Understanding School Wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support: What, Who, Where, How, Why

What is it:

SWPBIS is a preventative system that focuses on:

• Providing all students with instruction and tools to understand and develop pro-social behaviors, relationships, and communication

• Altering responses to and perspective on “problem behaviors”

• Understanding different manifestations of “good” and “bad” behaviors

• Developing proactive and positively phrased practices grounded on cultural responsiveness (Mckinney et al., 2010).

Who benefits:

Everyone will benefit from SWPBIS because it provides (Handler et al., 2007):

• Teachers and staff with accountability for collaboration, continuous communication, and team-orientation, and a shared language about behavior expectations, preventative measure, and interventions

• Students with shared expectations without the risk of isolation or feeling targeted

• Students with immediate reinforcement for appropriate behavior (Mckinney et al., 2010)

Where can you start?

Create a team of educators, specialists, and other stakeholders who represent various components of the school (must receive training and demonstrate competency in PBS and systemic support) (Handler et al., 2007)

• Determine the purpose of SWPBIS for your specific school

• Define expectations and rules in short, succinct positive phrases (Suggestion: Limit these into 3 to 5 items)

• Example: Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful

• Determine how this could be translated to different aspects of the school environment

• Allocate enough time to teach, explain, model, and practice all components with students

• Determine systems of rewards and consequences

Key: Must be consistent but also flexible to accommodate the different grades

How does it work?

The system consists of three tiers (Carr et al., 2002)

• Primary:

• For all students

• School-wide rules and consequences

• School-wide monitoring

• Secondary:

• For students who require additional support

• Instruction in:

• small group settings

• Small group training

• Group counseling

• Social skills instruction

• Has systematic reward programs

• Tertiary:

• For students who require individualized and intensive support in addition to T1 and T2 supports

• Individual counseling

• Frequent monitoring

• Individualized behavior support plans

Key: Student movement on the tier system must be based on collected data and interventions must be research-based (Mckinney et al., 2010).

Why does it matter?

Inclusion should not just be focused on general education and special education classes. It should also occur throughout all aspects of the school environment so that students, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, may identify and see themselves as valuable members of their school community. The implementation of a SWPBIS would help facilitate this because of its focus on positively supporting, preventing, and responding to the needs of all students (Carr et al., 2002).

Nina Marcelo is a Master’s student in the School of Education at BU, seeking licensure in Special Education - Severe Disabilities - Age 3- 21. As a future educator, she feels strongly about the need for creating and maintaining inclusive school cultures and systems of support that work towards an awareness and understanding of the different manifestations of needs, challenges, and experiences that students with and without disabilities may have.

References

Carr, E. G., Dunlap, G., Horner, R. H., Koegel, R. L., Turnbull, A. P., & Sailor W., et al. (2002). Positive behavior support: An evolution of an applied science. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 4, 4-17.

Handler, M. W., Rey, J., Connell, J., Thier, K., Feinberg, A., & Putnam, R. (2007). Practical considerations in creating school‐wide positive behavior support in public schools. Psychology in the Schools, 44(1), 29-39.

McKinney, E., Bartholomew, C., & Gray, L. (2010). RTI and SWPBIS: confronting the problem of disproportionality. Communique, 38(6)