Positive Behavioral Supports for Safe, Healthy,
and Effective Schools (Revised April 2006)
Developed by
Jeffrey Sprague, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior
University of Oregon and the California Department of Education,
Special Education Division
Core Messages
- Positive behavioral support systems need to be integrated with academic support systems.
Academic failure is a major predictor of problem behavior and other adjustment problems and needs to be explicitly and consistently addressed as part of an effective and comprehensive school program. As such, schools need to be accountable for improved student behavior in the same manner as they are for student achievement. Safe, effective, and supportive schools utilize ongoing school improvement processes to set measurable goals and objectives and integrate interventions into school and district accountability and planning systems.
Academic and behavioral support systems can be integrated by using the following principles of practice.- Academic and behavioral supports are based on the intensity of the student’s needs.
- A student’s response to intervention is used as the basis for changing, modifying, or intensifying academic and behavioral supports. Assessing response to intervention involves the regular use of data systems that are simple, reliable, and linked directly to decisions about instruction or behavioral support.
- Evidence-based practices are used for selecting the supports that will be used and for evaluating whether an intervention is effective and implemented with high fidelity. When school prevention and intervention programs are effective, they begin early in childhood; they are comprehensive in nature (they address multiple risk and protective factors); they involve increasing positive interactions between adults and children; they directly teach skills (provide practice); and they are offered continuously and consistently through all the years of schooling.
Conclusive evidence for selecting and evaluating behavioral supports and interventions is not available. However, a great deal of research has been done and much is known about effective practices. The U.S. Department of Education and others provide a hierarchy of “evidence-based” practices that are based on the level of rigor used in research to test an intervention. Evidence-based interventions show strong positive effects in controlled studies, and the best of these are shown to be effective in typical school settings and implemented by typical school personnel. - Families, students, and school personnel regularly provide feedback on the quality and acceptability of the supports provided and on the outcomes achieved for every student.
- Sustained use of effective prevention and behavioral support practices must be a priority to make schools safe, effective, and supportive places to learn.
In order to establish a system of effective behavioral supports, school stakeholders must prepare the groundworkby doing four things:
- Establish a need for improved behavior, safety, and academic achievement.
- Identify the change process as a top school improvement goal.
- Secure staff and administrator commitment and leadership in the change process.
- Develop a two- to three-year action plan with measurable goals and objectives.
Second, a school-wide leadership team should be established to guide needs assessments, set goals, and guide the change process. This team must include the principal and represent all stakeholders (teachers, paraprofessionals, related service personnel, and parents; secondary schools should include student representation).
Third, the implementation of school-wide, classroom, and individual student positive behavioral support should be institutionalized through the following four steps:- Incorporate an action plan for behavioral support into the school improvement process.
- Provide regular and ongoing coaching, training, and recognition regarding school and classroom behavior management and academic support to all school personnel (requests for behavior management assistance in the classroom must receive timely and effective response from individuals in the school).
- Establish and use multiple data sources to make decisions about changing, modifying, or intensifying academic and behavioral supports.
- All schools should record, monitor, and report on patterns of office discipline referrals, suspensions, and expulsion.
- All schools should analyze the rate of referral, suspension, and expulsion of special education and minority students to detect overrepresentation of these groups.
- Conduct on-going and regular evaluations of the improvement efforts, which include examining the change in student behavior and determining how satisfied school staff and family members are with the process.
Bibliography and Resources
- Schools that are safe, supportive, and effective have five well-organized,
clearly articulated systems of intervention. They are as follows:
School-wide: At the school-wide level, schools define and promote positive behavioral expectations (e.g., safety, respect, responsibility); teach, practice, and review those rules regularly; recognize students for following the rules; and use school-wide information campaigns to promote and sustain the intervention.
Classroom: All adults in the school are trained and supported to be effective classroom managers and to support student academic success. Effective teachers establish predictable and orderly routines, adapt instruction to ensure academic success, and minimize problem behavior performance. In addition, these teachers are able to get help quickly with chronically disruptive students.
