If you are working hard to create a positive teaching and learning environment in your K-12 school, you are not alone. Schools across America are struggling with an increase in disruptive environments which directly lead to less time for teaching and learning, lower achievement scores, and a negative school environment. Addressing this issue is critical as problem behaviors not only interfere with academic, social, and vocational success, but also represent one of the most common reasons children are excluded from school.

The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports of Arizona (PBISAz) was developed to address this issue. As a NON-PROFIT project, the primary goal of PBISAz is to provide educators, administrators and other education professionals ongoing professional development and support to enable schools to create positive teaching and learning environments for all teachers and students.

Find out more about PBISAz, its services, partners, and how to participate via the Purpose area. To join PBISAz now and learn how to create positive teaching and learning environments in your K-12 school, call 480.965.6638, or email pbis@asu.edu.

What you get from our resources

• Description and foundations of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, Systems, and Promising Practices
• Brief guide and materials to evaluate the current status of your school's discipline needs and develop a comprehensive Action Plan based on your evaluation
• Links to other sites for more information on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, school safety, and building and maintaining more disciplined and productive learning environments
• Contact information for experts in the field, information about all aspects of safe school environments, interventions and answers to frequently asked questions, and access general information of interest in this field

Creating Positive School Environments

This area provides you with a foundation to creating positive school environments. Our recommendation is to start using our resources by reading this area first, then continue on to the Promising Practices area.

If you have specific questions about foundations, please contact PBISAz staff.

School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS)

The essential program content used in PBISAz is derived from research-based School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (SWPBIS) programs and practices.

Unfortunately, most schools focus primarily on adopting practices without looking at what their specific needs really are. This is problematic, as random implementation of practices (which rarely last longer than 18 months within a school) results in a waste of time and resources, and increases the likelihood of developing a negative school climate.

Instead of a separate program, SWPBIS is a systematic process within which to analyze where a school's discipline needs are, and where they need to be for positive teaching and learning to occur. When this is accomplished, THEN practices may be developed or adopted and fitted to meet those needs. Therefore, SWPBIS helps schools to develop a systematic way of:

• Analyzing where discipline problems occur.
• Examining the level of support available in all Systems needed to create positive school environments.
• Collecting and analyzing data to facilitate the selection of Best-Practices that fit the needs of the school within each System.
• Developing Best-Practices that consider the function of behaviors.
• Providing an environment that increases social and academic learning.

This strategic planning process emphasizes the analysis of school environments so that schools do not implement unnecessary practices. Instead this allows schools the opportunity to look at what their specific school needs are, and analyze where overlapping practices occur to reduce effort and increase discipline outcomes, as well as increase social and academic learning.

The strategic planning process within SWPBIS includes two interrelated components: (a) SYSTEMS that support staff behavior, and (b) research-based BEST-PRACTICES to support student behavior.

References