Using a Response to Intervention Approach to Address Behavior Concerns

1. Using a Response to Intervention Approach to Address Behavior Concerns Nebraska RTI Summer Institute July 31, 2007

2. Presentation Objectives • To describe a three-tier approach to providing behavior support for students • To highlight examples of an RTI process used to address behavior concerns in Lincoln Public Schools • To address factors needed to have successful RTI procedures in place for behavior support

3. What Do We Know About RTI Reading? • Tier 1: Core Classroom Instruction • Universal screening • Strong general education curriculum • Designed to prevent more intensive reading problems • Tier 2: Supplementary Intervention • Student data indicate who gets more intervention • Small groups, more intensive instruction • Tier 3: Intensive Intervention • Student data indicate who gets more intervention • Typically individualized, may include verification for special education

4. What Do We Know About RTI Behavior? • Tier 1: Core Classroom Instruction • Are we teaching all our students expected behaviors? • Do we have a screening process to find students who need more intense behavior support? • Tier 2: Supplementary Intervention • Are we using data to tell us who needs more intensive behavioral interventions? • Can we group students with similar need for behavior instruction? • Tier 3: Intensive Intervention • Are we using FBA to develop individualized intervention plans? IF YES, THEN WE ARE ALREADY DOING RTI BEHAVIOR!

5. Tier 1: Core Curriculum Instruction • Detentions, suspensions, expulsions DON’T WORK to change behavior in the long term! • School-wide Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a set of strategies and systems to increase the capacity of schools to • reduce school disruption • educate all students including those with problem behaviors

6. Major Ideas in PBS • Invest in Prevention • Teach, monitor, and reward BEFORE punishment • Differentiate Systems as Needed • Different systems for different challenges • School-wide (Primary Prevention) • Targeted Group (Secondary Prevention) • Intensive Individual (Tertiary Prevention) • Implement for Sustainable Effects • Evaluate using information for decision-making Note: Some slides adapted from PBS training materials, University of Oregon Educational and Community Supports.

7. Tertiary Prevention: Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with High-Risk Behavior CONTINUUM OF SCHOOL-WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT ~5% Secondary Prevention: Specialized Group Systems for Students with At-Risk Behavior ~15% Primary Prevention: School-/Classroom- Wide Systems for All Students, Staff, & Settings ~80% of Students

8. PBS is NOT… • a specific practice or curriculum…it’s a general approach to preventing problem behavior • limited to any particular group of students…it’s for ALL students • new…it’s based on a long history of behavioral practices and effective instructional design and strategies

9. Invest in Prevention:Build a Culture of Competence • Define behavioral expectations • Teach behavioral expectations • Monitor and reward appropriate behavior • Providecorrective consequences for behavioral errors • Information-based problem solving

10. Define School-wide Expectationsfor Social Behavior • Identify 3-5 Expectations • Short statements • Positive Statements (what to do instead of what not to do) • Memorable • Examples: • Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Kind, Be a Friend, Be-there-be-ready, Hands and feet to self, Respect self, others, property, Follow directions of adults

12. These banners are hanging in the commons area and in our gymnasium.

13. Teach Behavioral Expectations • Transform broad school-wide expectations into specific, observable behaviors. • Use the Expectations by Settings Matrix • Teach in the actual settings where behaviors are to occur • Teach (a) the words, and (b) the actions. • Build a social culture that is predictable and focused on student success

17. Why Teach Expectations? • Cannot assume students know how to apply rules in each setting…need to teach behaviors in context! • Teaching allows students to practice appropriate behavior and it builds fluency • Allows students to see non-examples of expectation • Decreases student response “I didn’t know…”

18. On-going Reward of Appropriate Behavior • Every faculty and staff member acknowledges appropriate behavior. • 5 to 1 ratio of positive to negative contacts • System that makes acknowledgement easy and simple for students and staff. • Different strategies for acknowledging appropriate behavior • Classroom-wide announcements • Raffles • Open gym • Tickets • Parking space

20. Discourage and Interrupt Problem Behaviors • Do not ignore problem behavior • Clear guidelines for what is handled in class versus sent to the office • Prevent problem behaviors from being rewarded • Do not expect negative consequences to change behavior patterns. Negative consequences are a way to “keep the lid on.” Teaching changes behavior.

21. Information-based Problem Solving • Survey staff to define need (Effective Behavior Support Survey) • Assessments of PBS implementation (School-wide Evaluation Tool, observations, interviews) • Review student data regularly (office discipline referrals and/or other indicators) • Other screening tools? • Examples of data collection tools at www.pbis.org and www.swis.org

22. Tier 1 Data Examples

25. High School in Iowa 02-05 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

26. Iowa Elementary 03-04 04-05 Elementary 03-04 04-05

27. Iowa Middle School 02-03 03-04 04-05 Middle School 03-04 04-05

28. Tier 1 in Practice: Lincoln Public Schools • Plans for universal screening of behavior • PBS in Lincoln Public Schools • What is needed to make Tier 1 work?

