Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to establish the behavioral supports and social culture needed for all students to achieve social, emotional, and academic success. It uses preventative strategies to define, teach and support appropriate student behavior in order to create a positive learning environment. Attention is focused on developing and maintaining school-wide, classroom, and individual systems of support to meet the social and emotional needs of all students and thereby improve academic and social outcomes.
The purpose of PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm. The framework establishes a process to develop and apply function-based interventions for students that display repeated behavioral patterns of concern. It also engages staff in routine reflection and data-based decision making to guide school-wide and intervention planning decisions.
Schools that establish and implement PBIS are more likely to have teaching and learning environments that are more engaging, responsive, preventative, and productive which leads to maximized engagement and achievement for all students. PBIS also transfers to school buses.