What Is PBIS?

"School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW-PBIS) is a broad set of research-validated strategies designed to create school environments that promote and support behavior of all students.” (Best Practices IV, 2010) SW-PBIS is a framework to ensure all students have access to the most effective instructional and behavioral practices and interventions possible to facilitate social competence and academic achievement. What’s more important to understand is that SW-PBIS is not a specific curriculum, intervention, or practice. Rather, the framework guides selection, integration, and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices for improving outcomes for all students

What Is PBIS?

SW-PBIS is a multi tiered system of support that provides increasingly intense interventions to students who demonstrate behavioral concerns.  The purpose of the multi-tiered model is to provide support for student’s when they begin to demonstrate a concern rather than waiting for them to demonstrate a significant need to qualify for additional services. If we can meet the needs of students sooner, and thereby prevent them from developing intensive, individualized needs, we can reserve our resources within the building.

So what does SW-PBIS look like?

Tier 1, also referred to as your universal intervention, includes 5 core features:

1. 3-5 Positively stated school wide rules/expectations

2. Direct instruction of school rules IN the school wide settings

3. School Wide Acknowledgement System

4. Clear and consistent discipline procedures

5. Systematic Data collection to monitor student progress

So what does SW-PBIS look like? (con't)

Think of the Tier 1 system as your core curriculum that should meet the academic and behavioral needs of approximately 80-95% of the students.  We know that there will be approximately 5% - 20% students who do not respond to the Tier 1 systems of support. These students would be identified to receive Tier 2 interventions. These interventions may include a behavior contract or small group instruction with a narrow focus on a specific skill or group of skills.

 At this level, students would be monitored and assessed more frequently to ensure that the Tier 2 intervention is meeting their needs.  Tier 2 is designed to be fluid with students entering and exiting the intervention regularly as opposed to remaining for a prolonged period of time. Students who do not demonstrate progress with the Tier 2 interventions (approximately 1 – 5% of students) would then be referred for Tier 3 interventions which include individualized behavior supports. This may include an individualized behavior support plan along with individualized instruction in the specific areas of need.

We know that academic and behavioral concerns are closely linked.  For example, when students exhibit struggles with reading skills, they are very likely to demonstrate behavioral difficulties as well.  Therefore, when students receive effective academic instruction and effective behavior management, they are most likely to succeed. As such, these SW-PBIS and Response to Intervention (RTI) tend to converge after they are established to create a comprehensive Response To Intervention (RTI)  program.