Berks County IU 14, PA -

MTSS: Behavior

Training and consultation support services are available to district teachers and paraprofessionals related to the following areas:

• Functional behavior assessments

• Positive Behavior Support Plans

• Classroom management

• Social skills instruction

• Self-regulation instruction

• Safety Care training

• Effective Instruction

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive, multi-tiered approach to discipline that encourages appropriate student behavior and enhances learning. PBIS offers a guiding framework for creating a comprehensive behavior support system tailored to the unique needs of individual programs and schools. This system is structured around a three-tiered model.

• Tier 1: is the foundation upon which the other two tiers are built; provides a system of supports to ALL students in a school based on preventative practices, including teaching expectations and reinforcing expected student behaviors.

• Tier 2: provides targeted interventions to support students classified as “at risk,” who require more intervention than is typically provided within tier one universal support.

• Tier 3: provides the most intensive level of intervention for students with the most significant behavioral/emotional support needs.

It is important to realize that the PBIS approach is structured to provide a blueprint to support all students in a school, from the most compliant to those requiring the most intensive supports. This approach:

• is research based;

• promotes accountability and sustainability through data collection and planned, well-articulated individual building to district level structures; and

• fosters school-community partnerships at all levels.

Furthermore, the SWPBS model conceptually aligns with Pennsylvania’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework. The PBIS approach provides a continuum of prevention and intervention supports at each of the three tiers.

Safety Care Training

Safety-Care training is intended to prepare staff to safely prevent and manage dangerous behavior.  Staff learn to intervene professionally and therapeutically using a safe, effective approach designed to prevent or reverse escalation of problem behavior and avoid the use of restraint. 

Safety-Care de-escalation skills work with individuals who can communicate verbally and those who cannot.  Safety-Care is based on an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) model and focuses on removing/reducing environmental consequences that reinforce problem behavior.