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BASC-4 BESS) is used by school districts and behavioral health professionals to efficiently assess the behavioral health of millions of youth each year. The BESS screening forms are quick to administer and well tolerated by students, teachers, and parents. They provide reliable insights into the behavioral and emotional strengths and challenges of children and adolescents from preschool through college.
Choose from our formats
Age range:
3:0–18:11 (Teacher and Parent Forms); 8:0–18:11 (Student Form); 18:00–25:11 (College Student Form)
Reading Level:
Parent Form—Grade 6; Student Form—Grade 2
Publication date:
2026
Qualification level:
B
Completion time:
5–10 minutes
Scores/Interpretation:
T scores and percentiles, for a general population
Scoring options:
Q-global® web-based administration, scoring, and reporting

The BASC-4 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) incorporates the latest norms, updated items and content, and new reporting options.

The BASC-4 BESS is designed for schools, pediatric practices, behavioral health providers, communities, and researchers to screen for a variety of behavioral and emotional competencies and challenges. It is an essential tool for any prevention and early intervention program seeking to detect mental health risk early, when challenges are more easily addressed.

Benefits

  • Assesses a wide array of behaviors that represent both internalizing and externalizing problems and prosocial and interpersonal competencies that promote wellness
  • Features forms that can be completed in approximately 5–10 minutes without specialized training
  • Provides a Total Score on the report that is a reliable and accurate predictor of a broad range of behavioral, emotional, and academic problems
  • Includes validity indexes to identify overly negative or inconsistent ratings

Features

The BASC-4 BESS consists of brief forms that range from 25 to 30 questions and are completed by teachers, parents, or students.

  • Teacher Form: Preschool (for ages 3:00–5:11) and Child/Adolescent (for Grades K–12)
  • Student Form: Child/Adolescent (for Grades 3–12)
  • Parent Form with two levels: Preschool (for ages 3:00–5:11) and Child/Adolescent (for Grades K–12)
  • College Student Form: ages 18:00–25:11
  • Requires no formal training for the raters and can be administered in just 5–10 minutes
  • Normed on a representative sample that closely matches recent U.S. Census population characteristics
  • Item content that is well tolerated by students, parents, and teachers as a result of use with millions of youth over the past two decades

BESS College Student Form

College and university leaders are increasingly concerned about the mental health needs of their students. Students also are aware of their increasing mental health needs and look to their colleges and universities to provide support. The BESS College Student Form provides a quick, reliable, and confidential way for counseling centers and student health services to screen large numbers of students.

Campuswide mental health checks using the BESS provide valuable information for addressing individual student needs and for planning prevention and promotion activities for the entire campus.

 

The following resources are available for BASC-4 BESS

Sample Reports

 

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