Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

What Is PBIS?

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) involves a proactive, comprehensive, and systematic continuum of support designed to ensure that all students have access to the most effective instructional and behavioral practices and interventions possible. It provides opportunities for all students to achieve social, behavioral, and learning success. This is accomplished by examining the factors that impact behavior as well as the relationships between environment and behavior.

PBIS is not a program or a curriculum. It is a systems approach to enhance the capacity of schools and districts to adopt and sustain the use of evidence-based practices for all students. A major advance in school-wide discipline is the emphasis on school-wide systems of support that include proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors to create positive school environments.

A continuum of positive behavior support for all students within a school is implemented in areas including classroom and non-classroom settings (such as lunch rooms and playgrounds). Rules, routines, and physical arrangements are developed and taught by school staff to prevent occurrences of behavior the
school would like to target for change. PBIS also works to improve the overall school climate, decrease reactive behavior management, maximize academic achievement for all students, integrate academic and behavioral initiatives, and address the specific needs of students with severe emotional and behavioral
concerns (Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, 2008).