Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a set of evidence-based strategies and systems that enable our school to: create a culture of positive behaviors, reduce behavior disruptions, and create appropriate environments to educate all students.

At Mary Welsh we have 3 basic and universal expectations for our students and staff:

1. Be Respectful
2. Be Responsible
3. Be Safe

This approach fosters successful social behavior and encourages school staff, students, families and community members to work together to create a safe social culture with consistent expectations.

Within PBIS there are 3 tiers: Tier I, Tier II, and Tier II.

These 3 Tiers guide how much support, teaching, re-teaching, and intervention we provide for students.

Tier 1 (Universal): Preventing the development of new incidents/ occurrences of problem behaviors by implementing high quality learning environments for all students and staff and across all settings (i.e., school-wide, classroom, and non-classroom).

Tier 2 (Targeted): Reducing the frequency and intensity of incidents of problem behaviors for students who are not responsive to primary intervention practices by providing more focused, intensive, and frequent small group-oriented responses in situations where problem behavior is likely.

Tier 3 (Intensive): Reducing the intensity, frequency, and/or complexity of existing problem behaviors that are resistant to and/or unlikely to be addressed by primary and secondary prevention efforts by providing most individualized responses to situations where problem behavior is likely.

Common Expectations

Tier 1 supports of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) consists of rules, routines, and physical arrangements that are developed and taught by school staff to prevent initial occurrences of behavior the school would like to target for change. Research indicates that 3-5 behavioral expectations that are positively stated, easy to remember, and significant to the climate are best. At the end of the year, a researcher should be able to walk into the school and ask ten random students to name the behavioral expectations and 80% or better of the students should be able to tell the researcher what they are and give examples of what they look like in action.

At Mary Welsh we've establish common language to provide common expectations for all areas of the school. These areas are: the classroom, bathroom, lunch room, hallway, assemblies, and playground. Within each area there are expectations for being respectful, responsible, and safe. We also use a voice level system for different areas and have a universal Raider Ready Symbol to signify when students should be ready to listen and learn.

How do we reinforce the common expectations?

Daily

Acknowledgement Tickets

(given out by any building staff member that sees a student following the Raider Way)

Weekly

Golden Ticket Winners (nominated by a students classroom teacher, given to 1 student per classroom.)

Monthly

Raider Rockstar (nominated by a building staff member)

Raider Star (nominated by a building staff member)

Quarterly

School-wide Celebration earned by students, based on a set amount of acknowledgement tickets.

Tier 2 support is designed to provide intensive or targeted interventions to support students who are not responding to Tier 1 Support efforts. Interventions within Tier 2 are more intensive since a smaller number of students requiring services from within the yellow part of the triangle are at risk for engaging in more serious problem behavior and need a little more support.

Common Tier 2 support practices involve small groups of students or simple individualized intervention strategies. Tier 2 support is designed for use in schools where there are more students needing behavior support than can be supported via intensive and individual Tier 3 support, and for students who are at risk of chronic problem behavior, but for whom high intensity interventions are not essential. Tier 2 support often involves targeted group interventions with ten or more students participating. Targeted interventions also are recommended as an approach for identifying students in need of more intensive, individualized interventions. Specific Tier 2 interventions include practices such as a social skills group, check in/check out and a behavior plan.

Check-In Check-Out (CICO) is a simple, small group, Tier 2 intervention that reinforces universal school-wide expectations by systematically providing a higher frequency of scheduled prompts, pre-correction, and acknowledgement to all participating students (Crone, Horner, & Hawken, 2004). A key feature of CICO is that the students themselves are initiating the positive contact with the adults. Using data for high-frequency progress-monitoring via a Daily Progress Report (DPR) is also critical component of CICO.

Social/Academic Instructional Groups (S/AIG) are simple secondary interventions where small group instruction is used to teach specific behaviors (e.g. problem-solving skills, study skills, how to make friends) that are linked to the Tier 1 Universal expectations (e.g. Respect, Responsibility, Safety).

Group Interventions with an Individualized Feature, are simple Tier 2 group interventions, structured similarly for all students receiving them (e.g. CICO or SAIG) but delivered with a unique characteristic such as additional check-ins, or an individualized skill instruction session.

A Brief Function-based Behavior Plan is a simple yet individualized intervention recommended and developed by a standing Tier 2 problem-solving team trained in a brief function-based behavior intervention process. Using a simple behavior pathway, the process involves quick assessment and planning to predict and prevent the problem behavior. The resulting plan includes prompts, instruction and increased opportunities for the student to practice a desired new behavior.

If you have questions about Tier II or Tier III please reach out to one of our coaches. You can find their emails here.