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Last Updated: Nov 11, 2026
Mental Health & Therapy
NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers
Free PDF 2 pages, print-ready Clinician-reviewed
The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers is an ADHD screening and rating scale that a child’s teacher completes about classroom behavior. Teachers rate 43 items: 35 symptom items and 8 academic and classroom performance items. The results support, but never replace, a clinician’s diagnosis of ADHD in children aged 6 to 12.
What follows covers the five sections of the teacher form and how to score a positive screen. It also explains how to read teacher ratings next to the parent form. Ratings reflect the child’s behavior since the start of the school year.
Template details
- Template type
- Assessment
- Format
- Printable PDF, 2 pages
- Best for
- Mental Health & Therapy
Free download
Download your free NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers
The teacher informant form, with 35 symptom items covering inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, oppositional/conduct behavior and anxiety/depression, plus 8 performance ratings. It is an ADHD screening and rating scale that supports, but does not replace, clinical diagnosis.
What’s inside
- Teacher, child, class and grade details, with weeks or months of observation
- Medication status during the rating period: on, off or not sure
- Nine inattention items, from careless mistakes to forgetfulness in daily activities
- Nine hyperactivity and impulsivity items, from fidgeting to interrupting others
- Ten oppositional and conduct items and seven anxiety or depression items
- Eight performance ratings for reading, math, writing, peers and classroom behavior, plus comments
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Key takeaways
The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers is an ADHD screening and rating scale, not a standalone diagnostic test.
The teacher form has 43 items: 35 symptom items and 8 academic and classroom performance items.
A positive inattention or hyperactivity screen needs 6 of 9 symptoms rated often or very often, plus impaired performance.
Teachers rate behavior since the start of the school year and state how long they have observed the child.
Compare teacher ratings with the parent form, because DSM-5 requires ADHD symptoms in two or more settings.
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What is the NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers?
The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers is an ADHD screening and rating form that a teacher completes about one student. It comes from the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ), which publishes the full set of Vanderbilt forms. Teachers rate 43 items describing behavior during classroom instruction and activities, for children aged 6 to 12.
The ADHD items follow the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, so clinicians get school-based ratings that map onto the diagnosis. The scale supports a diagnosis but does not make one. Parent forms capture behavior at home, while the teacher version shows how symptoms play out in structured, academically demanding settings.
What the teacher form covers
The form has five main sections. The first four rate symptoms on a four-point frequency scale, from never to very often. The fifth rates how the child performs at school.
- Inattention (items 1–9): careless mistakes, sustaining attention, organizing tasks and forgetfulness.
- Hyperactivity/impulsivity (items 10–18): fidgeting, leaving the seat, talking excessively and interrupting others.
- Oppositional/conduct (items 19–28): losing temper, defying rules, bullying, fighting, lying and destroying property.
- Anxiety/depression (items 29–35): worry, self-consciousness, feeling worthless and sadness.
- Academic and classroom performance (items 36–43): reading, math and written expression, plus peer relationships, following directions, disrupting class, assignment completion and organization.
Each symptom item asks how often a behavior occurs, so ratings stay comparable across teachers and schools. If you want a second teacher-rated measure, the SNAP-IV assessment and the Conners scale for ADHD both have teacher versions.
How to send the form and collect ratings
Give the teacher written instructions and enough time to finish the form, which usually takes 5 to 10 minutes. Ask them to base ratings on the child’s behavior since the start of the school year. The form also asks how many weeks or months they have observed the child, and whether the child was on medication at the time.
Send the form through a secure channel that meets HIPAA requirements. A short cover letter should explain the purpose and confirm the ratings are used only for the child’s clinical evaluation.
Ask the teacher to complete the form alone, without discussing it with parents or colleagues, so the ratings reflect their own observations. If the child has several teachers, collect a form from the main academic teacher and, where useful, from one more.
How to score and interpret results
Scoring counts symptoms rather than adding them up, and the form has no overall score. Symptom items are scored 0 (never), 1 (occasionally), 2 (often) or 3 (very often). An item counts as present when it is rated 2 or 3.
Performance items are rated 1 (excellent) to 5 (problematic), and a 4 or 5 counts as impairment. The thresholds for a positive screen are:
- Inattention: 6 or more of items 1–9 rated 2 or 3, plus a 4 or 5 on any performance item.
- Hyperactivity/impulsivity: 6 or more of items 10–18 rated 2 or 3, plus a 4 or 5 on any performance item.
- Combined presentation: both of the above.
- Oppositional/conduct: 3 or more of items 19–28 rated 2 or 3.
