Recent events in schools across North America have heightened our awareness regarding personal safety and student behaviour in schools. While these events have triggered an avalanche of publicity, neither concern about these issues nor efforts to address them are new. Efforts have been many and diverse; ranging from programs that seek to teach social skills to the development of school and district policies that forbid violent behaviours.

All of this is occurring at a time when educators face many new challenges - doing more with fewer resources, educating students with severe problem behaviour and educating increasing numbers of students who are more different than similar from each other (Sugai, 1998) Layered over all of these challenges lies the difficulty in sustaining positive efforts given staff moves, changing demographics, enrollment and curricular demands. (Sugai, 1998)

To add to the mix, when members of the public are surveyed as to what they believe would increase and maintain order in schools, the most often stated responses focus on outside intervention and punishment - expulsion, closed campus, security guards, school uniforms, rather than measures that seek to change behaviours or attitudes. (Sugai, 1998)

In addition, many educators are seeking ways to move toward practices that teach and reinforce appropriate social skills rather than approaches that punish indiscretions of often ill-stated school rules. Frustration with a lack of success from typical discipline measures, which are often punishment-based and don't allow us to understand or change behaviour, has enhanced the need for proven methods for creating safe classrooms and schoolyards.

Simultaneously, researchers have begun to study the most effective responses to behaviour problems and determined that the most effective approaches include social skills training, specific behavioural interventions and academic and curricular restructuring. (Gottfredson, 1997; Lipsey, 1991;1992: Lipsey and Wilson, 1993; Tolan and Guerra, 1994). As a result, academics are advocating proactive, research based, school-wide systems that include social skills training and behavioural support for hard to manage behaviours. (Sugai, 1998)

The Rationale for Effective Behaviour Support

Predictable school structures may represent the only supporting social networks available in the lives of many at-risk and behaviourally challenged students. Schools provide a disciplined environment where increased opportunities for academic and prosocial success are possible.

(Sugai and Horner, 1996)

Many societal (family and community) factors have led to the increase in antisocial and potentially violent behaviours. The development of problem behaviours increases when children and youth become involved in antisocial peer networks. Further, when children come from homes where parents use inconsistent disciplinary practices, use strong aversive consequences to manage problem behaviour and fail to monitor their children's activities, these problems are exacerbated. (Biglan, 1995; Mayer, 1995)

Recent research has shown that there are also school factors that feed into the problem; ineffective instruction leading to academic failure, inconsistent and punitive discipline, lack of opportunity to practice pro-social and self-management skills, to name a few. (Mayer, 1995)

Given all of this, it would seem that schools are fighting a losing battle. There is however, hope. Schools are an ideal place to begin to turn the tide as they provide many of the factors needed to change antisocial behaviours (Sugai, 1998), including:

· predictable schedules

· socially appropriate adult and peer role models

· personalized support with regards to health, social, family and learning needs

School provides a safe place for many at-risk, behaviourally challenged children. Often it is the only safe and orderly place in their lives. It is in this environment that we can most effectively teach and reinforce positive pro-social behaviours that will allow all students to be successful learners and citizens.

The real challenge lies in not only recognizing the inherent importance of schools in these efforts, but in finding ways to help schools to be successful in this mission. Fortunately, we now know what strategies are effective in preventing and reducing problem behaviours. (Sugai, 1998)

The real challenge lies in finding ways to deliver and maintain these strategies in schools. The goal of Effective Behaviour Support is to assist schools with this challenge.

The Continuum of Effective Behaviour Support

Problem behaviour occurs on a continuum from relatively mild and infrequent to frequent and severe. Effective Behaviour Support recognizes this and advocates that schools develop several integrated systems for responding to the behaviours along the continuum. Figure I outlines the Continuum of Effective Behaviour Support.

Steps in the Development of a School-Wide Plan

Through the Effective Behaviour Support process, school teams are provided with empirically validated practices for developing a school-wide plan. They include:

1) clarifying the need for effective behaviour support

2) establishing the commitment to developing a school-wide plan

3) securing administrative support

4) developing a leadership team

5) selecting empirically sound processes and practices

6) creating a system for preventing problem behaviour through social skills instruction

7) creating a system for responding to problem behaviour in all parts of school including hallways, playground, classroom

8) developing an action plan that establishes staff responsibilities

9) monitoring activities, continuing successful activities, altering or abandoning ineffective practices.

In effective behaviour support, the emphasis is on consistency from all staff, throughout the whole building and in all classrooms. Staff work together to develop strategies that will be uniformly implemented and sustained. In order to devote the time necessary to develop a school wide plan, schools must identify the issue of behaviour as a priority and be willing to make a long-term commitment (3-5 years).