Common areas: Common areas such as recess fields, cafeterias, and hallways are well supervised and students are taught to follow orderly, predictable routines in these areas. Common area supervisors use active movement, high rates of positive interaction, and firm but fair corrections when problem behaviors occur.
Individual students: Schools identify and assist students who display chronic patterns of disruptive or dangerous behavior. Positive and effective plans for these students include increased academic and positive behavioral supports. Each school building has a team of people who are well trained and prepared to support classroom teachers in building effective plans.
Family support and collaboration: Families have a central role in socializing and supporting the academic success of their children. Therefore, schools and families must be partners in supporting and socializing students. Without parent collaboration, any gains that a school may realize in student behavior may be limited to that setting. The research is clear: parent support can significantly increase the effectiveness of any school intervention. Also, if parents are involved when things go well, it will be easier to problem solve when things do not go well. Finally, IDEIA requires meaningful parent participation!At a minimum, families need the following from the school:
- To hear from the teacher at the beginning of the year (and regularly thereafter)
- To know specific expectations for the student
- To learn about problems before they get out of hand
- To have general information about what is going on at school
- To hear good things about their child!
Schools can provide a bridge to improved communication and collaboration with the following methods:
- Provide parents with
- A letter of introduction,
- General school and classroom expectations, and
- Individual behavior expectations for their child.
- Inform and invite parents with a
- Classroom calendar or newsletter,
- Good news note,
- Phone call home, and
- Home-school communication sheet about behavioral and academic success.
- Effective schools build and maintain a positive "social culture."
Successful students are safe (don’t hurt themselves or others), respectful (follow adult requests and get along with their peers), and responsible (arrive to class on time and complete assignments). These foundational skills are essential for a safe and orderly school environment. In addition, members of a positive social culture use “higher order” skills, such as (a) impulse control, (b) anger management, (c) conflict resolution, (d) empathy, and (e) drug and alcohol use resistance and prevention. Research studies consistently show that schools that establish a positive social culture also achieve the best academic gains.
Bibliography and Resources
- All students with chronic problem behavior, whether or not they have been identified as eligible for special education, can benefit from the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports.
Research indicates that a typical school will have three relatively distinct populations of students: typically developing or non at-risk, mildly at-risk, and high-risk or antisocial. This model includes students with and without identified disabilities. Effective schools regularly conduct universal screenings to identify these students via teacher or parent/caregiver nominations or by monitoring discipline referral patterns. A continuum of supports should match the intensity of student need with adequate services. Supports may be provided in the general education environment or in “schools within schools” to decrease stigma or stress for identified students. At-risk children and youth need additional supports, such as (a) self-management programs, (b) positive reinforcement, (c) school-based mentors, (c) increased social-emotional skills training, (d) extra academic support, (e) family support and involvement in intervention, (f) personal issues counseling, and (g) alternatives to out-of-school suspension and expulsion.
In California, if a student has an IEP, the behavior plan to specify positive behavioral interventions, strategies, and supports is termed a “Behavior Support Plan.” Also, in California, if a student has “behavioral/instructional approaches specified in the IEP that have proven to be ineffective,” then a “Functional Analysis Assessment” must be conducted. The resulting behavior plan must then be based on this more comprehensive assessment; a “Positive Behavioral Intervention Plan” must be developed if needed.
Supports must be guided by an understanding of why the undesirable behavior “works” for the student and how adults and other students may promote and maintain it. The method and complexity of assessments will vary, depending on the complexity, severity, and frequency of the behavior. Family members, students, and school staff need to be involved as partners in the assessment and in the process of developing a positive behavior support plan. These plans should not be focused solely on the negative consequences that will occur if the behavior continues, but rather should focus on reducing problem behaviors by developing alternative positive replacement behaviors and recognizing existing positive behaviors.
Bibliography and Resources