PBIS May 2014 Coaches Front Page Newsletter

Expanded Availability of Federal Grant Resources 

The School Climate Transformation Grants have the specific intent of reducing exclusionary discipline in schools through a preventative, positive approach. You will be able to access the federal announcement here in the next few days. School Climate Transformation Grant proposals are due June 30, 2014. Additionally, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has announced a grant competition, Project AWARE, for training school personnel in mental health first aid. The grants are for $50,000 per year for two years and proposals are due June 16, 2014. See Project AWARE for more information.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has also announced a grant for Developing Knowledge About What Works to Make Schools Safer, due July 10, 2014. NIJ is looking for proposals to be focused on behavioral health, mental health and wellness, safety and preparedness, and climate and culture. See the NIJ Grant announcement or their NIJ funding webpage for more information.

The Illinois PBIS Network has a 15-year history of working with schools and districts to implement PBIS and reduce office referrals, suspensions, and impact educational environment data. The Illinois PBIS Network can be your source for grant writing support, subcontracts to implement or refine your preventative PBIS framework, as well as specific interventions at Tiers 1, 2, and 3. For more information on grant planning or subcontracting please contact jessica.swainbradway@pbisillinois.org. 

Evaluation

School-wide PBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory and School Recognition Process

The School-wide PBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) is now available to all Illinois PBIS schools. For more information on how to access and complete the Inventory, please visit the Inventory Information page. Schools who wish to be recognized should complete the Inventory online by May 16, 2014.

• • For more  information about 2013-14 School Recognition, including the new Recognition Process, levels, due dates, and acknowledgements, see the School Recognition page.

  • To ensure the appropriate staff at your school receive the recognition acknowledgements, please provide any personnel changes using the PBIS Team Contact Information Form.

In addition to completing the TFI  for Recognition, your teams will want to continue to complete other fidelity measures, such as the BoQ, BAT, TIC, etc. to compare their progress to last year.

For more information on completing the TFI, or Recognition, please join an upcoming webinar on May 8, 2014 - register here. The webinar will walk you through accessing the TFI, completion, report generation, and other frequently asked questions. Ahead of the webinar, please access the Inventory Information page for step-by-step guidance on the TFI.

Questions about PBIS Assessments, the School-wide PBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory, School Recognition, and SWIS accounts can be directed to eval@pbisillinois.org.

SWIS, and Reporting for End of Year

Please also take the time now to ensure your schools have updated SWIS databases to include the following. (For directions please see the SWIS User Manual.)

• 1. Entered student enrollment, page 19

1. Updated days per year (considering snow days), page 18

2. Enable the "Use Ethnicity" feature, pages 21 and 19. *Note, enabling ethnicity in SWIS is only available for administrative users.

New Pricing Structure for SWIS starting for the 2014-2015 school year. SWIS has three applications available (SWIS, SWIS-CICO, and ISIS-SWIS) and schools can now subscribe to any one or a combination of these applications.  Please review the new pricing structure below with these three applications in mind.  Also note that any application added mid-year will be invoiced at a prorated amount.  If you have any updates to your billing contacts, please email eval@pbisillinois.org with the information.

Classroom Management

Definitions and expectations of appropriate behavior are culturally influenced. Conflicts are likely to occur when teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke and Curran, 2004). Misreading behaviors or communication patterns of culturally and linguistically diverse students can lead unprepared teachers to disproportionate discipline and special education referrals.

Using a culturally responsive classroom management approach becomes an important tool in reducing and preventing disproportionality. For ideas on managing classrooms in a culturally responsive way, review the strategies outlined in Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Strategies. 

Curriculum/Innovation Updates 

Now you can access all recorded versions of webinars on the new Webinar Recordings page. These recordings provide you with the content from training and technical assistance webinars for convenient viewing at any time. Please note that CPDU and CEU credits are not available for watching recorded webinars. Also, check out the new and more user-friendly look of the Training page. Thank you for your patience as we continue to update the Illinois PBIS Network website.

Role of the School-Based Clinician

Consider joining other clinicians on Friday, May 9, 2014, at Judson College in Elgin for another day of learning and networking around the Role of the School-Based Clinician in a 3-Tiered Model of Support. More information, resources, and registration are available on our Changing Role of Clinician page.

