The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) within the U.S. Department of Education have released new guidance on function-based support. Access their guidance Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments.
Our five key take aways and main messages from their guidance include:
The Center on PBIS has a range of resources to help teams (a) understand function-based support and Tier 3 systems; (b) develop effective Tier 3 systems at the district, school, and student levels; and (c) implement function-based support consistent with this guidance.
Function-Based Support: An Overview
This brief describes how educators use a function-based approach to (a) prevent contextually inappropriate behaviors and (b) teach and encourage social, emotional, and behavioral skills throughout the PBIS continuum of support. In addition, this brief highlights critical features of effective functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and behavior support plans (BSP).
The Tier 3 topic page describes that Tier 3 practices stem from strong foundations in Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports, and highlights foundational systems, key practices, teaming structures, and other resources.
Tier 3 Brief Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Guide
This guide describes how school-based personnel can build and implement a continuum of function-based supports at Tier 3 that are designed to more effectively meet the needs of a broader range of students who struggle with persistent challenging behavior. This guide is intended to be a resource for individuals and teams with a working knowledge of Tier 3 who regularly design and implement supports for students with intensive needs.
Tier 3 Comprehensive Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Guide
This practice guide can help teams conduct a comprehensive functional behavior assessment, develop a function-linked behavior intervention/support plan, and make data-based decisions. Functional behavior assessments help teams to identify the relation of targeted serious and intense (i.e., challenging) behavior to the environmental events that occur before and after the behavior is performed.
Basic FBA to BSP Trainer's Manual
This manual presents procedures to train school-based personnel to conduct basic functional behavioral assessments (FBA) and design function-based behavior support plans (BSP).
Practical Functional Behavioral Assessment Training Manual for School-Based Personnel
This participant’s guide presents specific procedures for school-based personnel to conduct practical functional behavioral assessments (FBA). Practical FBA training methods presented in this workbook are designed to train school-based personnel with flexible roles in a school (i.e. personnel not directly responsible for providing regular instruction for students). The Practical FBA training methods are specifically designed for use with students that exhibit consistent problems that are not dangerous and have not been adequately addressed through previous assessment and intervention.
Tier 3 District-Level Systems Guide
The purpose of this guide is to assist Tier 3 or MTSS District Teams in supporting school level and student level implementation of Tier 3 supports. These system features include procedures for teaming, professional development/training, coaching, data systems and evaluation, student support provisions and student and family engagement.
Tier 3 School-Level Systems Guide
The purpose of this practice guide is to assist Tier 3 Systems Teams, or combined Advanced Tiers (Tier 2 and 3) Systems Teams, in developing the foundational Tier 3 school-level systems features.
Tier 3 Student-Level Systems Guide
Tier 3 Student Level Systems support all students who are not responding to Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports and would benefit from intensive strategies matched to individual student needs. Student challenges may include behaviors that range from disruptive behaviors to aggression (externalizing) and/or suicidal ideation, depression, or anxiety (internalizing). These behaviors might be impacted by trauma or crisis situations (temporary or permanent) or driven by mental health needs. Tier 3 behavioral supports may be helpful for any student, no matter the (dis)ability, who needs support to meet intensive social, emotional, and behavioral needs. This guide can assist all educators with understanding the systems that must be established to support students with intensive needs.
This e-book, supported by the Technical Assistance Center for PBIS funded by the Office of Special Education Programs comprehensively reviews reasons for and ways to significantly enhance family engagement in schools, toward improved tiered systems involving promotion/ prevention, early intervention, and intervention for students, contributing to removed and reduced academic and non-academic barriers to learning, and improved academic, social, emotional, behavioral, and occupational out- comes for them. Following the example of other e-books and monographs the center has supported, the intent of this e-book is to broadly disseminate and make accessible a free, downloadable resource (on www.pbis.org) that can be used by families, schools, collaborating staff from other youth-serving systems, policy makers, educators/practitioners, government officials, advocates, university staff and others to advance family engagement in PBIS/MTSS in realms of policy, research, and practice, and to promote linked progress across these realms.
