Tiered Intervention Systems

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, data-driven, systems approach to creating safer and more effective schools. It incorporates a broad range of research-based supports that include prevention strategies to very targeted and direct interventions. The goal of PBIS is to achieve important social and learning outcomes while preventing and reducing challenging behavior for all students. The most common framework for its implementation is a three-tiered model where a continuum of supports is provided across the tiers. 

School Mental Health

School Mental Health (SMH) systems provide a continuum of services and supports intended to: 

• Promote a positive school climate
• Teach and support skills for social, emotional, and
  behavioral health
• Prevent mental health and substance use problems
• Intervene early to reduce the severity of mental health concerns; and
• Provide access to school-based and community-based interventions and supports to students and families.

Check out TEA’s SMH Toolkit that contains a variety of resources for all school systems to use. 
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Mental health is equally as important as physical health. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020) 

Integrating PBIS and SMH

Integrating PBIS and SMH within school systems creates the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF). When PBIS and SMH are truly integrated, “a broader continuum of prevention and intervention strategies across tiers can result in improved outcomes for more youth and families”(Barrett et al, 2013). The goal of ISF is to improve outcomes for all students by blending resources, training, systems, data, and practices. The emphasis within ISF is on prevention, early identification, and intervention of the social, emotional, and behavior needs of students.

Because this guidance document is primarily focused on supports for behavior prevention and intervention, the next section focuses on PBIS; however, some concepts from SMH and integrated MTSS models are included as applicable.

This graphic represents Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) implementation across all levels:

• LEA
• Campus
• Classroom
• Student

Implementation begins with the outer circle—LEA-level systems and supports—and progresses inward, always with the goal of supporting individual student success. Each level reduces barriers and provides supports to facilitate successful implementation at the next level.

This graphic represents the levels of implementation of PBIS across four major school systems:

This model shows the interdependent relationship between campus-level systems and is used to illustrate the importance of a continuum of interventions across all settings.

School-wide interventions are intended to prevent problems before they start. These interventions should be easy and inexpensive to plan and use. Interventions and universal supports are provided to
all students.

A team of campus personnel should be formed to collect data on current conditions in the school, evaluate the data, and design interventions to improve safety and achievement for all students. Input from the entire staff, students, and families is critical to ensure an effective needs assessment and buy in.

There are three key concepts involved in the start-up phase of PBIS implementation.

Specific (non-classroom) settings are part of the larger school-wide system that requires modifications in school-wide procedures to accommodate their unique features. Modifications need to focus on the specific area (e.g., hallway, cafeteria, playground). 

The following are some school-wide procedures to consider:

• Examples of Routines

  • On inclement weather days we…
  • We stay on the right side of the hall as we walk to the
  • cafeteria for lunch and as we enter…
  • For fire drills we…
  • Bus lines should look like…

• Examples of Setting-Specific Behaviors

  • While waiting for the bus in the gym, we keep our hands and feet to ourselves and sit cross-legged in our bus line.
  • In the hallways we stay to the right side with our hands and feet to ourselves.
  • In the cafeteria, the hot lunch line is on the left, and those who brought lunch head to tables on the right.
  • Campus has defined what “Be respectful,” for example, looks like in the cafeteria, the hallway, etc.

• Examples of Instructional Strategies

  • Asking students to define “Be respectful” and have everyone agree to the definition.
  • Be explicit and give examples of all expectations.
  • Have students demonstrate/role-play each expectation.

• Examples of Implementing and Monitoring

  • Explicitly teach the expectation, and then have students practice.
  • Observe students walking in the hallway and give feedback. (positive and correction).
  • Monitor library book finding and check out process while giving guidance and reinforcing routines.
  • Campus has shared expectations so any staff member can assist and reinforce as necessary.

It is critical to consider the larger number of students that these settings involve and to ensure that strategies focus on added supervision, the physical features of each setting, and routines for these
settings.

Classroom management systems should reflect teacher preferences while providing an extension of the school-wide system into the classroom setting. This connection helps facilitate uniform communication with staff, students, and parents ensure a comprehensive prevention and intervention plan is in place across all school settings.

• Extend the school-wide system to help ensure student success with a variety of instructional styles and classroom routines (e.g., Be Respectful is shown by… in this classroom).
• Ensure classroom routines overlap with school-wide positive behavior support systems.

General Classroom Prevention Strategies

The ultimate goal of a classroom behavior management plan is that a student never exhibits a crisis behavior. Although students will struggle from time to time depending on their unique needs/situations, the following are eight prevention strategies that can be proactively implemented to reduce or eliminate potential behaviors. Please keep in mind that for any strategy to be successful, it should align with school-wide processes.

