•  Positive Behavior Support In Schools (PBSIS) Goals

    The goal of PBSIS is to provide educators and practitioners with a continuum of academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support matched to students’ needs. We describe this continuum across three tiers of support.  


    Foundational systems across all three tiers include:

    • A shared vision for a positive school social culture.

    • A supportive and involved school administration. 

    • A representative leadership team that meets regularly and shares expertise in coaching, social-emotional, behavioral, academic, equity, mental health, physical health, wellness, and trauma. 

    • Families and community members are actively engaged‍.

    • On-going access to professional development for preparing all staff to implement each tier of PBIS across all content areas.

    • Collaboration and alignment with the Counseling Department.

    • Systematic collection of screening, progress monitoring, outcome, and fidelity data.

    • Ongoing use of data for decision-making.

    • Disaggregating data to examine equity among student subgroups.

     

    Tier 1: Universal, Primary Prevention (All)

    Tier 1 systems, data, and practices support students, educators, and staff across all school settings. They establish a foundation for positive and proactive support. Tier 1 support is robust and differentiated and enables most (80% or more) students to experience success. Tier 1 practices include:

    • Collaboration with students, families, and educators to define positive school/program-wide expectations and prioritize appropriate social, emotional, and behavioral skills.

    • Aligning classroom expectations with school/program-wide expectations.

    • Directly teaching expectations and skills to set all students up for success.

    • Encouraging and acknowledging expected behavior.

    • Preventing and responding to unwanted behavior in a respectful, instructional manner.

    • Fostering school/program-family partnerships.

     

    Tier 2: Targeted, Secondary Prevention (Some)

    In addition to the Tier 1 foundation, students receiving Tier 2 supports get an added layer of systems, data, and practices targeting their specific needs. On average, about 10-15% of students need Tier 2 support. The support provided at Tier 2 is more focused than at Tier 1 and less intensive than at Tier 3. Tier 2 practices include:

    • Providing additional instruction and practice for behavioral, social, emotional, and academic skills.

    • Increasing adult support and supervision.

    • Providing additional opportunities for positive reinforcement.

    • Increasing prompts or reminders.

    • Increasing access to academic support.

    • Increasing school-family communication.

     

    Tier 3: Intensive and Individualized, Tertiary Prevention (Few)

    In most schools and programs, a small number (1-5%) of students for whom Tier 1 and Tier 2 support have not been sufficient to experience success. At Tier 3, students receive more intensive, individualized support to improve their outcomes. Tier 3 supports are available to any student with intensive needs, whether they receive special education services or not. Tier 3 practices include:

    • Engaging students, educators, and families in function-based problem-solving and intervention planning.

    • Coordinating support through wraparound and person-centered planning.

    • Implementing individualized, comprehensive, and function-based support.


    Improvement in school climate

    Implementation of multi-tiered systems of support foster learning environments that contribute to everyone:

    • Being safe emotionally, physically, and socially.

    • Experiencing success every day.

    • Receiving what they need to be successful.

    • Working together to achieve goals.

    • Feeling welcomed and valued.