Enhancing Family-School Collaboration with Diverse Families
This brief is designed to help inform school leaders about how intentional collaboration with diverse families can be created through environments in which educators work alongside families on behalf of the students they serve. Recommendations for action are included.
This guide highlights 5 key practices for teachers and families to support all students, including students with disabilities, at school and home. For each practice, the guide provides (a) tips for teachers to support students with disabilities during instruction; (b) tips for families that educators can share to support or enhance learning at home, especially during periods of remote instruction; and (c) free-access resources that include strategies shown to be effective by research (e.g., informational guides, downloadable materials, research-based programs).
High School PBIS Implementation: Student Voice
This brief discusses the importance of student voice, describes the unique features of high school settings that can make it challenging to include students, and offers strategies to address these barriers
Questions for Families to Consider when Concerned about their Child’s Behavior
Are you concerned about your child’s behavior in school? This document is intended to assist families of children with disabilities that already have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in asking questions to learn more about their child’s behavior in school. Some examples of questions families can ask their school are included and organized by the level of behavior concern, followed by a list of additional resources to consider.
Strengthening Family Participation in Addressing Behavior in an IEP
The Individualized Education Plan (IEP) document is a legal plan for special education created by a team that includes educators and family members. The IEP contains goals that promote student success, and, if needed, might include goals on ways to improve behavior. As families might find it helpful to plan ahead for IEP meetings, this brief is designed to help families prepare for an IEP meeting with tips to help strengthen the IEP team planning for any needed behavioral goals and supports.
Helping Families Prepare for an IEP Meeting
The IEP document is a legal plan for special education which is created by a team of educators and the child's family. This team meets yearly to create an IEP that provides information about the specifically designed instruction, related services, and other supports for the child. This tip sheet shares some ideas in how families can prepare for the IEP meeting to promote full participation in their child's education program.
This practice guide is an updated version of Supporting and Responding to Student Behavior (Office of Special Education Programs, 2015). "Supporting and Responding" summarizes evidence-based, positive, and proactive practices that support and respond to students’ social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs in classrooms and similar teaching and learning environments (e.g., small-group activity).
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) in the Classroom
This resource provides guidance to educators implementing positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in the classroom across the continuum of student need. Educators regularly provide a range of supports for students in the classroom—from universal supports for all students to intensive and individualized supports for a few students. This guide will help educators familiar with PBIS organize classroom supports for preventing, teaching, and responding to students’ social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs across the continuum.
After attempting to reach full implementation of healthy and functioning Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 behavioral systems at its elementary schools through years of training and coaching, Springfield Public Schools (SPS) found it necessary to strategically invest district resources in its PBIS efforts by targeting Tier 2 and initial Tier 3 systems (i.e., interventions not served via special education). SPS identified a need for a system’s focused and district-directed role and created a new Behavior Interventionist position in each elementary school to lead and coordinate Tier 2 and initial Tier 3 support systems. Starting with a pilot school in 2018 and expanding to a district-wide position in 2021, the district-directed Behavior Interventionist role transformed the district's ability to meet the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of its students. This brief first illustrates the importance of initial district planning and on-going, iterative implementation of culturally responsive Tier 1 supports as a critical foundation for Tier 2 and 3 supports. Next, the refinement and operationalization of Tier 2 systems as well as a district continuum of supports are shared as a way to contextualize and use data to identify systems needs. Lastly, we illustrate the importance of targeted district support and resource allocation can improve outcomes.
The purpose of the PBIS Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) is to provide a valid, reliable, and efficient measure of the extent to which school personnel are applying the core features of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). The TFI is divided into three sections (Tier 1: Universal PBIS Features; Tier 2: Targeted PBIS Features; and, Tier 3: Intensive PBIS Features) that can be used separately or in combination to assess the extent to which core features are in place.
