Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports

Proactive schools create positive school environments that help to teach all students how to behave appropriately, make good decisions, and resolve conflicts in positive ways.  Positive school environments that implement schoolwide positive behavior supports reduce the need for individual positive behavior supports/behavioral intervention plans by adopting and implementing evidence-based practices and procedures.    Through “primary prevention” strategies, 80% of students will have the supports they need for appropriate behavior.  Approximately 15% of students will need secondary prevention (specialized group systems for students with at-risk behavior), and another 5% will need tertiary prevention (specialized individualized systems for students with high-risk behavior):

The four key elements of schoolwide positive behavior supports are:

·        Outcomes: Academic and behavior targets endorsed and emphasized by students, families, and educators;

·        Practices: Interventions and strategies that are evidence-based.

·        Data: Information that is used to identify status, need for change, and effects of interventions; and

·        Systems: Supports that are needed to enable the accurate and durable implementation of the practices of positive behavior supports (PBS).

To set up a school-wide system of positive behavior supports, effective schools follow these steps:

 ·        Establish a school-wide leadership or behavior support team to guide the process.  The team should include at least one administrator, grade level educators, support staff, and parents (and students at least at middle and high school levels).

·        Secure administrator agreement of active support and participation.

·        Secure a commitment and agreement from at least 80% of the staff for their support and participation.

·        Conduct a self-assessment of the current school-wide discipline system.

·        Create an implementation action plan that is based on data.

·        Establish a way to collect accurate office referral and other needed data on a regular basis to measure the effectiveness of interventions.

The four main elements of school-wide positive behavior supports are:

·        Supporting Social Competence and Academic Achievement

·        Supporting Student Behavior

·        Supporting Staff Behavior

·        Supporting Decision-making

The seven components of a comprehensive school-wide system of positive behavioral interventions and supports are:

·        An agreed-upon and common approach to discipline;

·        A positive statement of purpose;

·        A small number of positively stated expectations for all students and staff;

·        Procedures for teaching these expectations to students;

·        A continuum of procedures for encouraging displays and maintenance of these expectations;

·        A continuum of procedures for discouraging displays of rule-violating behavior; and

·        Procedures for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the discipline system on a regular and frequent basis.

School-wide positive behavior supports is not a new or separate initiative.  It is an integral component of existing mandates such as New Jersey’s Programs to Support Student Development, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the character education/social problem-solving and conflict resolution components of New Jersey’s core curriculum content standards.  Proactive school-wide positive behavior support systems create environments where learning and teaching are valued, and aggressive, unsafe behaviors are discouraged; respect, responsibility, cooperation and other highly valued character traits are encouraged; individual differences are valued rather than criticized; students with disabilities can be supported more effectively and efficiently; and teaching fundamental skills and content knowledge can be maximized through increased time on task.

For more information on implementing school-wide positive behavior supports, go to www.pbis.org/schoolwide.htm, the website of the National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs.