Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (SW-PBS) is a proactive approach to put behavioral/social skills strategies in place for all students while also building in support for those at risk for and/or those who receive special education services.

Continuum of Procedures for Discouraging Inappropriate Behaviors

Feature Purpose:  Providing ALL students who display problem behaviors with clear, consistent, and educative responses from ALL adults across ALL settings, ALL day, every day.


Feature Outcomes: Increasing consistency in corrective response increases predictability for ALL students. Predictability increases student initial compliance, student compliance with re-direction, and decreases the likelihood that student behaviors will escalate when they are approached by an adult for correction.

Examples of a Continuum of Procedures for Discouraging Inappropriate Behaviors Include:

•    Establish a system to effectively provide corrective feedback that emphasizes re-teaching.
•    Procedures are understood and practiced by administrators, staff, students and families.
•    Corrective feedback is appropriately matched to the function of the inappropriate behavior.

Seclusion & Restraint

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to Chief State School Officers advising them to review their state polices on seclusion and restraint. Here is a brief excerpt from the letter suggesting a possible alternative to seclusion and restraint:

"Approximately 8,000 schools across the country are already implementing PBIS, a systems approach to establishing the social culture needed for schools to achieve social and academic gains while minimizing problem behavior for all children.  PBIS provides a framework for decision making that guides the implementation of evidence-based academic and behavioral practices throughout the entire school, frequently resulting in significant reductions in office disciplinary referrals, suspensions, and expulsions.  While the successful implementation of PBIS typically results in improved social and academic outcomes, it will not eliminate all behavior incidents in a school.  However, PBIS is an important preventative approach that can increase the capacity of the school staff to support children with the most complex behavioral needs, thus reducing the instances that require intensive interventions"

Position Paper written by PBIS National Center Co-directors Rob Horner and George Sugai adobe acrobat file

Additional information and resources regarding Seclusion and Restraint can be found on the PBIS website.

On July 1, 2010 the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education posted the Department's Model Policy on Seclusion and Restraint  on the School Laws web page at: http://dese.mo.gov/schoollaw/.



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Last revised: Jul 12, 2010