PBSIS in Schools

New Jersey schools are being asked to educate an increasingly diverse population of students. At the same time, school personnel report a steady increase in discipline problems and rising school violence. Building the capacity of New Jersey schools to address school-wide, classroom, and individual student behavior problems is possible in the face of these challenges, if school policies, environments, and routines emphasize the identification, adoption, and sustained use of research validated practices.

Positive Behavior Support in Schools (PBSIS) is a partnership between the New Jersey State Department of Education, Office of Special Education Program, State Improvement Grant and the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, Pediatrics Department at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The goals of the PBSIS initiative is to increase the capacity of local school districts to develop programs and intervention strategies that reduce occurrences of discipline and behavior problems and subsequently increase student achievement and the inclusion of students with disabilities engaging in challenging behaviors within general education programs.

Collaborating school buildings send a building team of eight members to participate in six days of center-based training in conjunction with .5 day a month of on-site technical assistance. Training and technical assistance activities are designed to assist local school district to develop the capacity to:

• Conduct school wide self assessments of behavior problems and patterns
• Design and implement effective school and class wide interventions
• Design environments that encourage prosocial behaviors
• Use data based decision making to evaluate and modify programs and interventions
• Assess, design, and implement interventions for students who engage in chronic patterns of problem behavior