Coaching Focus 

There are students at risk of being left without access to necessary supports in every district. The April Coaches Meeting reviewed the positive impact of PBIS implementation on the most vulnerable student populations.  In addition, two new tools were introduced to assess patterns of placement and discipline for vulnerable populations. Consider reviewing and utilizing one or both of the following tools to ensure equity for all students in your district.

• • The Systems Response Tool can assist district or building teams in reflecting and action planning to improve typical responses (i.e. suspensions, more restrictive placements) to youth displaying challenging behavior.

  • The Statewide Leadership Team developed the Culturally Responsive Schoolwide PBIS (CR-SWPBIS) self-assessment tool for schools. Teams can use this tool to evaluate the cultural responsiveness of their PBIS implementation. The new tool is just one of several resources about Equity available on the Illinois PBIS Network website. The April Coaches Meeting introduced the tool and its accompanying rubric. For more information about the CR-SWPBIS self-assessment tool, please register to join an informative webinar on May 27, 2014, from 1:30pm-3:00pm. 

Additionally, the recently released federal guidance on school discipline and discrimination, developed in a collaborative effort between the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, provides recommendations districts can take to create safe, positive, and equitable schools. Consider reviewing the outlined action steps in Appendix 1 of the USDOE Directory of Federal School Climate and Discipline Resources (PDF pages 5-7) to see how your PBIS implementation is already assisting with the proposed recommendations.  

Tier 2/Tier 3 Coaching 

Please see the Coaching Focus section of the FPN, above, for valuable information on the impact of PBIS implementation for all students.

School Family Community Partnerships (SFCP)  

Families 

The Illinois PBIS Network would like to learn more about school, family, community partnerships and team membership in your schools during the 2013-14 school year. District-based coaches are asked to share this information on the Partnerships tab of the Illinois PBIS Network website by clicking on the "Family/Community Team Membership Survey" in the yellow box at the top of the main page. The Illinois PBIS Network uses this information to provide guidance to districts in continuously improving these partnerships with school, family, and community members in our statewide efforts. We encourage coaches to share this information by May 15, 2014. However, all districts that report family/community team membership for one or more schools by June 15, 2014, will be acknowledged on the Partnerships tab under Successful School Partnerships.

Students

Remember PBIS implementation is much more effective when student voice is a part of the planning and delivery process. Consider ways in which student voice can be more present on your team at all three tiers. Examples include: having a student government representative on your PBIS team, distributing student surveys each quarter, hosting student contests to create lesson plans on school-wide expectations, student-led PBIS discussions on school climate issues, etc.

High School Corner 

The High School Tier 2 training series is wrapping up. All webinars were recorded and are available online under the High School section on the Webinar Recordings page.    

The sixth and final High School virtual chat will be offered May 14, 2014, from 1:00-2:30pm, where we will discuss Future Action Planning: Assessment Tools Are Your Friend. Register here.

An additional opportunity for support and problem solving in PBIS implementation for high schools is participation in a national model demonstration. Consider joining a high school community of PBIS practitioners. Participating high schools will be part of a national community of practice for high school implementers, have access to a range of high school-specific training webinars with the National PBIS Center and be asked to share school-level data. Contact jessica.swainbradway@pbisillinois.org.

Administrator Tip of the Month

As an administrator, how do you encourage your teams to use data to monitor the impacts on the most vulnerable populations? Are you familiar with the Systems Response Tool and the NEW Culturally Responsive Schoolwide PBIS (CR-SWPBIS) Team Self-Assessment Tool? Both tools were discussed at the April Coaches Meeting.

Upcoming Events

We have a NEW DATE for the upcoming Leadership Conference, replacing the August date. The Illinois Statewide Technical Assistance Collaborative (ISTAC) and the Illinois Response to Intervention (RtI) Network will be co-hosting the statewide 2014 FALL Leadership Conference on SEPTEMBER 8-9, 2014, at the Tinley Park Convention Center in Tinley Park, Illinois. The conference will focus on Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) for academics and behavior. It will also feature PBIS, and include additional topics of parent engagement, inclusion, supporting special education populations, and transitions. Registration will be available soon on the ISTAC website.

Join Us as a Volunteer!

To show our appreciation for volunteers, conference fees will be waived. Volunteers have the opportunity to attend the conference while also experiencing a behind-the-scenes look at this compelling event. If you are interested, complete our Volunteer Application. Contact Sarah Kent at (815) 652-2054, Ext. 240 with questions about volunteering for this conference.

Click links for more details and registration: