Improving student academic and behavior outcomes is about ensuring all students have access to the most effective and accurately implemented instructional and behavioral practices and interventions possible. PBIS provides an operational framework for achieving these outcomes. More importantly, PBIS is NOT a curriculum, intervention, or practice, but IS a decision making framework that guides selection, integration, and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices for improving important academic and behavior outcomes for all students.

Classroom PBIS includes preventative and responsive approaches that may be effectively implemented with all students in a classroom and intensified to support small groups or a few individual students. Classroom PBIS strategies are important tools to decrease disruptions, increase instructional time, and improve student social behavior and academic outcomes , which is critical as schools are held to greater accountability for student outcomes and teacher effectiveness. Although individual teachers may implement PBIS in their own classrooms regardless of the broader school context, the effects of classroom PBIS strategies are maximized by (a) implementing within a school-wide multi-tiered behavioral framework (MTBF), like school-wide PBIS; (b) directly linking classroom and school-wide expectations and systems; (c) merging classroom PBIS strategies with effective instructional design, curriculum, and delivery; and (d) using classroom-based data to guide decision making (pbis.org).

Secondary interventions are targeted interventions designed for students who need additional supports beyond (yet in combination with) universal-level interventions. Secondary interventions are implemented in a standardized approach, which means key features of the intervention look similar across all children receiving the intervention. Secondary interventions typically occur after the onset of an identified concern or when a universal screening measure identifies a student or group of students at potential risk. Risk factors do not necessarily indicate poor outcomes, but rather refer to statistical predictors that suggest barriers to learning. Examples of risk factors may include loss of a parent or loved one, frequent moves resulting in multiple school placements, or exposure to violence and trauma.

Secondary interventions are implemented through the use of a comprehensive developmental approach that is collaborative, culturally sensitive, and geared towards skill development and/or increasing protective factors for students and their families. Examples of secondary interventions include but are not limited to the Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) program and Social Skills Intervention Groups. For very young children, a variety of parent training, social skills and social-emotional curricula, and multi-component intervention programs have been developed to provide assistance.

Approximately 1-5% of students will continue to experience difficulty after participation in ongoing Tier I support and inclusion in a Tier II intervention. In many cases these students have school histories of significant academic and behavioral difficulties over an extended period of time. Because their needs may be more intense and chronic, Tier III support systems are individualized. Just as with the Tier III level, schools must build on the established schoolwide system to accurately identify these students, and data-based decision making is essential.

Students with chronic and/or intense problem behaviors require specially designed and individualized interventions that match the function of the problem behavior. A simple functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is conducted to create a summary statement that forms the basis for a student’s behavior intervention plan (BIP). Expertise in the science of behavioral assessment is necessary for the development and implementation of individualized support plans.