PBIS - Positive Behavior Intervention Support

What is PBIS?

PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support) is the school wide system Laurel adopted over 17 years ago to create a foundation of recognition and support for all students. What began as an initiative has evolved into our comprehensive community building focus.   PBIS is in most schools in Oregon, around the nation and throughout the world because it works!

The main premise behind PBIS is to explicitly teach students and staff the school wide expectations in all areas, and reinforce expected behavior.   Research has concluded, when we notice and praise students for the behaviors we want, we see those behaviors at a higher rate.  This creates consistency and a sense of community for our students and staff.

At Laurel Elementary, the token of recognition we use is a "You've Been Spotted" ticket.  All adults in the building can recognize a student at any time, in any location, providing a praise statement for being safe, responsible and respectful and hand them a "You've Been Spotted" ticket.  These tickets can be used to purchase items at the school store, be entered into special school wide drawings and be used for classroom based incentives. Students can save and spend as they wish.

When your student brings home a "You've Been Spotted" ticket, ask them how they earned it and what they are going to spend it on; celebrate with your student, they did a great job!

What is PBIS?-Tier 1
A comprehensive PBIS system has many layers.  The "You've Been Spotted" ticket is Laurel's token of recognition for celebrating positive behaviors displayed by students who are safe, respectful and responsible. The Uh Oh-Time to Grow is the item used to remind students of our expectations and provides a re-teach opportunity to support student acquisition of the expected behavior.

All staff are expected to explicitly teach the expectations from our school wide matrix. This matrix describes, in detail, desired behaviors in each of the 3 focus areas. This teaching occurs at an extremely high rate at the beginning of the year, is reinforced through daily exchanges, and boosters are provided throughout the year.  Due to the high level of instruction around behaviors, when a student makes a choice contradictory to the matrix, an Uh Oh-Time to Grow can be issued.  

When a student receives an Uh Oh-Time to Grow, the adult issuing the document provides a re-teach of the expected behavior and may at times have the student practice.  A copy of the Uh Oh-Time to Grow is sent home to communicate to the family. All reflection and re-teaching is done at school, any further support needed by the family will be communicated if necessary. Uh Oh-Time to Grows are tracked and further follow up may occur based on our school wide tiers of support and intervention system.

What is PBIS?-Tier 2
As the layers of the PBIS system continue, so do the levels of intervention and consequences. At Laurel, our staff and a designated team of teachers and specialists constantly examine the system to make sure it continually supports our student body, and produces the desired outcomes. As with any system, there are levels of behavior that require a natural consequence and reflection to encourage a positive change.

Laurel has three referral levels.  Each level is used based on the intensity and intent of the displayed behavior.  Level 1 referrals can be issued by any certified staff member. Level 2 and 3 referrals are issued by a member of the Student Management Team.

Tier 1-Teachers and Instructional Assistants
Certified and classified staff provide student support throughout the school day.  These staff members celebrate successes with “You've Been Spotted” tickets, and guide re-teaching opportunities with Uh Oh-Time to Grow forms. They access a host of strategies to provide the support such as completing a reflection form, verbal reminder, and review of the expectations, modeling of the expected behavior, offering choices, ignoring the behavior, special job or errand, and many more.

Tier 2-The Den

The IAs in the Den are called to support teachers when behaviors occur, including but not limited to the following:

• Being distracting and you've tried to restate expectations, ignore, change seating and used a buddy classroom
• Being defiant but not making any noise and not bothering others
• Throwing objects (writing material, supplies) or tearing up work
• Refusing to leave the room when transitioning or enter a new location in the building (going to specialist time, leopard time, lunch, etc.)
• Disputes between peers at recess

• Being defiant and stopping all instruction from happening
• Becoming physical with others in the classroom
• Throwing objects at others or throwing furniture

• Experiencing heightened emotions but is functional in the classroom have them complete a counseling request.
• Experiencing heightened emotions but is non-functional in the classroom and seems in need of additional support try to offer them the option of completing the counseling request first, but if it continues call for support.
  
• Personal loss (divorce, death, incarceration, family pet, housing, etc.)

Nadira Rizkallah, Principal

Mrs. Rizkallah is available to answer any questions, but we encourage you to address the following issues to the staff member listed below:

• Parents may contact the classroom teacher for information related to academics
• Parents may contact Darcey Edwards for information related to behavior
• Parents may contact Livy DeSimone for information related to social and emotional health, attendance, grief and/or loss and information on community resources
• Parents may contact First Student for information related to busing, 541-998-8222.

Thank you,

The Positive Behavior Intervention Support Team