Check-In/Check-Out (CICO): A Complete Guide for Teachers

Every school has a handful of students who don't need an intensive behavior plan but clearly need more than the class-wide expectations. They drift off task, test limits, or start the day already dysregulated. For those students, the go-to intervention in most PBIS schools is Check-In/Check-Out, usually shortened to CICO.

CICO is popular for a good reason: it's structured, cheap to run, and it gives a struggling student two predictable, positive adult interactions every day. This guide walks through how to set it up, score it, fade it out, and where the paper version tends to fall apart.

What Is Check-In/Check-Out?

CICO is a Tier 2 intervention within the PBIS framework. Tier 1 covers the universal expectations every student follows. Tier 3 covers intensive, individualized plans. CICO lives in the middle: a targeted, standardized routine for students who need extra structure and adult connection, delivered the same way for every student in the program.

The core of CICO is a simple daily loop:

1. The student checks in with a designated adult at the start of the day
2. Teachers rate the student on a short set of behavior goals at set points throughout the day, on a point sheet the student carries
3. The student checks out with the same adult at the end of the day and reviews the score
4. The sheet goes home, a parent sees it, and it comes back the next morning

That's the whole machine. The power comes from the repetition: frequent feedback, a consistent adult relationship, and a daily bridge between school and home. If your school already runs class-wide charts, CICO will feel familiar; it's the same logic applied more intensively. For the broader context, see our complete guide to PBIS behavior charts.

Who CICO Is For

CICO works best for students whose behavior is motivated by adult attention and who respond to structure and encouragement. Typical candidates:

• Students with frequent low-level disruptions: calling out, off-task behavior, minor defiance
• Students who do fine some days and fall apart on others, with no clear trigger
• Students who benefit visibly from one-on-one adult time

CICO is a poor fit, in its standard form, for students whose behavior functions as escape (they act out to get removed from work) or for behavior intense enough to need an individualized plan. Those students need a Tier 3 process, not a heavier dose of CICO.

How to Run CICO, Step by Step

The morning check-in

The student meets a designated adult, often called a CICO coordinator or mentor, for two or three minutes before class. The coordinator greets the student warmly, hands over the day's point sheet, confirms the goals, and checks readiness: materials, breakfast, mood. Tone matters more than content. The check-in should feel like a coach starting a practice, not a warden reviewing charges.

Consistency is critical here. Same adult, same place, same time, every day. The relationship is a large part of the intervention.

The point sheet

The point sheet lists 3 to 5 behavior goals, rated at each period or natural block of the day. Goals should be positively stated, observable, and aligned with your school-wide expectations. A typical sheet for an elementary student might look like this:

A common scale is 0 (goal not met), 1 (partially met), 2 (met). Each teacher takes a few seconds at the end of the block to circle a rating and, ideally, say one specific positive thing. The rating is feedback, not a verdict, and it should be delivered without a lecture.

Keep the goals the same for every rating period and keep the sheet identical from day to day. Standardization is what makes CICO scalable across a whole school. If you want a ready-made starting point, our printable PBIS templates include point-sheet formats you can print today.

The afternoon check-out

At the end of the day, the student returns to the same adult. Together they total the points, compare the total to the daily goal, and talk about what went well. If the student met the goal, celebrate it specifically. If not, keep the message short and forward-looking: "Tomorrow is a new sheet." No re-litigating fourth period.

The home component

The sheet goes home for a parent or guardian to see and sign, then returns the next morning. This step is where paper CICO most often breaks: sheets get lost, backpacks eat them, and some families can't read goals written in English only. Make this step as easy as possible for families, because the home connection is a genuine part of why CICO works.

Setting a Realistic Point Goal

The daily goal should be a bar the student can clear on a decent day, not a perfect one. A common approach: run the point sheet for a week without any goal attached, just to collect baseline data, then set the goal slightly above the student's typical day. Say the student averages around 70% of available points during baseline; a goal of 80% gives them something reachable to stretch toward.

Two rules of thumb:

• Never start at perfection. A goal the student misses every day teaches them the program is rigged.
• Raise the bar gradually. Once the student meets the goal consistently for a couple of weeks, nudge it up a notch.

Fading CICO Out

CICO is meant to be temporary. The exit ramp usually looks like this:

1. Thin the ratings. Move from every-period ratings to two or three checkpoints a day.
2. Shift to self-monitoring. The student rates their own behavior and the teacher spot-checks for accuracy. This is the same self-monitoring skill we describe in our post on managing behavioral shifts in upper elementary, and it's the real long-term win of CICO.
3. Reduce check-ins. Daily check-ins become a few days a week, then a weekly hello.
4. Graduate. Make it an event. Students should leave CICO feeling successful, not abandoned.

Decide fading based on data, not vibes: consistent goal attainment over several weeks is your signal.

Common Mistakes

• Using the point sheet punitively. Taking points away, attaching lectures to low ratings, or sending the sheet home as evidence for punishment turns a positive intervention into a daily indictment.
• Vague goals. "Be respectful" can't be rated consistently across five teachers. "Use kind words with peers" can.
• Inconsistent adults. A rotating cast of coordinators guts the relationship that makes check-ins work.
• No baseline, arbitrary goal. Guessing at the point goal usually means setting it too high.
• Collecting sheets and never reading them. If nobody graphs the data, you can't tell whether the intervention is working or when to fade it.
• Running it forever. A student on CICO for a full year with no fading plan is a sign the intervention has become furniture.

Running CICO Digitally

The daily routine of CICO is solid. The paper is the weak point: totals get miscounted, and turning a semester of crumpled sheets into a trend line for a team meeting means hand-tallying hundreds of ratings.

A digital point sheet keeps the routine and fixes the logistics. In Evident, a CICO chart is a set of daily goals logged in seconds at each rating period, drawn from a library of 150+ pre-written goals, including IEP-specific categories, so you're not inventing wording from scratch. The home component runs through a QR-code parent portal, with no app or account needed on the family's side, and charts translate automatically into 28 languages, so the sheet a family sees is one they can actually read. When the support team meets, PDF progress reports replace the hand tally, which matters most when the data feeds formal decisions. See our post on behavior data for IEP and 504 meetings for that side of the workflow.

You can build a CICO-style point sheet in the free chart builder, with no account required to create and print, and Evident is free to start with one student and one chart. Run the loop for a few weeks and let the data tell you what to do next.