Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS)

The acronym PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports. It's a program supported by the New York City Department of Education as well as the New York State Education Department. The program supports mitigating the following practices that serve to prohibit the development of environments that are conducive to learning.

• High rates of problematic behaviors that interfere with learning
• Ineffective and inefficient disciplinary practices
• Reliance on crisis/reactive management
• Lack of general and specialized behavior interventions
• A negative school climate

In short, reactive management strategies fail to promote, develop and ensure environments where students are able to focus on their learning. PBIS programs proactively focus on rewarding positive behavior and adjusting the environment and practices that minimize negative behavior.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF PBIS

 

Through the PBIS program the Lewis and Clark School teachers/staff work to increase consistent use of positive teaching and reinforcement strategies for behavior among teachers and other school staff; and we aim to reduce discipline referrals while increasing academic performance through the increased implementation of data-based decision making involving behaviors and academic skills consistently taught and reinforced across all school settings.

SOAR is the acronym the Lewis and Clark School has created outlining four key expectations to be supported through the school-wide PBIS initiative. The acronym encourages our students to be Safe, Organized, A Problem Solver and Respectful throughout the day. All expectations are presented in both written and picture form and are taught to the students and then referred to daily.