Positive Behavior Supports Defined
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a framework or approach for assisting school personnel in adopting and organizing evidence-based behavioral interventions into an integrated continuum that enhances academic and social behavior outcomes for all students.
PBIS IS NOT a packaged curriculum, scripted intervention, or manualized strategy. PBIS IS a prevention-oriented way for school personnel to (a) organize evidence-based practices, (b) improve their implementation of those practices, and (c) maximize academic and social behavior outcomes for students. PBIS supports the success of ALL students.
An important aspect of schoolwide PBIS is the understanding that appropriate behavior and social competence is a skill that requires direct instruction to students just like math or reading. There is no assumption in schoolwide PBIS that students will learn social behavior automatically or pick it up as they go through life. This critical feature in schoolwide PBIS leads to its effectiveness.
In the past, school-wide discipline has focused mainly on reaching to specific student misbehavior by implementing punishment-based strategies including reprimands, loss of privileges, office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions. Research has shown that the implementation of punishment, especially when it is used inconsistently and in the absence of other positive strategies, is ineffective.
Introducing, modeling, and reinforcing positive social behavior is an important step of a student’s educational experience. Teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. The purpose of school-wide PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm.
Our ultimate goal is to improve the overall school climate and lay foundations for building relationships that will pay dividends in the future. Being consistent with addressing students when they do and do not meet our behavior expectations will increase compliance, provide them with greater structure, and clarify expected behavior.
(Page reference: www. PBIS.org, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the Technical Assistance Center on PBIS).