- Anxiety/depression: 3 or more of items 29–35 rated 2 or 3.
The chart below sets each section’s minimum count side by side, which makes a half-scored form quick to check.
A positive screen means the symptoms warrant further clinical investigation. Our Vanderbilt ADHD scoring template covers how to record the counts.
Never interpret teacher ratings alone. Combine them with the parent version of the Vanderbilt scale, a clinical interview, the medical history and classroom observation before reaching a diagnosis.
Getting accurate ratings from teachers
Ask teachers to rate behavior seen on typical school days, without input from parents or colleagues. Honest, specific ratings give the clinician the most useful picture.
Remind them to rate how often a behavior happens, not how severe it is. Frequency is what the scoring thresholds count.
Give teachers enough time to complete the form without distractions, because rushed ratings tend to be less accurate. Build a buffer into your assessment timeline to fit around teacher schedules.
Comparing teacher and parent ratings
Comparing the teacher form with the parent Vanderbilt form shows whether symptoms appear in more than one setting. DSM-5 requires several ADHD symptoms in two or more settings, such as home and school.
A child with high inattention ratings at school but lower parent ratings may struggle mainly with structured academic demands. Higher parent ratings than teacher ratings can point to factors at home. Either pattern shapes treatment planning and behavior management.
Symptoms seen only at home or only at school may reflect situational factors rather than ADHD. Look for those causes before considering medication.
Using the results for diagnosis and follow-up
Teacher ratings feed into ADHD diagnosis, treatment monitoring and school planning. A positive screen, combined with DSM-5 symptom criteria and evidence of impairment, supports a diagnosis the clinician makes.
After treatment starts, ask the teacher to complete the NICHQ Teacher Follow-up form at intervals set by the treating clinician. Falling symptom counts suggest the medication or behavioral intervention is working. Persistent symptoms may call for a dose review, and our ADD ADHD medication list covers the common options.
With the parents’ consent, share results with the school staff who support the child. Teachers and school psychologists use the data to build individualized education plans and classroom accommodations.
How Pabau collects and stores Vanderbilt teacher ratings
On paper, a teacher form goes out by email, comes back as a scan and gets filed by hand. The parent form often lands somewhere else, so comparing the two takes longer than scoring them.
Pabau, the platform we build for therapy practice management, turns the form into a digital questionnaire you send as a link. The completed form saves to the child’s patient record, next to the parent form and your clinical notes.
Storing completed forms in ADHD clinic software keeps every score searchable in the patient’s record, so follow-up ratings sit next to the baseline. A demo consultation shows how teacher and parent ratings are collected and compared in one place.
Collect and compare Vanderbilt ratings digitally
Pabau sends the Vanderbilt teacher form as a digital questionnaire and saves the completed ratings to the patient record. Compare teacher, parent and follow-up scores without chasing paper.
Conclusion
The teacher form is most useful as one piece of evidence among several. Count the symptoms rated 2 or 3, check performance for impairment, and set the results against the parent form before drawing a conclusion.
Collect it at baseline, then use the follow-up form at intervals the treating clinician sets. That gives you a classroom view of treatment response that parents cannot see for themselves. Book a demo to see how Pabau keeps every teacher and parent rating in one patient record.
Continue your research
Need the parent-side history too? Childhood ADHD questionnaire collects the developmental and home-behavior picture that teacher ratings can’t.
Anxiety items came back high? SCARED anxiety screen screens children for specific anxiety disorders in more depth.
Sadness or worthlessness flagged? Pediatric depression screening tool compares the main depression screeners for children and teens.
Planning school support? IEP goal banks gives measurable goal examples for individualized education plans.
Working on classroom behavior? Positive behavior support plan structures the strategies teachers and parents use day to day.
Frequently asked questions
What age group is the Vanderbilt teacher scale designed for?
The NICHQ Vanderbilt Assessment Scale for Teachers is designed for children aged 6 to 12. That range covers the elementary and early middle school years, when ADHD symptoms tend to show most clearly in structured classroom settings.
How long does it take teachers to complete the Vanderbilt form?
Most teachers complete the form in 5 to 10 minutes. The short items and simple frequency ratings keep completion time low without cutting accuracy.
Can the teacher assessment be used as sole evidence for ADHD diagnosis?
No. The teacher form is one part of a full ADHD evaluation. Diagnosis combines teacher ratings with parent observations, a clinical interview, the medical history and evidence of impairment across settings.
How often should teachers repeat the assessment?
Complete the first form at baseline, before treatment begins. After that, use the NICHQ Teacher Follow-up form at intervals set by the treating clinician to track response over time.
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