Salisbury Central School

 

What Are The Three Major Elements of PBIS?

A School-based Team  *  Tiers of Support  *  Families

 

1. A School-based Team

The team consists of six to eight members of the school staff that could include an administrator, a guidance counselor, a school psychologist, and general and special education teachers. Family members are often included as well. Together, this group:

• Develops and defines school-wide behavioral expectations for students during all aspects of daily activity and works  with teachers to be sure that all children in the school are taught these expectations;
• Helps teachers implement PBIS practices in the classroom;
• Monitors progress using a school-wide data system to track office discipline referrals (ODRs); and
• Uses data to count ODRs and track which students are involved where, how often, and what behaviors they exhibit to see if interventions and expectations are working.

 

2. Tiers of Support

In order to meet the needs of all students, PBIS employs three levels, or Tiers, of support for all students regarding school-wide behavioral expectations.

 

Tier I (Universal):

All students receive meaningful instruction on the school’s expectations for their behavior and methods of positive reinforcement. Tier I provides recognition and reinforcement for all students. In most cases, 80% or more of a student population responds positively to school-wide behavioral expectations.

 

Tier II (Targeted):

Extra help is given, often in the form of group-based instruction and continuous feedback to students who are in need of more targeted supports. These supports are in addition to those that all children receive from Tier I.

Tier II offer direct behavioral and social strategies to small groups of students who need more support than Tier I affords. Once a student is being considered for Tier II support, the school engages family members as active contributors of information and decision-making as planning and monitoring take place. Progress is monitored closely for about four weeks, or as long as necessary, to determine if these strategies have been effective. Once students are using appropriate behaviors consistently, they gain social acceptance and positive reinforcement from the school community.

 

Tier III (Intensive):

Intensive and individualized behavioral instruction and assessment are provided when and if a student is not responding positively to the supports of Tiers I and II.

With Tier III supports, family involvement is critical for providing the student with consistency across all aspects of life, school, home, and community. With the family’s agreement, a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) is given to determine the cause of the challenging behaviors. Then a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) is developed with the family to teach and promote appropriate social behavior.

 

3. Families

Schools that adopt the PBIS framework recognize and appreciate families having high behavioral expectations for their children. You can support PBIS in your children’s schools in many ways:

• Ask your child about the school-wide expectations and what behaviors are expected of him/her.

• Use the school-wide expectations in your home, or define similar ones for your home.

• Provide positive reinforcement (rewarding/recognizing good choices) at home.

• Talk with your child’s teacher regularly.

• Ask for updates about your child’s behavior.

• Celebrate your child’s strengths, talents, interests, and successes.

• Discuss with your child any behavioral incidents that occur.

• Participate in parent-teacher-student conferences and other school functions for your child.

 

Information provided by -
SERC
State Education Resource Center
www.ctserc.org