The purpose of effective behaviour is to provide schools with the capacity for systematic planning and problem solving while at the same time preventing and responding to problem behaviour. While there is no blueprint for the development of an effective behaviour support plan and it is not a lock-step implementation process, effective behaviour support involves the development of a series of inter-related systems, which include:

Assessment, planning and evaluation systems
School-wide systems
Classroom systems
Individual support systems

Figure II provides a conceptual framework for thinking about the links between the component parts of a school-wide plan.

Common Features of a School-Wide Plan

While effective behaviour support has many variations, there are certain common features.

Efforts are based on empirically sound practices.
A leadership team steers the development and implementation of an action plan.
The focus is on primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.
A long-term staff commitment is required, including the active support of school administration.
Clearly defined and communicated behavioural expectations and rules are put in place.
Clearly stated consequences and procedures for correcting rule-breaking behaviour are developed.
An instructional component exists for teaching behavioural skills and expectations in the same way we teach academic skills.
A support plan addresses the needs of students with chronic, challenging behaviours.
Continual monitoring, accommodation and change are made through databased decisions by the team.
On-going, relevant staff development is offered.

Features Required for Success

As we know, schools are complex environments

not easily influenced by subtle, isolated efforts.

Changing antisocial behaviour in this setting

requires a level of commitment that matches

the level of the problem. Schools that have

been successful in implementing successful

school-wide behaviour systems have found the

following features necessary for success. (Sugai,

1998)

Feature

Description

Priority

School declares effective behaviour support as one of three top school improvement goals.

Agreement and Need

At least 80% of the staff acknowledges the existence of the problem and a commitment to sustained involvement.

Collaboration

Staff work collaboratively with a designated leadership team.

Administrative Leadership

School administration is willing to be involved and support the leadership team.

Policy

Decisions, procedures and structures must be converted into policy in order to reinforce the importance of the system.

Behavioural Competence

Leadership team members have the capacity to complete functional assessments, build individual behaviour support plans, develop social skills lessons, collect and interpret data and to provide training.

Proactivity

The school commits to minimize the use of coercive, one-shot reactive responses to behaviour problems and instead maximizes the use of proactive, positive, prevention methods.

Integration

The school is committed to integrating positive behaviour supports with the academic mission of the school by recognizing that behavioural and academic success are both necessary.

Resources

The school has access to financial resources necessary to support training and implementation.

II. Assessment, Planning and Evaluation Systems

This section describes:

assessing current status and determining priorities
establishing a leadership team
data collection and evaluation

As stated, effective behaviour support refers to a system of school-wide processes and individualized instruction designed to prevent and respond to behaviours that disrupt teaching and learning. The development of effective processes takes time and commitment. For this reason schools must be sure they have properly assessed their current status and confirmed that developing the school-wide plan is a necessary priority.

There may be many indicators present in the school that lead to a desire among staff and or parents to adopt the Effective Behaviour Support approach. These might include:

1) Academic and social behaviour goals are not being achieved at the school-wide, classroom, and/or individual levels.

2) There are high rates of problem student behaviour and office referrals.

3) The current behaviour plan is not adequate to manage problem behaviour consistently.

4) Parents and community members are dissatisfied by frequent public incidents.

5) Teachers express dissatisfaction about the way problem behaviours are being managed.

6) Staff morale is low and requests for transfers are higher than the district average.

Assessing Current Status and Determining Priorities

While the presence of any of the above concerns might be enough for a school to want to jump head first into Effective Behaviour Support, the need for change or the degree to which change is required needs to be assessed. Assessment involves evaluating the status of current discipline procedures across the school setting including school-wide systems, non-classroom systems, classroom systems and systems for individual student support.

Assessment must be comprehensive, gauging staff perception of the degree to which the school addresses several systems. Ideally, each staff member provides input through a comprehensive assessment and planning tool.

In addition to assessing the schools current status, staff can rate the priority for improvement in that area. (See "Considerations in Assessing Current Status and Determining Priorities" on page 16.)

