School-Wide PBS is based on proactive strategies to define expectations for any and all behavior, teach children those expectations and support all children with meeting those expectations. This means that all staff – teachers, office and lunchroom staff – have a consistent approach in dealing with student behavior. This is a universal approach, also called Level I, and effectively reduces problem behavior for 80 to 90% of all students.

In addition, targeted Level II support may be needed for the remaining 10-20% of students. This could be small-group social skills training to help these students be more successful in their interactions with adults or other children. Of these students, a small amount of students (1-5%) may require intensive individualized intervention, referred to at “tertiary” or Level III.

Schools have been one of the more common places to implement PBS. There are currently 13 School districts in Alaska that have begun to implement School-Wide PBS within individual schools. Contact your school district and encourage them to implement PBS in your child’s school.

Alaska Resources

• Stone Soup Group’s School-Wide Positive Behavior Support - Stone Soup Group provides training and technical assistance to Alaska school districts on school-wide PBS implementation. This site outlines the process for supporting schools involved in this process.
• Special Education Service Agency's (SESA) PBIS Center - SESA is currently providing three-tiered support - Universal, Secondary and Tertiary — for 5 schools throughout the state.

National Resources

• Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports - This is the national technical assistance center which provides comprehensive information on school-wide PBS (SWPBS) - from awareness to in-depth implementation.