Addressing Climate, Safety, and Discipline in Georgia Schools
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Addressing Climate, Safety, and Discipline in Georgia Schools School‐wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports June 2013 Contents Purpose Statement ......................................................................................................................... 1 Why Should Georgia Assist Schools Choosing to Implement PBIS? ............................................... 1 What is PBIS? .................................................................................................................................. 2 How does PBIS improve student outcomes? .................................................................................. 4 How does PBIS address specific concerns? .................................................................................... 5 1. School discipline issues ........................................................................................................ 5 2. Mental Health Concerns ...................................................................................................... 6 3. Juvenile Justice ..................................................................................................................... 6 4. Bullying Prevention & Intervention ..................................................................................... 6 What Does PBIS Cost? ..................................................................................................................... 7 Future Budgetary Considerations to Reach Goals ...................................................................... 7 What are the financial considerations at the District/School level? .......................................... 7 What is the current status of PBIS in Georgia? ............................................................................... 8 Schools Trained ........................................................................................................................... 8 Types of Schools Trained ............................................................................................................. 8 Are there school districts in Georgia implementing PBIS with fidelity? ................................... 10 How do we know schools are doing it right? ............................................................................ 11 What are the PBIS efforts in Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice? ................................. 12 What is the National Technical Assistance (TA) Center on PBIS? ................................................. 13 Established State PBIS Projects ..................................................................................................... 16 What is Georgia’s PBIS State Summit? ......................................................................................... 17 References .................................................................................................................................... 18 Discipline: Training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement by instruction and practice. (Derived from the Latin word disciplina meaning pupil.)1 Purpose Statement The purpose of this report is to provide a plan and framework for proactively addressing school climate, safety, and discipline in Georgia schools through school‐wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). This report has been generated by the PBIS Team at Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) with input and support from Heather Peshak George, Ph.D., Research Partner with the federally‐funded OSEP Technical Assistance Center for PBIS; Dr. George is the PBIS Resource Agent for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, Puerto Rico, and Texas. This report provides an overview of the need for schools in Georgia to adopt proactive disciplinary approaches, a plan for scaling up implementation of PBIS in Georgia schools, and an evidence‐based approach for meeting this need through the PBIS framework. Why Should Georgia Assist Schools Choosing to Implement PBIS? As first appeared in Education Week (2013) Georgia’s high school graduation rate is near the bottom of the nation. Nearly one‐third of Georgia’s students fail to finish high school in four years. Currently, Georgia’s graduation rate is 67.4%, the third lowest in the nation, followed only by Nevada and New Mexico. When comparing graduation rates, Georgia also ranks near the bottom nationally for students with disabilities (30%), economically disadvantaged students (59%), black students (60%), students with limited English proficiency (32%) and white students (72%) (Education Week, 2013). In 2010, roughly 8% of Georgia’s students were suspended at least once (Walz, 2011). In 2010, Georgia students lost more than 1.8 million days of instruction due to suspension. The Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, in cooperation with the Atlanta office of a Big Four Accounting Firm, reviewed and assessed student discipline data collected by school districts and compiled by GaDOE for seven years (school years 2003‐04 through 2009‐10). The key findings include the following: In School Year 2009‐10, 8.1% of students in Georgia’s K‐12 public school system received at least one out‐of‐school suspension (OSS) disciplinary action. This reflects an overall reduction from the 9.3 to 9.5% rates experienced in the first five years of the period under review. 1 Discipline [Def.1]. (n.d.). American heritage dictionary of the English language online. Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discipline, May 14, 2013. Georgia Department of Education Dr. John D. Barge, State Superintendent of Schools All Rights Reserved During the most recent school year for which credible national data are available (2005‐ 06), Georgia ranked tenth highest among all the states and the District of Columbia in the rate of OSS discipline. Use of exclusionary discipline is highly variable among the school districts in Georgia. In some districts, its use is rare. Other school districts consistently impose OSS on more than 20% of the school population annually. In some individual schools, the percentage of OSS actions can effect up to 40% of the student population per year. During the 2009‐10 school year, 69% of the OSS actions were imposed for nonviolent behaviors. A very substantial percentage of the incidents were not described with specificity but were categorized as “other discipline incident.” Male students received two‐thirds of the OSS actions and three quarters of the expulsions during the period under review. African‐American students were consistently more than three times as likely to receive an OSS as students of other racial classifications. Poor African Americans were markedly more likely to receive OSS than more affluent African American students. Students eligible for the free and reduced meal program (children in poverty) and English Language Learner (ELL) students were subject to OSS discipline at a rate more than twice as high as students who were not in these subgroups. Students with disabilities received OSS at a rate slightly higher than 1.5 times the rate experienced by general education students. What is PBIS? School‐wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a systematic framework that is designed to enhance academic and social‐behavior outcomes by implementing a continuum of evidence‐based interventions. (Sugai et al. 2000; Horner et al. 2009; Sugai & Simonsen, 2012) PBIS is not a curriculum, intervention, program or practice, but rather a data‐based decision making framework that guides selection, integration, and implementation of evidence‐based practices to improve student outcomes. A particularly important feature of PBIS is the focus on developing and sustaining a proactive and preventive system, which is rooted in the public health and disease control model. This three‐tiered prevention model applies to both academic and behavior instruction and intervention to meet the needs of all students in a school (Sugai & Simonsen, 2012; Childs, K. E., Kincaid, D., & George, H., 2007‐2008). Georgia’s application of this model occurs at four levels that are fluid and that are analyzed through structured problem solving to inform the needs of students, before interventions are developed, monitored, and altered based upon the need(s) of the students (see figure below). Georgia Department of Education Dr. John D. Barge, State Superintendent of Schools All Rights Reserved Georgia Student Achievement Pyramid of Interventions Academic and Behavior Supports Tier 1: All students, in all settings are provided with standards‐based instruction, universal screening, progress monitoring, and direct behavioral instruction to prevent the development of academic and/or behavior problems. Tier I support should meet the needs of at least 80% of all students in a given school. Tier 2: Systems of support are designed to provide additional interventions to students who have access to Tier 1 supports but are not responding to them. Approximately 10‐15% of the students within a given school may need Tier 2 supports. Tier 3: The most intensive/individualized support system is provided for students who exhibit patterns of severe or extreme problem behavior. Student’s needs are discussed at a structured meeting of the Student Support Team (SST), which oversees the intervention process. Almost 5% of students within a school will require this type of support. Tier 4: If a student does not respond