How to infuse PBIS into your discipline plan and think more about consequences and less about punishments.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
If you work in schools it is very likely you chose to do so because your own school experience was very positive. This could have been because you were an outstanding student.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
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Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
Explore 100+ ideas from schools like yours.
Explore school-wide behavior expectations from other schools.
The best Houses reflect your school’s unique culture. Browse examples from real schools and start brainstorming your House system!
Track behavior, motivate students, and promote a positive culture — all in one easy platform.
If you work in schools it is very likely you chose to do so because your own school experience was very positive. This could have been because you were an outstanding student.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
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If you work in schools it is very likely you chose to do so because your own school experience was very positive. This could have been because you were an outstanding student.
Maybe school was where you were introduced to your first mentor. Maybe you excelled in music. Or Art. Or were the ace pitcher on the baseball team or the point guard of the basketball team or the captain of the chess team.
Maybe school was your safe refuge from a tough home environment. Regardless, you probably joined the education field because school was a positive influence or a key turning point in your life.
On that same note, I doubt you got into education because of some fond memory of a punishment you received for an infraction in your youth. So how can we as the current generation of educators pass on that positive impact to the next generation and still hope to keep schools safe and orderly during what is easy to describe as tough times for school discipline?
We need to infuse PBIS interventions into our discipline plan and think more about consequences over punishments. As the old saying goes; relationships over rigor.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the level of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
For PBIS points to work as a behavior plan, it needs to be more than rewards for good behavior. This is the complaint that is common amongst detractors, that you're merely bribing for good behavior. If that is as far as your PBIS plan goes, then the detractors aren’t wrong.
The progress monitoring needs to have an actionable process built-in. In other words, when you look at your data do you have solutions to improve your problem areas? When students do not meet expectations, what is your process?
What if it’s a large infraction, like a fight?
Obviously, they miss out on a reward and that will curb a lot of behaviors. But not all. If two students are going to fight, the pizza party at the end of the month might not prevent that from happening.
So if that event does occur, what are you going to do about it?
Let's use this altercation between two students to discuss a few ways in which PBIS could be infused into your deterrence, response, and review of the incident.
As part of your plan you should consider utilizing a Social-Emotional Learning component in your curriculum. Good SEL programs will discuss conflict resolution strategies that the students could utilize to prevent the situation from becoming physical.
As far as consequences go I advise using solutions that serve two main purposes; keeping everyone safe and preventing the situation from happening again.
This could mean a lot of different things to your school and the situation. Behavior consequences are something I’ll write more about in the future. But my recommendation in the aftermath of a conflict like this one between two students is that mediation needs to be at least a part of the solution.
No matter what else you decide, you need to provide an opportunity for the students to squash the situation in a controlled civil environment.
How did this event occur? Where? When? Do you have proper supervision in the area? One thing that has held true for each school I have served, staff and students both know where the altercations happen.
There is normally a “hot spot” of discipline events. By this, I mean a physical location, a time of day, or both. As part of your PBIS behavior plan, you need to know if something like this could be prevented by a logistical solution. Can we add supervision to the spot? Can we divert hallway traffic to ease congestion in the area?
Your data reviews should reveal patterns. And one thing you'll find over time is that there are always patterns. Sometimes the simplest solution is something that is fairly simple but wouldn’t be noticeable without your data review.
For example, one year we saw an odd frequency of events happening in a specific hallway at a specific time. Upon further review we realized that this was largely happening as our freshman exited lunch, the next group had to pass them in the hallway to get to the cafe.
We greatly reduced the infractions by simply changing the route to lunch to allow for a less congested hallway at the time. Easy fix, but I wouldn’t have been able to pitch the idea without the data to prove my solution was necessary.
In addition to building your PBIS plan, you need to look at behavior in the 3 areas I mentioned above. How can you deter issues? Your expectations, SEL, and supervision plan should eliminate most problems.
Train your staff on how to positively intervene with small infractions so as not to escalate. How will you respond? Your protocols need to be solution-oriented. Does this event bring the safety of my building into question?
Does my protocol allow me to search for the cause of the behavior? It needs to be if you're going to prescribe a solution to improve or prevent the behavior in the future. Remember that your students are students, not behaviors. Behavior is something they do, not who they are.
Lastly, you need to make sure your review process allows for data-informed decision-making. If you're not prone to creative solutions, be certain someone on your team is.
Change in school is hard. Look strongly at your process and capacity for change before making any wholesale changes. Build slowly, and build momentum if you want your plan to succeed.
Building PBIS into your discipline plan needs to reach much farther than the principal’s desk. A positive approach to school behavior is a full community effort.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide.
Looking for a place to start your school culture journey? Check out our free PBIS template where you can download a sample to get started or dive into our Behavior Rubric examples.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews. How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
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