Positive Supports for Behavior and Discipline Resource Database

Bullying, agression, non-compliance and other concerning behaviors present educators with significant, immediate challenges in supporting students. Rather than waiting for these behaviors to occur and reacting, educators are encouraged to adopt positive and proactive practices to support students and prevent these behaviors from occurring.

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.

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 brief summarizes research on the effects of Tier 1 PBIS for students with disabilities. In general, when schools implement PBIS with fidelity, students with disabilities experience: (a) improved social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes and (b) fewer exclusionary discipline actions (i.e., office discipline referrals, suspensions, restraint, seclusion). Given the promising, research-supported effects of Tier 1 PBIS, it is recommended that schools continue to prioritize Tier 1 supports that are inclusive and supportive of all students, including students with disabilities.

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.

This Brief outlines strategies for district leadership teams to reviw multiple data courses related to discipilne and PBIS impementation to guide professional learning and technical assistance.

This fact sheet was developed to raise awareness of the issue of implicit bias and preschool suspensions/expulsions. The purpose is to provide information to change adult responses to challenging behaviors in order to reduce preschool suspensions/expulsions and create safe and nurturing environments for young children, particularly children of color.

This resource provides State Leadership Teams with guidance on the collection and analysis of behavior incident report data from programs. This guidance includes critical questions about programs’ use of exclusionary disciplinary practices, considerations for using the data appropriately and effectively, and sample table shells demonstrating how state leadership teams could present behavior incident data answering each of the critical questions.

The Digging into Data recorded webinar series offers guidance on the use of data tools related to implementation fidelity of systems and practices and the use of the Behavior Incident Report System (BIRS). The sessions on the use of the BIRS can be used to guide programs in the implementation of the sysem and use of data for decision-making related to child challenging behavior and the use of exclusionary discipline.

This document helps families of children who have an IEP ask questions to learn more about their child’s behavior in school. Sample questions and resources are included.

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.

This website helps families to understand and navigate IDEA's discipline policies.

This interactive resource (also available as a PDF) can help states develop and report on authentic and broad stakeholder engagement as required in the FFY 2020–2025 SPP/APR. It provides 10 key questions states should be asking themselves, with detailed options to consider, as they build their stakeholder engagement plans and prepare for describing their engagement activities in their SPPs/APRs.

High-quality data are timely, accurate, and complete. In addition, they are usable, accessible, and secure. Educators and representatives at the local, state, and federal levels use high-quality early intervention and special education data to inform their decisions as they work to meet the needs of children and students with disabilities and their families. Use this interactive PDF to learn more about the different components of high-quality data.