Positive Behavioral Support Systems (PBSS)

The ultimate goal of a Positive Behavioral Support System (PBSS) is to facilitate all students’ social, emotional, and behavioral competency and self-management.  The broader goals of a PBSS include:

Student Goals:

Student social, emotional, and behavioral competency and self-management as demonstrated by:

• High levels of effective interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional coping skills and behaviors by all students;
• High levels of critical thinking, reasoning, and social-emotional application skills and behaviors by all students; and
• High levels of academic engagement and academic achievement for all students.

Staff Goals:

• High levels of effective instruction and classroom management across all teachers and instructional support staff; and
• High levels of teacher knowledge, skill, and confidence relative to analyzing why students are academically and behaviorally underachieving, unresponsive, or unsuccessful, and to implementing strategic or intensive academic or behaviorally instruction or intervention to address their needs.

School Goals:

• High levels of the consultative resources and capacity needed to provide functional assessment leading to strategic and intensive instructional and intervention services, supports, strategies, and programs to academically and behaviorally underachieving, unresponsive, or unsuccessful students;
• High levels of parent and community outreach and involvement in areas and activities that support students’ academic and social, emotional, and behavioral learning, mastery, and proficiency;
• High levels of positive school and classroom climate, and low levels of school and classroom discipline problems that disrupt the classroom and/or require office discipline referrals, or school suspensions or expulsions; and
• High levels of student success that result in high school graduation and post-secondary school success.

In order to accomplish these goals, the CTAG initiative uses Project ACHIEVE’s evidence-based PBSS blueprint.  This blueprint includes these six components:  (a) Social Skills Instruction for all students; (b) building-wide Accountability processes; (c) staff and administrative Consistency; (d) a “Special Situations” process focusing on student behavior in the common areas of a school and as related to student teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, and physical aggression; (e) school-based Crisis Intervention and Response Strategies; and (f) Community and Parent Outreach activities. 

In the end, we want to help all schools and districts to focus on positive, predictable, safe, organized, and learner-centered classrooms and classroom management; the effective and successful implementation of school-wide positive behavioral support systems that are consistent across all schools in the same district; and a continuum of evidence- and research-based instructional and intervention services, supports, strategies, and programs for students with or exhibiting significant social, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

SPDG staff provide professional development and technical assistance services in all of these areas.  We also are establishing a network of PBSS Facilitators across the state who can be available to help districts and schools to establish effective classroom management strategies, school-wide positive behavioral support systems, and the ability to provide strategic and intensive interventions to behaviorally challenging students.