Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

Positive Behavioral Interventions help keep accountability with everyone who comes through the school doors. This system of interventions and supports encompasses everyone from students to staff. Using a multi-tiered system creates accountability on everyone because the goals and expectations as a member of the school community are set. The tiers also help create a visual representation of inclusion and equity not only among the students but within the school and the system being implemented.  When discussing the three tiers, we have to understand the five inter-related elements: systems, data, practices, outcomes, and equity. The system set in place will establish how the school will operate. Supporting teacher with continuing training, and forming teams to support each other are an important part to make the system flow. We use data to drive the flow. Data can be student based or school based. If an issue arises school wide, then a school wide policy will need to be changed. If something is not working based on student data, monitor the data, see where we need to make changes, and implement new practices. Practices will allow us to support the students to the best of our abilities. We can look at data to see if the social, emotional, and behavioral growth of the students. We can also see if the practices are benefiting the students academically based on data. Being able to see where the issues and behavior arise from and holding students accountable to their expectations can lead to positive outcomes. These positive outcomes can lead to growth from our classroom and into the students' community. The last of the five inter-related elements is equity. "Centering equity also means supporting educators’ roles in implementation, adapting practices to meet students’ individual needs, and disaggregating data by student group to ensure success for everyone" (Center on PBIS, 2026).

Tier 1 is the universal support for all students. This is where school expectations are set. Around 80% of students will fall under this tier. Practices in this tier consist of:

• collaborating with others to promote social, emotional, and behavioral skills and continue to foster these relationships
• align classroom expectations with those of the schools
• teach and apply social, emotional, and behavioral skills for success for everyone encourage continuation of these expected behaviors
• responding appropriately to unwanted behavior

Tier 2 consists of 10-15% of students. These students need an extra layer of support in addition to tier 1. Data collection will be important in this tier. With the supports, and data, we hope students will be able to fall back into tier 1.If the data shows the student needs additional support, the student may require tier 3 supports. Tier 2 practices consist of: 

• additional practice in social, emotional, behavioral, and academic skills. 
• additional adult support and supervision
• additional opportunities for positive reinforcement
• increase with prompts, reminders, academic supports, and school-family communication.

Tier 3 consist of 1-5% of students. This tier's supports are implemented when tier 1 and tier 2 and not enough to help students achieve success. Tier 3 practices consist of: 

• creating a team to assist and evaluate functional behavior assessments
• determine in a behavioral intervention plan is needed
• wraparound supports

In this multi-tiered system, a community is built for student success. All ends are held accountable using data and applying practices. Seeing the outcomes of these practices and being able to adjust what supports a student needs and applying equity to these outcomes can help create a safe environment not only in our classrooms, but within our schools and the community around us.