Considerations in Assessing Current Status and Determining Priorities

School-Wide Systems (all students, all staff, all settings)

Rules are stated positively
Behavioural expectations are defined clearly
Rules and expected student behaviours are taught directly
Behavioural expectations are acknowledged and positively reinforced
Problem behaviours are defined and receive consistent consequences
Emergency procedures are in place
School administration is actively involved in planning and support

Non-Classroom Setting Systems (times and place where supervision is emphasized hallways, cafeteria, buses)

Supervision Aides receive regular staff development
Supervision Aides are involved in communication, planning and problem solving
Supervision Aides provide regular positive reinforcement for expected behaviours
Students are taught and practice setting specific behavioural expectations

Classroom Systems (all instructional settings)

Behavioural expectations are stated positively and taught directly
Expected behaviours are positively reinforced
Problem behaviours are defined clearly and receive consistent consequences
Procedures for expected and problem behaviours are consistent with school-wide procedures
Students experience high rates of academic success (>70%)
Staff receive regular opportunities for observation, instruction and coaching)

Individual Student Support Systems (for students with chronic problem behaviours)

Regular assessments are conducted to identify students with chronic problem behaviours
Simple procedures for teachers to request and receive assistance are in place
A leadership team is in place that responds to students who present chronic problem behaviours
Methods for conducting functional assessment are in place
Family and/or community members are involved when possible

Establishing a Leadership Team

One of the first steps in the development of the effective behaviour support plan is the establishment of the leadership team. This team will be responsible for the development, implementation, modification, evaluation and maintenance of the school's plan. Ideally the leadership team will represent teaching, administrative and support staff, as well as parents. It is important that team members have high credibility with other staff, and be flexible and committed to the school-wide approach. Potential team members should be clear that they will be required to:

attend training
attend regular meetings
assist in assessing current status
assist in the development and implementation of school-wide systems, classroom systems and individual supports. Some examples include:

- ensuring that expectations for student behaviour are clearly defined

- developing lesson plans for teaching expected behaviours

- defining clear consequences for problem behaviours

- implementing systems for acknowledging positive behaviours

support non-team members in implementing the plan and in developing individual classroom strategies.

Data Collection and Evaluation

One of the most important activities involved in creating the school-wide plan is making decisions about what has happened in the past, what is currently going on, whether something is working and what needs to be done next. Although we often begin with our own experiences and perceptions, they are not always the best indicators of what actually is going on.

To improve the team and school's ability to make good decisions, the team will need to develop a data evaluation system that will inform actions and decisions. The system must be efficient, informative and easily used. The most often-used method for data collection is to record the number of behavioural referrals to the office in a given period of time (daily, weekly, monthly) in a given location (classroom, playground, cafeteria, bus).

The first step in determining an appropriate system is to determine which behaviours the team will collect data on. Examples of behaviours warranting office referral include:

foul language
fighting
vandalism
weapons
defiance
stealing
theft
bullying

Collecting data from these incidents can then be reported in a variety of formats, such as by behaviours, location, repeat infractions, day, and month.

III. Developing School-Wide Systems

"School-wide systems emphasize the development of a positive school climate, practical policies, well-defined physical spaces, and monitoring systems for students that will reduce the conditions that trigger disruptive behaviour."

(Stephens, 1995)

This section describes:

a school-wide effective behaviour support plan
behaviour management in non-classroom settings
developing emergency and crisis procedures
responding to escalating behaviours

School-wide systems are designed to accommodate the vast majority of students by setting rules and expectations, teaching desired academic and behavioural expectations outside of the classroom, as well as organizing and standardizing the activities of all staff. This component of the school-wide plan is geared toward accommodation of all students and goes a long way to establishing the culture of the school.

A School-Wide Effective Behaviour Support Plan

The cornerstone of the effective behaviour support system involves the establishment of a school-wide plan. The plan is intended to provide all members of the school community with a clear understanding of the expected behaviours, and consequences for inappropriate behaviours, across all school settings, (e.g., classroom, hallways, gym, cafeteria, playground). Emphasis in the introductory stages is placed on defining, teaching and rewarding expected behaviours. Once the plan has been sufficiently introduced, the emphasis shirts to reminding, rewarding and correcting. (Taylor-Greene, 1997)

It is important to remember that the strength of the school-wide plan is that rather than simply adopting any package available, the staff conduct an assessment of their school and develop a comprehensive plan as outlined in Table 1. This allows the school to target those behaviours they have identified as the highest priority.

Table 1 @ Components of a School-Wide Effective Behaviour Support Plan

Component

Description

Example

Statement of Purpose

Used to capture the specific objective of the school-wide plan

state positively
focus on all, in all settings
focus on instructional and behavioural outcomes

At our school students and staff:

place high value on academic and social success
strive for safe teaching environment
foster partnerships with all
emphasize what works

Clearly defined expected behaviour

Provides consistent communication for all students and staff.

