PBIS as a Multi-Tiered Framework for Behavior
Educators and practitioners provide a continuum of academic, behavioral, social, and emotional support matched to students’ needs. We describe this continuum across three tiers of support.
Foundational systems across all three tiers include:
- A shared vision for a positive school social culture
- A representative leadership team that meets regularly and shares expertise in coaching, social, emotional, behavioral, academic, equity, mental health, physical health, wellness, and trauma
- Families are actively engaged
- A supportive and involved school administration
- On-going access to professional development for preparing all staff to implement each tier of PBIS
- Systematic collection of screening, progress-monitoring, outcome, and fidelity data
- Ongoing use of data for decision making
- Disaggregating data to examine equity among student subgroups
Tier 1: Universal, Primary Prevention (All)
Tier 1 systems, data, and practices support everyone – students, educators, and staff – across all school settings. They establish a foundation for positive and proactive support. Tier 1 support is robust, differentiated, and enables most (80% or more) students to experience success. Tier 1 practices include:
- Collaborating with students, families, and educators to define positive school/program-wide expectations and prioritize appropriate social, emotional, and behavioral skills
- Aligning classroom expectations with school/program-wide expectations
- Explicitly teaching expectations and skills to set all students up for success
- Encouraging and acknowledging expected behavior
- Preventing and responding to unwanted behavior in a respectful, instructional manner
- Fostering school/program-family partnerships
Tier 2: Targeted, Secondary Prevention (Some)
In addition to your Tier 1 foundation, students receiving Tier 2 supports get an added layer of systems, data, and practices targeting their specific needs. On average, about 10-15% of your students will need some type of Tier 2 support. The support you provide at Tier 2 is more focused than at Tier 1 and less intensive than at Tier 3. Tier 2 practices include:
- Providing additional instruction and practice for behavioral, social, emotional, and academic skills
- Increasing adult support and supervision
- Providing additional opportunities for positive reinforcement
- Increasing prompts or reminders
- Increasing access to academic supports
- Increasing school-family communication
Tier 3: Intensive and Individualized, Tertiary Prevention (Few)
At most schools and programs, there are a small number (1-5%) of students for whom Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports have not been sufficient to experience success. At Tier 3, students receive more intensive, individualized support to improve their outcomes. Tier 3 supports are available to any student with intensive need, whether they receive special education services or not. Tier 3 practices include:
- Engaging students, educators, and families in functional behavioral assessments and intervention planning
- Coordinating support through wraparound and person-centered planning
- Implementing individualized, comprehensive, and function-based support
California PBIS Recognition
California PBIS initiated our first statewide effort in 2015 to implement a recognition system to acknowledge schools for implementing PBIS with fidelity to the national framework. Schools may apply to be recognized as Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum PBIS schools. California PBIS would like to thank every school that has submitted an application. Your dedication and commitment to the students, families, and communities of your respective districts is a major contributing factor to the excellence in education in the state of California. For more information on statewide PBIS recognition, please visit the California PBIS website.