PBIS May 2013 Update Newsletter

Supporting Students with Complex Needs

Expanding Capacity at All Three Tiers

During the past 14 years, Illinois schools and districts have worked to develop the capacity to effectively support all students in achieving social, emotional, and academic success.  Teams have actively participated in training, coaching, and technical assistance to ensure strong systems and accurate interventions at schoolwide and individual student levels.  Ongoing support for district-based coaches and teams increases the likelihood for sustainability and expansion locally, regionally, and statewide.

Starting with 23 schools in 1998, PBIS has expanded to over 1,700 schools in over 370 Illinois districts.  More importantly, schools show evidence of implementation with 72% currently using at least one self-assessment or progress monitoring tool.  The Illinois PBIS Network is assisting districts in scaling up Tier 2 and Tier 3 systems, while continuing to strengthen Tier 1 with innovations addressing issues such as bullying prevention and disproportionality. 

An increasing number of Illinois schools are installing higher tiers in their continuum of supports for all students.  The schoolwide system provides a foundation for more individualized interventions, ensuring success for students with more complex needs.  This newsletter provides examples of building a full system of behavioral support that also addresses the needs of the most vulnerable student populations, including:

• • Scaling up Tier 2 supports to benefit more students

  • Enhancing Tier 3 student outcomes at all grade levels

  • Blending initiatives to ensure success of students with autism

  • Expanding school efforts to address equity

  • Increasing access to general education for students with IEPs

Success with Tier 2 Supports

As illustrated below, schools implementing CICO are seeing positive student and teacher responses. 

Office Discipline Referrals Decline with CICO

SD U-46 has invested in Tier 2 staff training and use of the Tier 2/Tier 3 tracking tool.  The tool shows an increased use of interventions and student response over the last two and a half years.  For example, over 10% of Highland Elementary School's student population is accessing CICO, and 80% of these students are meeting their daily progress goals.  From 2010-11 to 2011-12, the percentage of Highland students with only 0-1 office discipline referrals (ODRs) increased from 88% to 91%. During the current school year, the school is maintaining this positive trend with 89% of students having 0-1 ODRs, 8% with 2-5 ODRs, and 3% with 6+ ODRs.

High School CICO Innovation

At the high school level, PBIS systems continue to develop as teams work on fine-tuning CICO for teachers and students. For example, at Huntley High School in Cons SD 158, approximately 100 students (4% of total enrollment) are currently accessing CICO. They recently initiated an electronic Daily Progress Report (DPR) resulting in increased teacher participation.  With paper cards, 8-10% of the DPR cards were submitted and less than half had daily ratings completed by teachers.  Since introducing the electronic cards, 75% of student DPR cards are submitted with complete data.

Expanding Tier 2 Interventions

Building on the CICO foundation, Social/Academic Instructional Groups (SAIGs) explicitly support acquisition and fluency of social and/or academic skills that directly impact school performance.  For students who are not responding to these simple Tier 2 interventions, a brief Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA/BIP) can provide additional information to modify a Tier 2 intervention and strategically address student needs.  Examples of schools building their Tier 2 systems include:

Heather Hill Elementary School in Flossmoor SD 161 began implementing CICO during the 2010-11 school year. As of March 2013, this school had 15% of their total enrollment participating in CICO, with 65% of these students meeting their Daily Progress Report (DPR) goals. The school has also decreased their percentage of students with 2-5 office discipline referrals (ODRs) over the last two years from 16% in 2010-11 to 14% in 2011-12.  Additionally, in the 2012-13 school year to date, 12% of students have 2-5 ODRs.  They are currently expanding their Tier 2 continuum of supports by participating in technical assistance (TA) training for FBA/BIP.  This additional TA is helping the school to support more students with Tier 2 interventions.

Scaling Up Support at Tier 2

V. H. Nelson School in East Maine SD 63 has expanded their continuum of supports at Tier 2 with both CICO and SAIG during the 2012-13 school year.  By the end of February, 5% of the school population was enrolled in CICO, with 97% averaging 80% or higher of their daily points.  Currently 92% of their students have experienced only 0-1 ODRs, with 7% at 2-5 ODRs, and 1% with 6+ ODRs.  Through SAIG, this school has scaled up Tier 2 supports for students with small group instruction of specific behaviors (e.g. problem-solving skills) linked to the Tier 1 expectations (e.g. respect) using the Daily Progress Report (DPR) to monitor progress.

High School Builds on Strong Tier 1 Foundation

For the past two years, Hinsdale South High School,Hinsdale Township HSD 86, has built a PBIS continuum of supports for all students.  They achieved fidelity at Tier 1 in 2012 and experienced a 26% decrease in total ODRs from 2010-11 to 2011-12.  Their success continues with an additional 28% decline in ODRs for August through February of 2012-13 compared to the same time period in 2011-12.

This solid Tier 1 foundation has supported expansion of Tier 2 interventions for their incoming freshmen in need of additional supports by using CICO and targeted instructional groups.  The school has supported approximately 75 freshmen with Tier 2 supports during 2012-13.  They are working to further expand their Tier 2/Tier 3 systems for the 2013-14 school year.

Advancements at Tier 3

Innovations

Schools Expand Efforts to Address Equity

The Illinois PBIS Network is piloting a Culturally Relevant PBIS (CR-PBIS) self-assessment tool.  The tool was developed based on practices identified by Sugai, O'Keeffe, and Fallon (2012)  to ensure that all students benefit equally from schoolwide PBIS.  Overall consensus from teams using the tool (n=6 schools) indicated that it generated awareness of the importance of culture, and provided insight on how to integrate more diverse perspectives into PBIS implementation.

Examples of activities that were planned or implemented as a result of completing the CR-PBIS include:

• • Forming a student council to incorporate youth voice in PBIS at the building level.

  • Incorporating a cultural perspective into "Cool Tools."

  • Sending letters home written in Spanish and following up with phone calls placed by Spanish-speakers to encourage parent involvement.

  • Translating the behavioral expectations into Spanish and posting in all public areas.

For more information about disproportionality, please visit www.pbisillinois.org/curriculum/equity.

Sugai, G., O'Keeffe, B., Fallon, L. (2012). A contextual consideration of culture and school-wide positive behavior support.  Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions,14(4) pp. 197-208.