Must be limited to five, positively stated, commonly used words

Be Respectful
Be Responsible
Be Safe
Be Kind

Procedure for teaching expected behaviour

Five Steps:

a)       Review the behavioural expectation

b)       Explain reason for the expectation

c)       Have students role play expected behaviour

d)       Provide feedback and corrections

e)       Acknowledge appropriate behaviours

"Being respectful in the gym means listening to others without interference. Lets practice a couple of examples of what that would look like."

Procedures for encouraging expected behaviour

Positive reinforcement used (in form of tangible reward) to encourage motivation from external to internal, from frequent to infrequent and from predictable to unpredictable circumstances.

Many schools use ticket system when students display appropriate behaviour. Tickets can be traded for a specific reward.

Procedures for discouraging problem behaviour

Several Steps:

a)     Define and categorize problem behaviour

b)     Distinction between classroom managed and office managed problems

c)      Procedures for discouraging problem behaviour

·        precorrect for predictable problems conducted

·        redirect to more appropriate

·        positively reinforce appropriate behaviour developed

·        continuum of negative consequences for violations

Provide regular feedback to staff

Staff determine problem behaviour based on data from office referrals and other sources
functional assessment
self-management strategies

Procedures for record keeping and decision making

Determine procedures for responding to data

Chart office referrals
Show charts to staff, discuss progress, challenges, training needs

Behaviour Management in Non-Classroom Settings

Essential to a schools' effective behaviour support efforts is a means for creating, encouraging and reinforcing behavioural expectations in specific non-classroom settings (i.e. hallway, playground, library, bus, etc.). Once behavioural expectations have been set as part of the school-wide plan, staff must examine how they are achieved in non-classroom and then classroom settings. Non-classroom settings are sufficiently different from the classroom setting in many ways (i.e. more students, less structure, less direct control over student activity) requiring that the behavioural expectations must be taught in each of these settings separately.

The steps in addressing expected behaviour in non-classroom settings are as follows:

List each non-classroom setting.
Identify expected behaviours for each school rule in each setting.
Teach (model, practice, remind) school-wide rules for each setting.
Encourage, reinforce, and reward displays of expected behaviours when they occur in the setting.
Actively measure the impact of your efforts.

Recognizing and rewarding expected behaviours, especially during the early stages of the implementation of effective behaviour support is very important. Staff must actively seek those behaviours they wish to encourage. Positively reinforcing students for those behaviours helps students internalize the behaviours and allows other students to see those behaviours modeled and rewarded. Many schools use "gotcha" slips that they hand out when they see the expected behaviour being demonstrated ("gotcha being good"). These slips can then be placed in a box for a draw at a later date or be handed in to the teacher or principal for a verbal or tangible reward. Several other creative ways for rewarding behaviour have been used by schools.

Positive re-inforcers have proven to be popular at both elementary and secondary schools. In fact they are often given to staff as well as students. The "gotcha" slip can understandably be seen as gimmicky. The intent being for the "gotcha" to act as a behavioural reminder for staff and students. After staff feel confident that everyone understands and internalizes the importance of demonstrating expected behaviour, the slips can be slowly extinguished or used intermittently as the school wishes to refresh the collective memory of the school community or to highlight a specific behavioural expectation.

Other Considerations in Establishing School-Wide Systems

While establishing a proactive behavioural plan is key to the development of an effective school-wide plan, it is important to remember that it is not the only school-wide feature. Ensuring that all staff receives training in areas such as handling escalating behaviours and that policies and procedures are in place to address emergency and crisis situations is also necessary.

Developing Emergency and Crisis Procedures

Regardless of the general level of safety of any school, events beyond the control of the school can take place that severely affect the school's ability to respond and to function normally. This can include events that take place off the school grounds but that affect the school (e.g., automobile accident, staff or student death) or events that take place at the school (fire, violent act, criminal act, bomb threat).

Taking direction from district policies and procedures, each school should develop a plan for responding to the types of crises that may occur. As it is impossible to predict every possible event, it may be helpful for all staff to be familiar with the following generic response sequence.

Although the specific details of how each step is carried out varies, the following steps serve as a basis for responding to all school-based emergency or crisis situations.

1. Assess the Situation
Collect as much information as possible, as soon as possible, about what happened, where it happened, who is involved, etc.

2. Call for Help
Always inform the school administration immediately. Never respond to any emergency or crisis alone. Activate the school and/or district crisis response team. Rely on their expertise.

3. Monitor the Situation
It is important to watch for residual events that may take place (copycat, ongoing trauma) during or after the event.

4. Follow Up
Once the event is over, debrief both the operational aspects of what occurred but also the emotional reactions of those involved. Focus on reducing the impact of the event and reducing the possibility of future events. Provide assistance to those in need.