29. Behavior Support Challenges • Resources (time and money) in schools are limited • Need to match level of support to level of the student’s behavioral challenges • Need an efficient and effective intermediate level intervention system that targets students who are not responding to the school-wide system, but are not in need of individual, intense support

30. The Response: Supplementary Interventions (Tier 2) • Targets groups of students who: • Fail to respond to school-wide and classroom expectations • Are not currently engaging in dangerous or extremely disruptive behavior • Efficient - Similar set of behavioral strategies are used across a group of students needing similar levels of support • Effective - Decreasing problem behavior in classroom, increasing academic engagement, and decreasing office discipline referrals

31. Steps for Targeted Intervention Support • Identify candidates for targeted interventions • Identify specific student needs • Group students according to similar needs • Design and implement intervention support • Complete progress monitoring during intervention • Monitor integrity of implementation • Evaluate the impact of the program

32. Identify Students for Targeted Inventions • Identify students for targeted intervention support based upon: • Office Referral Data (e.g., 3-5 office referrals) • Behavior Incident Reports • Teacher Nomination • Other screening data

33. Identify Specific Student Needs • Identify student needs • What skills are they missing? • What instruction do they need? • What type of reinforcement do they need? • What are the effective consequences? • Use current student data (office referrals), teacher interviews, student interviews, etc.

34. Group Students According to Need • Within the at-risk population, look for small groups of students with similar needs • For example, do you have a small group of students who are fighting at recess and need additional instruction on recess behaviors and how to use words instead of fists?

35. Design and Implement Intervention Support Identify what instruction will be provided • Who will teach • How often • Required materials

36. Complete Progress Monitoring • Identify what data will be collected • Identify who will collect the data • Identify the baseline level of performance and the goal • Identify the decision-making rule • Collect progress monitoring data throughout the intervention

37. Monitor Integrity of Implementation • Need interventions that are implemented with integrity in order to make decisions about the effectiveness of the intervention • Implementation as scheduled • Implementation of key components • How? - Implementation logs, interviews, observations

38. Evaluate the Impact of the Program • Make decisions about individual students • Modify, continue, or terminate the intervention • Make decisions about the overall effectiveness of the program • # or % of students who were successful • # or % of decrease in office referrals

39. Tier 2 Progress Monitoring Example Grade 2 Social Skills Group

40. Supplemental Interventions • Evidence-based Social-Emotional-Learning Programs • Blueprints for Violence Prevention (http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/) • SAMHSA: US Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (http://nrepp.samhsa.gov). • CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (http://www.casel.org) • OJJDP: US Department of Education Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (http://www.dsgonline.com/mpg2.5/mpg_index.htm) • What Works Clearinghouse (http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/) • SDFS: US Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools (http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/exemplary01/exemplary01.pdf)

41. Supplemental Interventions • Other social skills programs • Incentive plans • Check-in/Check-out • Behavior Report Card • Behavior Education Program (BEP) Crone, D. A., Horner, R. H., & Hawken, L.. S. (2004). Responding to problem behavior in schools: The Behavior Education Program. New York: Guilford.

42. Tier 3: Intensive InterventionsOverview of the Process • Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) • Behavior Support Plan

43. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Clearly describes the challenging behaviors, including behaviors that go together (A-B-Cs) • Identifies the events, times, and situations that maintain the challenging behaviors (attention, escape) • Develops one or more summary statements or hypotheses that describes specific behaviors, the types of situations in which they occur, and the reinforcers that maintain the behaviors

44. Functional Behavioral Assessment • Collects directly observed data that support summary statements • It is a process to understand the structure and function of behavior to TEACH and promote effective alternatives, NOT just to eliminate undesirable behaviors

45. Why an FBA is Important • It increases the efficiency and effectiveness of strategies for changing problem behavior • It increases your attention to the things that you have control over, that you can alter, to make an impact on the student’s behavior • It increases your sense of efficacy in being able to bring about real, important changes for students and staff • It leads to the development of Positive Behavioral Support Plans

46. When to Identify the Function • Major problem behaviors for individual students • School-wide/Class-wide positive support efforts are not working • Typical discipline procedures ineffective • Behavior intervention plan required for 504 or IEP • Ten cumulative days of suspension (manifestation determination for special education students) • Standards of best practice recommend the use of FBA within a problem-solving approach

47. Data from an FBA • Operational definition of the behavior: What does the behavior look like? • Antecedents: How do you know the behavior is going to happen? • Setting events: What makes the behavior more likely? • Consequences: Why does the behavior keep happening? • Function: What is the primary purpose of the behavior?

48. Functions of Behavior • Behavior is functional: it serves a purpose • All behaviors are motivated by a certain outcome or desire • Common functions: • Obtain • Stimulation • Attention • Objects • Communication • Escape or Avoid • Pain • Attention • Difficult Tasks • Avoid Colloquial Functions: • “Revenge” • “Basically Evil” • “Control”

49. FBA Methods • Indirect information gathering • Record review • Interviews • Rating scales • Direct observation • Functional analysis

50. Information Gathering • Interviews with teachers, student, parents • Description of behavior • Strategies already tried • Guess about what motivates behavior • How often behaviors occur • How long it has been a problem • When behaviors occur or do not occur • Who is present when behavior occurs • Possible skill deficits • Events surrounding behavior