In this article, we provide both a critical analysis of and logical response to a set of the most typical school-based objections to the effective use of positive reinforcement. For example, one objection is that positive reinforcement amounts to bribery. Practitioners are provided with clear and concise arguments refuting each objection and…

Students in alternative, residential, and correctional settings present challenges in the classroom and facility due to the complexity and intensity of their behaviors. In addition, the factors typically associated with these settings including crowding, inconsistency, and conflicting staff perspectives on education and discipline present…

Students who are socially competent are more likely to experience school success than those who are not. Students with social deficits experience frequent failures with both peers and adults and often require explicit social skills instruction. Because social skills instruction programs taught in isolation rarely result in successful skill…

Teachers report that the behaviors that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis are not typically violent or intense but are frequent and usurp great amounts of instructional time. Office discipline referrals provide a well-established method of tracking student behavior problems across the school, allowing for deeper analysis of contextual…

Dealing with difficult behavior is a matter of awareness of the factors involved in prediction, prevention, and instruction. This means three things: Teachers know, or can be assisted in thinking through the environmental events and contexts that are associated with higher probabilities of problem behavior. Second, teachers can actively manipulate…

Although the conceptual foundations of PBS at the universal level have been widely described and presented in the literature, secondary and tertiary interventions have been presented through very limited examples. This paper defines the key features of secondary and tertiary interventions and presents a decision-making process to guide schools…

Although the federal government recently mandated the use of functional behavior assessment (FBA) and positive behavioral interventions for students, this legislation has not defined the key features of FBA and has provided little guidance for how such procedures should be completed in a public school setting. As a result, recent evidence suggests…

This article provides an analysis of issues related to personal "dignity" and social validity in schools. Specifically, dignity is defined in terms of individual success and independence, while "social validity" is defined in terms of the system as a whole. These definitions are explored in the context of schoolwide systems of positive behavior…

Systems of positive behavior support (PBS) that positively affect student performance involve consensus among stakeholders, the development of environments that facilitate student success, effective teaching of rules and procedures, and consistent consequences for behavior. Evaluation of such systems requires schools to collect data to assess…

One approach to student behavior that may be particularly useful in exclusionary settings is school-wide positive behavior supports (PBS). Increasingly, evidence shows that PBS is an effective approach to student behavior in regular public schools (Sugai & Horner, 2005). While the data on behavioral systems in exclusionary schools are…

Functional behavior assessment (FBA) is an integral component of a positive behavior support approach to preventing problem behavior across all students in the school. As primary prevention, FBA is a collaborative school-wide practice to predict common problems and to develop school-wide interventions. As secondary prevention, FBA involves simple…

This article presents three case studies of elementary students with learning disabilities whose behavior interfered with the quantity and quality of their classroom instruction. In each case, interventions involved teaching and reinforcing specific replacement behaviors that were identified through functional behavioral assessment. (Contains…

This article describes how effective systems of positive behavioral support can be used in alternative educational settings as a means of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention for at-risk and adjudicated youth. Special concerns and specific strategies for this population are discussed across the range of placement alternatives. (Contains…

This article presents an example of how school time was monitored to facilitate a cost analysis of school-wide systems of positive behavior support (PBS). The article provides descriptions of how (a) PBS efforts were initiated in the school, (b) time and money were spent preparing for and implementing PBS, and (c) changes in behavior referrals and…

This Digest discusses provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that require functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavioral intervention plans (BIPs) to be conducted prior to a change in placement or suspension for more than 10 days, based on inappropriate behaviors for students with disabilities. It presents…