Responding to Escalating Behaviour

School staff often report that the most challenging part of their job is responding to escalating student behaviour. Concern for one's own safety when dealing with an angry student makes such situations a concern for even the best-trained people. However, school staffs often know which students are prone to such outbursts and can build this knowledge into an individual behaviour plan. (see: Developing Individual Support Systems") In addition, escalating behaviour occurs in a relatively predictable cycle. When staff is trained to intervene early, the concern is lessened considerably.

Sugai and Colvin (1998) have developed a Behaviour Escalation Model (see Figure II) that provides a means for understanding, assessing and managing escalating behaviour. The model is predicated on the belief that in order to efficiently de-escalate behaviour, it is important to:

identify behaviours in individual students that indicate escalation
intervene early in the chain of events
teach replacement behaviours so that more appropriate chains of behaviours can be established (problem solving strategies).

Figure III: Behaviour Escalation Model

BEHAVIOUR ESCALATION MODEL

Phase

Behavioural Indicators

Intervention Strategies

1.CALM

cooperative
follows direction
responds to praise
focus on prevention

arrange for high rates of success
provide social skills instruction
communicate positive expectations

2. TRIGGER

series of conflicts
agitated/agitating others
negative verbalizing

focus on prevention and redirecting
increase opportunities for success
teach/debrief after

3. AGITATION

non-focused
cry easily
withdraw
hyperactive

focus on options and choices
(e.g., run an errand)
debrief when calm

4. ACCELERATION

focused/aroused
verbally abusive
intimidating
defiance
escape

remove all triggers
give warning
disengage
follow established procedures

5. PEAK

out of control
physically abusive to self and others
hyperventilate

focus on safety of self and others
follow established procedures

6. DECELERATION

confusion
denial/blaming others
withdrawn

remove attention
don't nag
don't force apology
redirect, start over
when it's over, establish ownership:

- What did I do?/Why?

- What could I do? done

7. RECOVERY

non-talkative
want to work alone
defensive

focus on routine
implement established known consequences
reinforce appropriate behaviours

IV. Developing Classroom Systems

This section describes:

effective classroom management
social skills instruction

Classroom systems closely parallel the features and procedures of the school-wide system in that the emphasis remains on teaching behavioural expectations, structures and routines. In classroom systems, general school-wide rules are adapted to the requirements of the individual teacher. Additionally, attention is given to classroom management, collegial assistance, curriculum adaptation and social skills instruction.

Effective Classroom Management

Effective classroom management doesn't just happen. Careful planning and consideration for students' academic and social needs is required before any teaching takes place.

In general, effective classroom management has the following qualities:

sound instructional design – social behaviours are taught directly like math and reading
an effective (tried, tested and true) curriculum
efficient and varied presentation of instruction and curriculum
integrated academic and behaviour management strategies
individualization of social behaviour strategies as problems increase
academic success.

Effective classrooms start with the teacher examining their situation and answering several questions: Who are my students? How will my students know what I expect of them academically and socially? What are the consequences of desired performance? Are there any obstacles to learning?

Once these questions have been successfully answered, it is important to examine the following considerations in order to establish an effective classroom. (Kameenui and Simmons, 1990: Kounin, 1970; Sugai, 1998)

1) Establish a plan

- Develop a plan for behavioural expectations before school starts

- Use the first week to establish expectations

2) Establish expectations

- Set high, yet reasonable expectations

- Tell students what is expected

- Show them what is expected

- Practice, Practice, Practice

- Catch them being good

- Correct for non-compliance

- Don't give up, celebrate success

3) Establish rules (as per school-wide plan)

- Make them public and written

- State positively and succinctly

- Maximum six

- Teach and enforce

4) Establish routine

- Predictable schedules - both for instructional and non-instructional time

- Prepare for transition times

- Prepare for group work, independent work

5) Establish effective personal strategies, such as:

- "Withitness" - students know what you're doing, you know what they are doing

- Overlapping - attend to more than one event

- Circulate around the room

- Pre-correct for problem behaviours

- Attend only to positive behaviours when possible

- Reinforcement to students who comply with rules, routines

- Provide choice

- Avoid power struggles

- Do what works. Abandon what doesn't.

