Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS)
Creating Environments that Maximize the Success of All Students

What is School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS)?
SW-PBIS is an approach schools can use to be strategic and thoughtful about student behavior, so all students can succeed. Instead of waiting for kids to act out, SW-PBIS makes school a place where behaving appropriately is the norm. Whole schools make expectations for behavior clear and reward students for following them. SW-PBIS is not a curriculum, intervention, or practice, but rather a decision-making framework that guides how a school approaches behavior, from one stage to the next, to improve all students' learning. Prevention is a big part of the approach. For students who do act out, there are more targeted interventions created to meet the individual child's needs. This keeps a problem incident from becoming a pattern and helps children stay on track.

Why  should schools consider implementing SW-PBIS?
Schools that implement SW-PBIS have improved academic performance, fewer disciplinary problems, and a greater sense of safety on campus. Some schools have seen up to a 60% reduction in disciplinary incidents following school-wide implementation of PBIS. Fewer disciplinary incidents mean more time for teachers and school administrators to spend on student learning. In one state, 12 schools found they had gained a combined 233 days of administrators' time and 700 days of instruction time for students after implementing SW-PBIS. [Learn more about the research]

In a school with Positive Behavioral Supports. . .	In a school with traditional discipline . . .
Educators take time to demonstrate what is expected of students and make the schools' positive values clear.	Schools give kids a rule book and punish them when they violate the rules.
There is attention to and rewards for behaving right.	Problem behavior is more likely to be acknowledged than positive behavior.
Decisions about the best way to reduce problem behavior are based on data that school staff find helpful.	Punishment for behavior is based on a rule book, not on any research about what works best.
Kids with special needs or mental health challenges are identified and worked with in ways that prevent behavior problems from becoming patterns.	Kids with special needs or mental health challenges may not get the help they need to succeed; sometimes they are removed from class altogether.

Source: Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports: A Plan for Pennsylvania

How is SW-PBIS being implemented in Texas?
PBIS is the recommended approach for addressing challenging behavior in children with disabilities. Regional Education Service Centers (ESCs) are required to offer Texas schools training or technical assistance on using PBIS with students with disabilities. ESCs may offer services related to SW-PBIS, but levels of support and criteria for participation vary across regions. Also, there is no systematic leadership, planning, or coordination at the state level related to the use of SW-PBIS to address behavioral outcomes of all students--not just special education students. In 2008, just 61 schools in Texas reported implementing SW-PBIS. Other schools implement SW-PBIS without support from an ESC, but it is not known how many, nor how closely they are following best-practices. Some schools report challenges in sustaining an effective SW-PBIS approach on their own.

How much does SW-PBIS cost to implement?
There is no "one-size-fits-all" way to implement SW-PBIS. While some schools choose to seek additional funds and some federal funding is available, most schools can implement SW-PBIS for minimal or no additional money.

If I work in a school, what can I do to bring PBIS here?
Implementing PBIS requires building consensus among the administrators, teachers, and staff at your school about implementing this approach and committing as a school to using the PBIS process. You can get started by learning more at www.pbis.org and then:

• promote school-wide PBIS to teachers and administrators at your school to get colleagues on board, since school-wide buy-in is crucial for PBIS to work;
• coordinate a group of colleagues (teachers, counselors, administrators) to determine how school-wide PBIS should look at your school;
• volunteer to be a team leader to coordinate implementation at your school;
• support our work to ensure schools receive support from the state in implementing school-wide PBIS
  

Addressing Specific Concerns with SW-PBIS:

Bullying Prevention & Intervention

To reduce bullying, it is important to change the climate of the school and the social norms with regard to bullying. Blending bullying prevention with school-wide positive behavior support gives students the tools necessary to increase appropriate responses to bullying incidents, for both victims and bystanders, and to decrease incidents of bullying behavior. When including a bullying prevention component in the implementation of SW-PBIS, a 55-69% reduction in problem behavior has been demonstrated. As part of a larger system of positive behavioral support, bullying prevention is far less resource intensive and far more likely to be implemented over consecutive years.

Reducing Student Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System

The number one predictor of involvement in the criminal justice system is disciplinary actions a student received in school. By reducing the number of disciplinary actions in school through SW-PBIS, the number of today's students ending up in the justice system can be reduced. Valuable criminal justice resources should be redirected into things that protect the public from violent crime, while our teachers and principals need sufficient resources and training to manage students in need of behavioral interventions. Creating a statewide infrastructure to support the implementation of SW-PBIS would allow for the increased resources and training for teachers.

Addressing the Needs of Students with Mental Health Concerns

Most schools offer some range of services to support student mental and behavioral health, but these strategies are often fragmented and limited in scope. For students who require more targeted interventions, such as those with mental or behavioral health concerns, PBIS interventions are applied either in group settings or through an individualized plan based on students' needs. PBIS is the recommended intervention for dealing with challenging behavior in children with disabilities. By implementing SW-PBIS, schools would be able to reach students with emotional disturbances and other behavioral needs that are not identified for special education.