Implementing Function-Based Support Within Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support

Abstract

Educators face increasing challenges in educating today's youth. Schools must cope with myriad challenges, including budget cuts, increased student enrollment, and an increasing range of student skill levels. In addition, discipline problems are a growing concern for educators. Although the relatively rare instances of school violence and other extreme behaviors are highlighted nationally when they occur, less-severe problems such as defiance, noncompliance, bullying, and disruptive behavior are far more common and result in significant disruption of the learning environment. To illustrate, 70% of middle and high school teachers reported that disruptive behavior was a serious problem in their schools, and 85% of new teachers reported feeling unprepared to manage discipline problems (Public Agenda, 2004). Equally disturbing, the vast majority of teachers said that, while their school & s plan for responding to serious problems (e.g., weapons violations) was appropriate, the schools did not have effective approaches for preventing and responding to the occurrence of less-severe but far more prevalent discipline problems such as noncompliance, disrespect, and tardiness.

In attempting to respond to discipline problems in schools, educators historically have relied on a variety of reactive approaches, including detention, suspension, and expulsion'strategies that have not proven effective (Skiba & Raush, 2006; Skiba, Ritter, Simmons, Peterson, & Miller, 2006; Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1994). Research increasingly suggests that effective strategies for reducing discipline problems are proactive and systematic and use multicomponent, evidence-based strategies. Importantly, there exist a fairly large number of interventions that meet these criteria what has been missing is a system for implementing and sustaining evidence-based interventions in schools. Intensive positive behavior support (IPBS) is a team-based, data-driven framework for helping schools meet the needs of students exhibiting behavioral challenges. The IPBS model is implemented within the context of schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS), described in some depth in chapter 14. In this chapter, we begin with a brief review of SWPBS as this serves as the foundation for IPBS. We next describe the IPBS framework illustrating how IPBS uses a nested model of support such that students are supported by school teams, which are in turn supported by district-provided resources.