Social Skills Instruction

In addition to effective classroom design, it is crucial that social skills be taught in each classroom. Direct and planned social skill instruction is designed to increase social competence of students with peers and adults across school settings. In Effective Behaviour Support, the teaching of social skills is based on several assumptions, including that:

social skills are learned and can be taught
social skills are prerequisites for the development of other skills
an ideal social skills curriculum does not exist, but a basic set of "best teaching practices" does exist
initial steps are time and energy consuming

Social skills instruction can be done in many ways. While there are many commercially available resources, which can be very helpful (contact the BC Safe School Centre, 1-800-224-7233 for a resource catalogue), it is important to not simply adopt any program lock, stock and barrel. The teacher should examine the situation in his or her classroom and determine which social skills need to be taught. Table 2 outlines the components and provides a sample script of an effective social skills lesson. The benefits of this type of social skills lesson are that it can be tailored to use realistic examples and emphasizes understanding, skill development and practice.

Table 2 - The Components of an Effective Social Skills Lesson

Component

Description and Sample Script

1) Teach

a) Teacher provides explanation

    Teacher:    "Sometimes we get angry. I can tell when I get angry my face gets hot.

    Ask:          "How do you feel when you get angry?"

b) Teacher defines essential rule

    Teacher:    "When we feel angry, the most important thing to do is STOP what we are doing."

    Ask:          "When you feel angry what should you do?"

c)   Teacher describes skill components and variations

    Teacher:    "There are 4 steps in managing anger:

1)       Stop

2)       Pick an action @ talk it out, ignore, walk away

3)       Go with the action

4)       Check to see what happens

    Ask:          "What is the first and most important step in managing anger?"

    Teacher:    Today we are going to only talk about #1, stop.
There are many ways I can stop when I am angry, I can take a deep breath, count to ten or put my hands in my pockets.

    Ask:          What can you do to STOP when you're angry?

2) Demonstrate

a) Teacher provides opportunities to model and demonstrate the skill

    The teacher will:

select natural examples (e.g., someone bumps you, someone calls you a name, teachers yells at you)
select competent students
conduct at least two positive demos

    Teacher:     "I am going to show you a demonstration of how I might stop when I am angry. Watch and tell me what made me angry, how you knew I was angry and what I did to stop.

b) Role play the example

    Ask:           "How did you know I was angry?
What made me angry?
What did I do when I got angry?
What did I do to stop?"

3) Practice and Role play

a) Teacher provides opportunities to practice and role-play the skill

The teacher will:

have students think aloud
teacher coaches
teacher prompts, if needed
involve all members of class
students self-evaluate

    Teacher:      Now it's your turn to show me how to stop and manage anger the right way.
Watch Mary in this role-play and tell what made her angry, how you knew she was angry, and what she did to stop.

    Ask:           "How did you know she was angry?
What made her angry?
What did she do when she got angry?
What did she do to stop?"

4) Review and Test

a) Teacher provides ongoing opportunities to review and test for skill acquisition

review each day using new examples
test each student

V. Developing Individual Support Systems

"Our current educational practices do not meet the needs of students who display aggressive, acting-out behaviour...if this situation is to change we need structures, processes administrators, teachers and support staff who have the knowledge, skills and experience to work with students with challenging behaviours."

(Sugai and Horner, 1994)

This section describes:

analyzing problem behaviour
functional assessment
individual behaviour support plans
coordinating out of school support

Children with severe or chronic behaviour problems, usually comprising 1-50% of a school population, pose extreme challenges to the school. Their behaviour may stem from a host of sources including an anti-social family environment, severe intellectual disabilities, or even from enhanced intellectual abilities. Whatever the source of the behaviour problem it is clear that a host of individualized, flexible approaches is required to effectively create learning environments in which these children can succeed academically and socially. The development of an intensive "wrap-around" approach (tertiary prevention) is required as these students are generally unresponsive to the general structures and procedures of a schools effective behaviour support plan. In other words, universal interventions (primary prevention) as laid out in the school-wide plan are simply not sufficient.

The problem behaviours displayed by these children generally fall into three broad categories; including student to student (fighting, intimidation, stealing), student to adult (noncompliance, disruptions) and student to self ( substance abuse, property destruction, social isolation).

Individual supports must occur over the long-term involving an interagency team approach that connects the school and the home with necessary community agencies. Just as the school must do a detailed assessment of the problem behaviours within the context of the school setting, the interagency team must examine behaviours in home and community settings.

The provision of individual supports are guided by the belief that human behaviour is:

important, understandable and predictable
changeable
occurs within an environmental context, not in a vacuum
is learned and can be taught or affected by manipulating aspects of the environment in which they occur.

