Facility-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (FW-PBIS)

2016

PBIS takes a systems change approach through the creation of a multi-tiered behavior framework for improving student academic and behavior outcomes for all students. PBIS is not a curriculum but rather it is a decision making framework that guides selection, integration, and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices on a continuum of support based on individual and facility needs. There are 4 key elements to PBIS which include an emphasis on systems to support staff behavior, a host of practices to support student behavior, ongoing data-based decision making, and a focus on outcomes including social competence and achievement. PBIS focuses on teaching pro-social behaviors while preventing the occurrence of problem behaviors. In other words, problem behavior is a call to teach. Between 50 and 75% of approximately 170,000 incarcerated youth nationwide are estimated to have one or more mental health disorders and 30 to 50% are estimated to have educational disabilities. Many of these youth lack basic academic, social, and problem-solving skills, and have histories of physical, sexual, and substance abuse. Current zero tolerance and get-tough policies in schools focus on punishment to address problem behavior, which effectively start these youth along the school-to-prison pipeline. When they become incarcerated, they enter a world of even greater intolerance and a focus on security that often overrides their need for treatment and positive growth experiences. PBIS maps directly onto the identified best practices outlined by the US DOJ.

Juvenile Justice; Mental Health; PBIS

Performing Research or Evaluation, Continuing Education/Community Training

Education & Early Intervention

Professionals and Para-Professionals, Legislators/Policy Makers

Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances

State

N/A