1. Designing Classroom Space

Many activities take place in classrooms. Teachers must systematically arrange the classroom to ensure these different activities can take place effectively. Teachers select areas in the classroom to maximize the operation of instructional activities while maintaining behavior management. Some common classroom areas include:

• Independent and group workspaces
• Space for free choice activities
• Cool down area (similar to a quiet area but specifically designed for students with this need)
• Space for easily accessing materials and supplies
• Teacher's desk area
• Notice/information boards
• Space for media equipment in the room
• Flexible seating arrangements with adequate space
• Station workspaces
• Space for students to do independent work without others getting into their personal space
• A quiet area, such as a library space or other relaxing area, for anyone to use

2. Setting a Practical Schedule

Teachers should regard schedules as flexible time management tools designed to best serve the educational needs of students. The key is to carefully plan the schedule to keep students actively engaged and minimize down time (including transition time). 

• For elementary level 
  Construct schedules after consulting with colleagues and specialists to ensure students are engaged in appropriate instructional activities.
• For secondary level 
  Pay attention to managing instruction within large blocks of time. Unscheduled/free time needs to have parameters and expectations.

3. Managing Instruction

If students are productively engaged in instruction, challenging behavior is less likely to occur. Conversely, if they are bored with their work or cannot do it, then challenging behaviors are more likely to arise. Research and practice show a strong correlation between academic underachievement and challenging behavior. Consequently, managing instruction is a major key to preventing behavioral issues. There are several critical steps for effectively managing instruction in the classroom:

• Assess students' skill level (80% rule)
  Assess students' skill levels so they are placed appropriately in the curriculum. A good rule of thumb is that students should be 80% successful with new work after the initial delivery of material and concept is taught. For example, a teacher introduces and teaches a concept and assigns 10 problems to students; students should be able to successfully complete 8 out of 10 of the problems. Consider implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies and scaffolding to support students missing key skills or knowledge.
• Utilize high quality instructional materials
  Choose materials and curriculum that ensure full coverage of Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), align with research-based instructional strategies for the subject area, and support allMlearners.
• Utilize research-based instructional strategies
  Utilize effective time-tested strategies for the delivery of instruction, such as:
  • Teacher-directed explanations
  • Demonstrations
  • Discussion
  • Question and answer activities
  • Oral and written practice
  • Flexible grouping
  • Media presentations
  • Independent and cooperative activities
  • Direct and explicit instruction
• Teach Study Skills
  Study skills help students gain information, respond to information, and organize the information
  presented during instruction. The following list of areas to address was adapted from The
  University of Lynchburg and, if reinforced during classroom instruction and throughout the school
  day, can assist students to be successful and potentially reduce behavior issues.
  • Time management assists a student with organization, planning, and prioritizing.
  • Note-taking skills will assist a student in a variety of ways, such as studying for an exam, re-reading to understand a concept or as a reminder, organization, etc.
  • Teaching independent reading skills is a critical skill that everyone can use.
  • Test preparation is another skill that should be explicitly taught.

• Collaborate with education staff
  Collaborate with other professionals, including special education staff, grade-level colleagues, and other support staff, to implement IEP goals, interventions, accommodations or modifications, and supplemental services for students served through special education in all settings.

4. Teaching Expectations

Presenting classroom behaviors as skills that need to be learned and then teaching them directly can
effectively establish behavioral expectations. Here are some tips:

• Explain reasons for expectations
• Specify required behaviors
• Practice behaviors
• Monitor performance
• Provide feedback

5. Establishing Classroom Routines

Classroom routines are regular activities that students complete with minimal assistance from a teacher. The goal is to have students manage their tasks and responsibilities independently. The teacher needs to identify the key routines to be established, and then systematically teach the routines directly, practice them, and review them repeatedly, especially in the beginning. Use the same instructional procedures for teaching routines as for teaching classroom expectations.

Some common routines include:

• Starting the day
• Entering classroom
• Accessing materials or supplies
• Turning in homework or completed assignments
• Obtaining assistance
• Taking quizzes
• Organizing assignments
• Moving around the room
• Talking with other students
• Transitions

6. Teaching Social Skills

Social skill development, specifically the ability to relate appropriately with peers and adults, is a crucial aspect of students' development. Social competence, such as developing and maintaining successful relationships, gaining acceptance, etc., is predictive of long-term success in school. Empathy teaching or having a student think about how I would feel if…happened is an excellent way to start teaching social skills. Some examples of social skills to teach are:

• How to work with a partner
• How to interact in small groups
• How to participate in a classroom setting
• How to self-advocate
• Use teachable moments to reinforce appropriate responses or create them and have students discuss how to react (e.g., someone’s pet passed away/got lost, a student lost their lunch money/book fair money, a student fell off the jungle gym and got hurt).