At the heart of effective behaviour support strategies lies the belief that solutions must be cross categorical, that is they must move beyond labels to provide individual behaviour support for students regardless of the classification of the student. While these classifications may be necessary for funding eligibility and program administration they serve little function in providing appropriate educational programming. (Sugai and Horner,

1994)

Analyzing Problem Behaviour

The first step in developing a plan for individualized behaviour support is for the teacher to identify students who require such support and to request assistance from the leadership team. Prior to requesting assistance from the leadership team, the teacher should spend some time observing the behaviour and note the problem behaviours and the situations and settings in which those behaviours occur.

The teacher must consider several questions to better understand the reasons for the misbehaviour. These include:

When is the problem behaviour most and least likely to occur?
What do you think the student achieves by exhibiting the problem behaviour?
What more appropriate behaviour could the student use to make the problem behaviour unnecessary?
What kind of support would you prefer at this stage?

Functional Assessment

Once a determination has been made that a student requires individual support, trained members of the leadership team work with the classroom teacher to conduct a functional assessment of the behaviour in order to better understand why it occurs and to provide the foundation for the development of an individual behaviour support plan.

Functional assessment is a systematic process for describing problem behaviour, identifying environmental factors and setting events that predict the problem behaviour, and guiding the development of effective and efficient individualized behaviour support plans. Functional assessment originally was developed as a methodology for designing behavioural support plans for individuals with severe developmental disabilities who also exhibited challenging behaviour. However, the process has recently been applied successfully to the development of behavioural support plans for students with emotional and behavioural disorders.

A functional assessment can be done in many ways and with varying intensity, depending on the intensity and/or complexity of the problem behaviour. However, to be complete, a functional assessment includes the following:

a clear description of the challenging behaviours, including behaviours that occur together or in a chain
identification of the events, times, and situations that predict when the challenging behaviours will and will not occur across the range of daily routines
identification of the consequences that maintain the challenging behaviours (what the person "gets out" of the behaviours, e.g., attention, escape, preferred items)
identification of possible "setting events" or conditions that make the problem behaviour worse
development of one or more summary statements or hypotheses that describe specific behaviours, specific types of situations in which they occur, and the reinforcers that maintain the behaviours in that situation
collection of direct observation data that support these summary statements.

(Positive Behavioural Interventions website, www.pbis.org)

Functional Assessments are conducted to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency and relevance of behaviour support initiatives for students with chronic behaviour problems. The results from the assessment allow the leadership team to develop an individual behaviour support plan that outlines strategies for teaching desired and acceptable behaviours. It includes the means for monitoring and evaluating the plan.

Individual Behaviour Support Plans

Once the functional assessment has been completed the leadership team can assist in the development of an individual behaviour support plan. The plan lays out a series of key considerations and provides several alternatives designed to change the problem behaviours.

Considerations

Options for Behaviour Change

Change the context to make the problem behaviour unnecessary

clarify rules for whole class
change seating or schedule
counselling

Prevent the problem Behaviour

reminders when problem likely
extra assistance
modify assignments

Increase expected behaviours or teach a replacement behaviour

practice expected behaviour
self-management

Consequences when problem behaviour occurs

reprimand in class
contact with parents
reduced privileges
time out
office referral

Consequences when desired or replacement behaviour occurs

reward program
praise from teacher

Coordinating Out of School Supports

In addition to the support provided by the individual support plan, those children at extreme risk for chronic or intense behaviour problems must be supported in the home and in the community (e.g., tertiary prevention). Out of school supports are essential when children display intractable behaviour patterns in the school and in the community. Successful interventions must be comprehensive, initiated early, utilized over the long-term, involving parents, teachers, peers and siblings (Kukic, 1995)

Interventions involve the school leadership team along with community agencies (mental health, child protection, criminal justice, alcohol and drug prevention services) in the development of an integrated support plan.

VI. Conclusion

It seems few days go by when we don't see coverage in the media regarding violence or behaviour problems in schools. Over half the teachers surveyed in a recent BCTF-SFU survey in the 1996-97 school year reported that they had been the victims of student-perpetrated violence. Students report being afraid to go to school. Parents say they are increasingly concerned for their children's safety at school.

Many approaches to these problems do not seem to have any positive effect. Media reports recently (National Post, February 28, 2000) have been critical of the zero tolerance approach as an increasing number of high profile examples of schools appearing to overreact to suspected violence come to light. Others have come to see that the emphasis in our schools and communities on punishment based response strategies has not had the desired effect of changing behaviour and making our schools and communities safer. Just as in homes with harsh, inconsistent discipline, we have come to learn that schools and communities simply entrench behaviours when responses are not comprehensive, taking into account the complexities of human behaviour. Yet there are encouraging signs. Schools that have developed a school-wide effective behaviour support plan report encouraging results. Research has shown that a whole school approach using effective behaviour support stimulates appropriate behaviour by students. One middle school saw a 54% reduction in office discipline referrals (Sugai, 1998)

However, it is important to remember that success doesn't happen overnight. Researchers estimate that it takes three to four years of sustained effort to see significant improvement. Yet if improving behaviour ranks as one the school’s top priorities and the school community is willing to put in the time and give the process adequate time significant change is possible.

