Focus on Vulnerable Populations: IEP Status and Ethnicity

Illinois schools implementing PBIS are taking a closer look at discipline outcomes for students in vulnerable groups, such as students with IEPs and students who identify as ethnic minorities. Using the School-wide Information System (SWIS), schools are able to track office discipline referrals (ODRs) by ethnicity to assist in identifying areas of inequitable distribution of discipline. Since the 2009-10 school year, the number of Illinois PBIS schools using the SWIS features to monitor outcomes for students by ethnicity and disability status has increased 24%, from 508 schools in 2009-10 to 631 schools in 2012-13. The number of schools using the SWIS ethnicity feature has also increased over this same time, by 8% from 597 schools in 2009-10 to 646 schools in 2012-13. The number of schools utilizing both of these SWIS features concurrently has increased 29% over the past four years. These trends are evidence that schools are increasingly invested in assessing the impact of PBIS on vulnerable populations.