Positive Supports for Behavior and Discipline Resource Database

Although research indicates that PBIS effectively promotes positive student outcomes and improves school climate and culture, little is known about the involvement in and effectiveness of PBIS for students with extensive support needs (ESN). Students with ESN include students with significant cognitive disabilities. In response to two calls for continued research focused on PBIS and students with ESN, we conducted this literature review to summarize the current literature. In this report, we present the characteristics of the literature and implications for practice and future research initiatives. The review identifies 10 studies that have been conducted since the first call to action. A majority of them examined stakeholder perspectives on the importance and availability of school-wide PBIS for students with ESN, with perceptions varying across stakeholders and PBIS elements.

On the Parent Center eLearning Hub, there are 3 capacity-building self-paced modules created by CITES for CPIR and for Parent Center staff. Reserved for Parent Center staff only, not available to the public, the modules are: an overview of technology for students with disabilities; considering technology in the UDL framework and; the accessible educational materials decision-making process.

States and LEAs must report five types of disciplinary removals for children and youth with disabilities. The EDFacts IDEA Discipline Data Infographic visualizes the information from six IDEA Discipline data EDFacts file specification documents in an interactive infographic that outlines the discipline data for children and youth with disabilities ages 3 through 21 that states must include in their annual submission of EDFacts files FS005, FS006, FS007, FS088, FS143, and FS144. Data states report in these files include counts of children and youth with disabilities with in-school and out-of-school suspensions and expulsions; length of and reason for disciplinary removal; and count of disciplinary removals due to drugs, weapons, or serious bodily injury.  

This CPIR-produced training module explains what disproportionality is, which students are most often affected, and the consequences disproportionality can and does have, especially on students with disabilities. The module includes a trainer's guide, handouts for participants, and 2 PowerPoint slideshows, all downloadable. Trainers can use these materials to inform audiences about: what IDEA requires states, districts, and schools to do to monitor for disproportionality in special education programs; what happens in a state that finds significant disproportionality in the state or in any of its districts/LEAs; and the correction actions that must be taken.

If states and districts are to address discipline disparities effectively, they must first have high-quality data. IDC’s SEA Edit Check and Data Display Tools allow states to identify potential business rule errors or errors in category sets, subtotals, or totals before submitting their data to OSEP. Offering user-friendly data summaries, this resource also has edit check tools that permit states to directly copy and paste their EDFacts data files, as opposed to manually entering the data. 

This issue of CPIR's newsletter begins by connecting subscribers with a Glossary of Cultural Terms. It also announces the launching of the first two tiers of learning in CPIR's  Native American Resource Collection (Native Culture and Background, and Outreach to Native Communities) and the webinar CPIR conducted about the resource collection.

This evaluation brief (a) describes methods of a systematic review of state policy and legislation on R/S, (b) summarizes how R/S is addressed in state policy and legislation, (c) discusses the extent to which policy and legislation emphasizes alternatives to R/S, and (d) based on this review, provides considerations for preventing or reducing R/S, such as organizing a continuum of evidence-based prevention practices within a positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) framework to address the use of R/S.

Initiating, expanding, and sustaining PBIS at the school level requires systemic support from the district, state, or region. Organizing across multiple schools improves efficiency in resources, implementation efforts, and organizational management. PBIS at the district and state level provides a supportive context for implementation at the local level.

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.

The purpose of the District Systems Fidelity Inventory (DSFI) is to guide District Leadership Teams in the assessment, development, and execution of action plans that promote the capacity for sustainable, culturally and contextually relevant, and high-fidelity implementation of multi-tiered social, emotional, and behavioral systems of support and practices. The DSFI and process have been designed to serve as a guide for initial action planning, progress monitoring and annual evaluation of fidelity of implementation and impact.

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.

Racial and ethnic inequities in school discipline are widespread and persistent, even in schools implementing PBIS with fidelity. Yet integrating components of a multicomponent equity-centered approach into existing tiered frameworks is showing promise for improving equity in student outcomes. This brief describes the Center on PBIS’s 5-Point Equity Approach and the evidence for its positive effects on discipline disproportionality.

These high-leverage practices help special educators and teacher candidates use effective practices for collaboration, assessment, social/emotional/behavioral supports, and instruction.

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.