Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional and academic success.

What is Positive Behavior Support? 

Examine environmental factors. When students understand what is expected of them, and how they can follow expectations, they will do so. Teachers provide clear expectations for student behavior, with examples of what that looks like. Students who struggle to meet expectations receive additional teaching, and get reinforced for meeting expectations as they are learning how to do so. 

Energize the positive. Responding harshly to negative behavior, while ignoring positive beavior, sends a child the message that negative behavior is how one gets noticed. Changing these habits can be challenging! But we have to acknowledge that behavior we want to see. Recognizing and commending the behavior will increase the likelihood that it continues. We strive for five-to-one positive-to-negative interactions with all students. 

Celebrate Success! Students who are struggling in school need to feel belonging and significance. There is no better way to help instill that feeling than to celebrate when they do get it right. 

Tiers of Intervention: 

Tier I: Schoolwide positive behavior supports. Everyone uses similar language and tactics to energize the behaviors we want to see, and to limit the behaviors that aren't helping the student or the community. 

The year begins with explicit teaching of the behaviors we expect in each area. Our Behavior Rodeo teaches expectations in the areas we expect them - so, for example, students are taught lunchroom expectations in the lunchroom, by the lunchroom supervisor. We revisit expectations when issues occur in problem areas, and we also revisit expectations after substantial breaks to refresh students on them. 

In terms of schoolwide teaching, teachers have access to the Second Step curriculum to teach students the social-emotional competencies that Washington State has outlined. You can think of these benchmarks as akin to academic study areas: students need to be taught social-emotional skills, just as they need to be taught math or reading skills. The Great Body Shop is our district's health curriculum, which also has aspects of social-emotional health embedded within.  

The counselor periodically visits classes as well to deliver lessons, on subjects like safe touch (in primary), anxiety, and online safety (intermediate grades). He teaches the Zones of Regulation in every grade as well, which kids then use throughout the year as a framework for identifying and managing big feelings. 

Tier II: For students who need more support, targeted interventions are available to provide extra instruction and feedback. Examples include responsive classroom lessons, Check-in Check-out, and social skill groups. These extra interventions are layers on top of the baseline instruction that all students receive. 

We are careful to note that students who are quiet or withdrawn often escape adult attention. To ensure that all students' needs are met, teachers complete assessments for both externalizing and internalizing behaviors, so that we make sure that everyone who needs it gets support. 

 Tier III: Some students need even more support. Tier III is for those students. In addition to tier II supports already in place, some students need wraparound services, more intensive school supports, or mental health counseling.

This is in addition to academic support, which we provide to students in a similar tiered manner. Often the academic and social-emotional are intertwined: students who have had Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), or who are simply struggling to self-regulate, will have trouble learning, and will then internalize the frustration of feeling unable to keep up in class. 

Here is a link to the Shoreline School District's PBIS page.