Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 15

School-Wide Positive Behavioral
Intervention and Support (SWPBIS)
INTENSIVE
TARGETED

FEW
SOME

PBIS OF
CONTINUUM
SUPPORT FOR
ALL

2. Prevention
• Defining and teaching a common set of positive
behavioral expectations throughout the school,
• Acknowledging and rewarding expected behavior, and
• Establishing and using consistent consequences
for problem behavior.
3. Multi-tiered Support

UNIVERSAL

ALL
STUDENTS

What is SWPBIS?

SWPBIS is a comprehensive and preventative
approach to discipline. The main goal of SWPBIS
is to decrease unwanted student behavior in
schools and classrooms and to develop integrated
networks that support students and adults at the
school, classroom, family, and individual student
levels. Under SWPBIS, serious behavior problems
and overall school climate improve because faculty
and staff actively teach positive behavior, through
modeling expected behavior and rewarding positive
behaviors, such as academic achievement, following
adult requests, and engaging in safe behavior.
The overarching and continuous goal of SWPBIS is
to establish a positive school and classroom climate,
in which expectations for students are predictable,
directly taught, consistently acknowledged and
actively monitored.31

What are some of the key features of
successful SWPBIS policy?
1. Focus on specific behavioral expectations and
rewarding youth for desired behavior

31 Adapted from Osher, D., Bear, G.G., Sprague, J.R.,
Doyle,W. (2010), How can we improve School Discipline;
Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (2012), What is Positive Behavioral
Interventions and Supports, www.PBIS.org.

• Primary or Universal Intervention: school-wide

support and positive behavior instruction for all
students,
• Secondary or Targeted Interventions: support
catered to students who are at risk, and
• Tertiary or Intensive Intervention: intensive
support focused on students who are the most
chronically and intensely at risk of anti-social
behavior
4. Data-based Decision Making
• Collecting and recording when, where, why, and
to whom suspensions are given in order to make
smart decisions about resources and assistance

What does SWPBIS look like in a school?
SWPBIS emphasizes uniform and continuous instruction for all students concerning desired and expected
social behaviors.
All classrooms in SWPBIS schools have the same
set of common classroom-level rules and positive
reinforcement systems that are consistent with the
school-wide plan
Behavioral problems that are handled in the
classroom versus those that are handled by
administrators with higher level interventions are
clearly defined
Data on patterns of problem behavior are regularly
summarized, presented, and discussed at faculty
meetings and new strategies utilized

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