7. Implementing Proactive Behavior Intervention Systems

An effective behavior intervention system should provide clear and consistent reminders to the students that good behavior leads to positive (reinforcing) consequences while challenging behavior leads to negative (deterring) consequences. In this way, positive consequences serve to reinforce expected behavior, and negative consequences serve to reduce or eliminate problem behavior. Here are some rules for using positive and negative consequences.

Positive (reinforcing) consequences for appropriate behavior:

• Deliver reinforcement at a high rate, especially right after teaching a new skill or expectation and
  for students who have challenging behavior.
• Deliver reinforcement as immediately as possible after the desired behavior.
• Emphasize social reinforcement (e.g., smiles, high fives, praise) versus tangible reinforcers (e.g., toy, certificates, stickers) when possible.
• Always pair verbal praise/social reinforcement with tangible reinforcement when it is used.
• Include reinforcement that is immediate, delayed, and longer-term (e.g., earning points to cash in for reinforcement).
• Mix and vary reinforcers.
• Maintain consistent criteria for earning reinforcement.

Examples of positive (reinforcing) consequences for appropriate behavior include:

• Teacher praise and demonstrations of teacher approval (e.g., high fives, certificates, positive calls home)
• Points earned by individual students, groups of students, or the whole class for certain rewards or privileges
• Contingent use of privileges (e.g., first complete work then get a break)
• Reinforcing activities (e.g., extra recess, time on computer)
• Contracts and token economies
• Mystery awards
• Public recognition school-wide and community-wide
• Find more examples here

Negative (deterring) consequences for unacceptable behavior:

• Deliver the consequences contingent upon the occurrence of problem behavior.
• The consequence should be mild.
• Negative consequences are applied in conjunction with positive consequences. Apply positive consequences at the earliest opportunity following a correction or reprimand.
• Maintain the student's respect and dignity when delivering negative consequences.

Examples of negative (deterring) consequences for unacceptable behavior include:

• Loss of teacher attention (i.e., planned ignoring)
• Verbal reprimand
• Loss of privileges
• Brief removal or delay in accessing a preferred activity*
• Restitution where the student is required to provide some service or help to make up for the problems he or she caused
• Response cost where a student loses points or minutes of free time
• Parent contact and conference

* Removal or delay in accessing recess is not generally recommended and some LEAs have policies prohibiting this.

The overall purpose of a well-designed class-wide behavior intervention system is to establish, reinforce, and maintain expected behavior and to reduce problem behavior. In this way, a positive classroom environment can be established that is conducive to learning. It is important to remember that any classroom-based reinforcement strategy will need periodic adjustment. It is always a promising idea to rotate classroom-based reinforcement strategies throughout the year to keep students interested and excited. Of course, it is critical to know what your students desire (e.g., tangible, social, activity-based reinforcements). Remember that without relevant reinforcers and positive relationships, the program will not work.

When working with students with challenging behaviors, the situation in the classroom can often escalate quickly through an acting out cycle or behavior chain into a critical situation. To prevent this from happening or at least manage it in a way that reduces the likelihood of escalation, there are four critical phases of intervention that should be addressed in a comprehensive intervention plan for managing crisis behavior.

Phase 1 – Prevention

Initially, the student may be productively or satisfactorily engaged in the class or school activity (i.e., calm). In this phase, strategies are designed to maintain student safety and prevent crisis behavior. However, certain events or triggers may unsettle the student, giving rise to the beginnings of challenging behavior.

Phase 2 – Interruption

At this point, strategies are designed to defuse the behavior pattern. In other words, catch the problems early and redirect the student to engage in the present class or school activity. These strategies are most effective when employed during the first signs of agitation.

Phase 3 - Crisis Response

This phase involves what is typically referred to as crisis behavior. The behavior chain accelerates and runs its course as the student exhibits serious behavior. The intent of the strategies in this phase is to ensure safety, prevent anyone from getting hurt, and minimize the level of disruption to the class or school activity.

Phase 4 - Follow-up

This phase refers to the period of time following an incident or the prevention of an incident. In this phase, the emphasis is on follow up where staff and families debrief the situation and develop or modify plans accordingly. Parents are an important part of the follow-up and debriefing phase. They should be notified about the incident and included in the development of appropriate plans to support the student.

• How to Get PBIS in Your School
• PBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI)
• Restorative Discipline
• Fact Sheet - Interconnected Systems Framework 101: An Introduction
• Fact Sheet - ISF 201: When school Mental Health is Integrated within MTSS: What’s Different
• Fact Sheet - ISF 301: Installing an Integrated Approach
• App for providing prompts and reminders to track positive reinforcement
• Reducing Behavior Problems in the Elementary School Classroom
• Preventing Dropout in Secondary Schools
• Texas School Mental Health Toolkit
• Intervention Central Behavior Interventions
• Positive, Proactive Approaches to Supporting Children with Disabilities: A Guide for Stakeholders
  (US Department of Education)
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Students with Complex Access Needs