References

Biglan, A. (1995). Translating what we know about the context of antisocial behavior into a lower prevalence of such behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28, 479 - 492.

Colvin, G., Kameenui E., and Sugai, G. (1993). Reconceptualizing Behaviour Management and School-Wide Discipline in General Education, Education and Treatment of Children, 16, 361-381.

Colvin, G., Sugai, G., Good, G., Young-Yon@ L., Using Active Supervision and precorrections to improve transition behaviors in an elementary school. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Programs,

Gottfredson, D.C. (1997). School-based crime prevention. In L. Sherman, D. Gottfredson, Mackenzie, D.3. Eck, P. Reuter, and S. Bushway (Eds.), Preventing crime: What work, what doesn't, what's promising. College Park, MD: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Jones, V., Responding to Students' Behaviour Problems, In Depth, pp. 17-21.

Kukic, S. (1995, November). Families and Communities together. Paper presented at the Utah Fact Initiative Conference Salt Lake City

Langdon, C. (1996) The third phi delta kappa poll of teachers attitudes toward the public schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 78, pp. 244 - 250

Lewis, T. Social Skills Instruction. (1997)
Unpublished workshop materials.

Lewis, T. Effective Behavioral Support. (1997)
Unpublished workshop materials.

Lipsey, M.W. (1991). The effect of treatment on juvenile delinquents: Results from meta-analysis. In F. Losel, D. Bender, and T. BUesener (Eds.), Psychology and law. New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Mayer, G.R. and Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (1995). Preventing antisocial behavior in the chools. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 28, 467-478.

Positive Behavioural Interventions and Support
Website, www.pbis.org.

Sugai, G., (1998) Effective Behaviour Support: Manual for Summer Institute Facilitators, unpublished.

Sugai, G., Homer, R. (1994). Including students with severe behaviour problems in general

r education settings: Assumptions, challenges and solutions. In J. Man, G. Sugai, G. Tindal (Eds.), The Oregon Conference Monograph 6 (pp.102-120). Eugene Oregon.

Sugai, G., Homer, R., Discipline and behavioral support: preferred processes and practices U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Programs.

Sugai, G., Sprague, J., Horner, R., Walker, H., Preventing school violence. The use of office discipline referrals to assess and monitor school-wide discipline interventions. U.S. Department of Education, Special Programs Branch.

Taylor-Greene, S., Brown, D. Nelson, L., Longton, J., Gassman, Cohen, J., Swartz, J., Horner, R.H., Sugai, G., and Hall, s. (1997). School-wide behavioral support: Starting the year off right. (1997) Journal of Behavioral Education, 7, 99 - 112.

Todd, A., Horner, R., Sugai, G., Sprague, G., Effective behaviour support: Strengthening school-wide systems through a team-based approach. U.S. Department of Education. Special Programs Branch.

Todd, A., Horner, R., Sugai, G., Effects of self-monitoring and self-recruited praise on problem behaviour, academic engagement and work completion in a typical classroom. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Programs.

U.S. Office of Special Education Programs. School-Wide Behavioral Management Systems. Research Connections in Special Education, Volume 1, Number 1, Fall, 1997.

Feature	Description
Priority	School declares effective behaviour support as one of three top school improvement goals.
Agreement and Need	At least 80% of the staff acknowledges the existence of the problem and a commitment to sustained involvement.
Collaboration	Staff work collaboratively with a designated leadership team.
Administrative Leadership	School administration is willing to be involved and support the leadership team.
Policy	Decisions, procedures and structures must be converted into policy in order to reinforce the importance of the system.
Behavioural Competence	Leadership team members have the capacity to complete functional assessments, build individual behaviour support plans, develop social skills lessons, collect and interpret data and to provide training.
Proactivity	The school commits to minimize the use of coercive, one-shot reactive responses to behaviour problems and instead maximizes the use of proactive, positive, prevention methods.
Integration	The school is committed to integrating positive behaviour supports with the academic mission of the school by recognizing that behavioural and academic success are both necessary.
Resources	The school has access to financial resources necessary to support training and implementation.