Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support
Program Summary
The section serves to provide information about the function and purpose of PBIS.
Georgia Department of Education
According to the GADOE, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, data-driven framework proven to reduce disciplinary incidents, increase a school’s sense of safety, and support improved academic outcomes. Implementation of PBIS is saving countless instructional hours otherwise lost to discipline. The premise of PBIS is that continual teaching, combined with acknowledgment or feedback of positive student behavior, will reduce unnecessary discipline and promote a climate of greater productivity, safety, and learning. PBIS schools apply a multi-tiered approach to prevention, using disciplinary data and principles of behavior analysis to develop school-wide, targeted, and individualized interventions and supports to improve school climate for all students. (OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports).
Overview
Source: Center on PBIS
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, three-tiered framework for improving and integrating all the data, systems, and practices affecting student outcomes daily. PBIS creates schools where all students succeed.
Tier 1: Tier 1 practices and systems establish a foundation of regular, proactive support while preventing unwanted behaviors. Schools provide this universal support to all students, school-wide.
Tier 2: Tier 2 practices and systems support students at risk for developing more serious problem behaviors before those behaviors start. These supports help students develop the skills they need to benefit from core school programs.
Tier 3: At Tier 3, students receive more intensive, individualized support to improve their behavioral and academic outcomes. Schools rely on formal assessments to determine a student’s need at this level.
Summary
Georgia Cyber Academy has established developmentally appropriate behavior expectations for each grade band through the SOAR matrix. Through SOAR, safe, on task, awesome attitude, and responsible, students are taught positive behavior strategies and expectations. When teachers model the expectations and implement the PBIS strategies, students soar as learners with fewer behaviors interrupting valuable class time.
Georgia Cyber Academy uses PBIS Rewards as an acknowledgment system. The purpose of an acknowledgment system is to prompt staff to respond positively when a student engages in behavioral expectations. Reinforcing students' appropriate behavior increases the likelihood that it will happen again and allows staff to connect with more students.