CAHELPCalifornia Association of Health and Education Linked Professions JPA

“The Relentless Pursuit of Whatever Works in the Life of a Child.”

Introduction

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a multi-tiered prevention framework for building system capacity and enhancing the adoption and implementation of a continuum of evidenced-based interventions. These interventions support the establishment of a culture of social emotional, behavioral and academic success for ALL students.

The premise of PBIS is that continual teaching, modeling, acknowledging, and reinforcing of positive student behavior will reduce excessive discipline and promote a climate of greater productivity, safety, and learning. PBIS schools apply a multi-tiered approach to prevention, using disciplinary data and principles of behavior analysis to develop school-wide prevention strategies, targeted supports, and individualized interventions and supports to improve effectiveness, efficiency and equity of schools.

Evidence-Based Features of PBIS:

• Prevention
• Define and teach positive social expectations
• Acknowledge positive behavior
• Arrange consistent consequences for problem behavior
• On-going collection and use of data for decision making
• Continuum of intensive, individual interventions and supports
• Implementation of the system that supports effective practices

• Up to a 50% reduction in office referral rates per year (and corresponding reduction in suspension and expulsion rates)
• Improved Attendance Rates
• Improved academic achievement
• Improved staff perceptions of school safety and atmosphere

PBIS is a systems approach for establishing the social culture needed for a school to be an effective learning environment for ALL students.