Shifting From Reactive to Proactive Discipline in an Urban School District

TLDR

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) evolved from an individual‑child approach to a school‑wide system that promotes proactive discipline and replaces aversive interventions, and the Illinois PBIS Network provides statewide technical assistance to implement such systems. The article examines how PBIS was implemented in an urban Illinois school district.

Abstract

The applied science of positive behavior supports (PBS; Carr et al., 2002) was initially developed as an alternative to aversive interventions for changing self-injurious and aggressive behaviors of individual youth with developmental disabilities (Durand & Carr, 1985). PBS has been recently extended from an approach with individual children to a school-wide intervention for schools (Dwyer & Osher, 2000; Lewis, Sugai, & Colvin, 1998; Scott & Hunter, 2001). The Illinois Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Network is a statewide technical assistance project that is focused on applying the science of PBS at a school-wide level through a systems approach. PBIS in Illinois supports the development of proactive schoolwide discipline systems that provide multiple levels of intervention to address the behavior support needs of all students, including those with significant behavior challenges (see the PBIS section of www.ebdnetwork-il.org). This article describes PBIS implementation as experienced by an urban school district in Illinois.