Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support within the Context of Larger School Reform
Sailor, Wayne, Nina Zuna, Jeong-Hoon Choi, Jamie Thomas, Amy McCart & Blair Rogers, “Anchoring Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support in Structural School Reform,” Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, Vol. 31, No. 1 (2006).
The authors describe Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support, or SWPBS, as three levels of positive interventions that are carried out in schools to address both school climate as well as problem behavior. The levels are: Level 1, universal, providing intervention to the entire student body; Level 2, group, supporting children at the classroom level or utilizing small group instruction for students who have similar needs; and Level 3, individual, providing intensive behavioral intervention through an individualized support plan. The authors advocate for contextualizing SWPBS by integrating its three levels of support into a broader school reform agenda that effectively integrates and coordinates all services and supports at the school so that each may work for the benefit of all students, rather than merely a continued policy of educational bifurcation between general and special education teachers. One potential solution to bifurcated practice is to embed SWPBS in a broader, universal school reform agenda that coordinates and evaluates all services and supports for the benefit of the entire student body.
Relevant Link: http://www.hdc.lsuhsc.edu/INITSITUTE%20MATERIALS/Sailor%20Anchoring.pdf