Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) News

      Our BRAVE program is in its fourth year of implementation.  The students are reminded and expected to follow our school-wide positive behavioral expectations.  They are being acknowledged and rewarded for following our BRAVE rules:  Be Kind, Responsible Behavior, Always Ready to Learn, Valuing Self and Others, and Everybody is Somebody at Tiogue School.  On BRAVE Thursdays, gold slip raffles are being held and children are receiving incentives.

     Our School Climate Team meets monthly and consists of the behavior specialist, parent, nurse, social worker, psychologist, supervisory assistants, and teachers.  They review our school-wide systems (universal) such as how the students are responding to our BRAVE rules and how many Office Referral Forms are given out.  For minor infractions such as property misuse or minor disruptions, students are first given reminders and re-taught the positive behavior that is expected and posted on our positive behavior teaching matrix.  An Office Referral Form is written and sent home to a parent if the student continues to not respond to our interventions.  However, students are written up immediately for acts of physical aggression, abusive language, or other major rule violations.  As you can see, there are procedures in place to address behavior in a systematic way.  Be on the look out for our BRAVE discipline flow chart.  Students who have been written up are not allowed to attend trimester reward activities.  The School Climate Team is also in the process of developing new incentives for our raffle drawings.

     Our Target Intervention Team has been receiving extensive research based training in order to develop plans to help students who are not being successful with our universal school-wide system.  The Target Team includes the behavior specialist, principal, social worker, psychologist and classroom teachers.  Some of the plans include checking in with a teacher or staff member at scheduled time intervals for coaching, social skills training, and work completion charts.

     Families find it helpful to use the school-wide PBIS expectations of being BRAVE at home.  Being kind, responsible, ready, and valuing others are all behaviors that need to be practiced at home, at school, and in the community.  Two great websites are www.behaviordoctor.org and www.pbis.org.

Jeanne Bazelak, LICSW

School Social Worker and PBIS Coach