Positive Supports for Behavior and Discipline Resource Database

Use this website to find restorative justice resources, including an implementation guide and relevant research.

This fact sheet describes approaches to create effective, evidence-based school discipline policies that focus on responsive rather than punishment-based discipline practices. It includes steps and resources to help school administrators and leaders examine why certain discipline policies exist. It also includes steps to engaging studens and community members in revising the district's approach to discipline.

This website provides initial steps everyone can take to get started with PBIS, whether you are a classroom teacher, school leader, or a district or state leader.

PBIS is a framework for creating safe, positive, equitable schools, where every student can feel valued, connected to the school community and supported by caring adults. By implementing evidence-based practices within a PBIS framework, schools support their students’ academic, social, emotional, and behavioral success, engage with families to create locally-meaningful and culturally-relevant outcomes, and use data to make informed decisions that improve the way things work for everyone.

This website provides information needed to support implementation of PBIS within a classroom.

This webiste provides resources to support school-wide implementation of PBIS, as a multi-tiered framework that focuces on three critical features – systems, practices, and data -- which work together to promote positive, predictable, safe environments for everyone in all school settings.

This brief discusses ways to design PBIS systems that are accessible to all students. It describes the importance of including all students in PBIS structures, gives practical strategies to help schools achieve this goal, and includes the story of a student who benefited from full access to his school’s PBIS system.

The use of school and class-wide PBIS shows promise in helping educators integrate evidence-based practices for the benefit of all students, including those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The purpose of this brief is to provide educators with a quick and easy resource for identifying effective practices for supporting all students, especially those diagnosed with ASD within general education contexts.

Educational systems cannot be considered effective until they are effective for all student groups. PBIS provides an ideal framework for increasing equity in student outcomes. Schools implementing PBIS with fidelity have greater equity in school discipline, specifically for Black or African American students. However, most PBIS teams will need to include equity-centered strategies in their action plans to achieve equitable outcomes for all student groups. Multiple research studies show that schools implementing the Center on PBIS's equity approach have significantly increased racial equity in school discipline.

Research shows that disproportionality in school discipline is related to implicit (unconscious) bias. This presentation provides an overview of this concept and describes a training approach for reducing the effects of implicit bias in discipline decision making.

The IRIS Center develops and disseminates free, engaging online resources that help educators, leaders, and families use evidence-based instructional and behavioral practices to support the education of struggling learners and those with disabilities. These resources can be used in professional development activities for practicing professionals, as well as in college teacher preparation programs. Training modules include: Addressing Challenging Behaviors for early childhood, elementary and secondary aged students.

This fact sheet illustrates ways to improve communication and collaboration between schools and families to support students’ needs. Strategies include engaging families in decision-making processes around student supports, discipline, and school climate. A key strategy is providing family engagement training to all district and school leaders and educators and establishing family engagement councils.

Since 1968, the U.S. Department of Education has conducted the Civil Rights Data Collection to collect data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools, including discipline practices. State, local and school-level data are available to explore and analyze discipline data across schools, districts or States.

Every year, OSERS collects data from state educational agencies as required by IDEA section 618, including data related to discipline practices. These data report key aspects of disciplinary removals at the State level, disaggregated by a variety of demographic criteria.

TIPS is a research-validated framework to use during any team meeting focused on data-driven decision making. In the TIPS model, every team needs a minute taker , a facilitator, a data analyst, and at least one additional person available to be a backup to these roles if anyone is absent.