School Board Policy Requiring School Behavior Plans
Citywide Discipline Policy 5200, Regulation 5200A
From Section I Schools (Reprinted below)
A. Accountability and Continuous Improvement
1. Develop a school-wide behavior plan with input from
teachers, administrators, other staff, students and families.
2. Ensure that the behavior plan includes the six key areas of
responsibility previously referenced (Accountability and
Continuous Improvement; Relationships and Community
Building; Define and Teach Expectations; Communication
between Families and School; Interventions for Misbehavior;
Use of Data and Problem and Solving.) The plan will identify
roles and responsibilities for all concerned. In addition, the plan
will specify which staff are responsible for handling behavior
concerns, including which issues are handled within classrooms,
which issues are referred to a team or support staff and which
are referred to administration.
3. Support development of practices consistent with this policy.
4. Formulate building procedures necessary to enforce this policy.
5. Ensure that new teachers, administrators and other staff know
and understand the school wide plan and regularly review the
school plan with all staff.
6. Document participation in staff development activities.
7. Review outcomes and modify plan, with particular attention to
whether the school is reducing the disproportionate suspension
of African American and Native American students.
B. Relationships and Community Building
1. Use defined strategies for building a sense of community in
school, including forming relationships with all students and
helping all members of the school community learn about and
respect their own and each others culture.
2. Provide a clear process for addressing student concerns.
3. Develop and use a system so that every student knows to whom
they can go for help in the classroom and the school as a whole.
C. Define and Teach Expectations:
1. Develop school-wide expectations, based on the district
expectations and rules, defined with input from staff, students
and families.
2. Implement a defined system for teaching the expectations at the
beginning of the school year and periodically throughout the
year. Teach social skills to increase students repertoire of
appropriate responses.
D. Communication between Families and School
1. Ensure that the school is welcoming to families of all
cultures and backgrounds.
2. Communicate school expectations to families.
3. Inform families of both their students positive behavior and of
behavior-related concerns. Communication must be adequate,
timely and culturally appropriate.
4. At a minimum, families must be notified, in a language they
understand:
a. When a students behavior is repeatedly disruptive or results
in a significant amount of lost instruction time
b. By the end of the day or beginning of the following day in the
case of suspension
c. In accordance with a students individual behavior plan.
5. Families should be invited to participate in problem solving and
planning for their student.
6. Communicate with families whose students have been victimized
at school.
E. Interventions for Misbehavior
1. Provide a continuum of interventions that include
reinforcement, support and re-teaching opportunities as well as
consequences for misbehavior in order to address the needs of
the student who misbehaved, those people directly affected by
the behavior, and the school community as a whole.
2. Implement a system for documenting interventions used by
individual staff and the school as a whole and their impact.
3. Identify how community partners will be involved with school
discipline and in responses to behavior concerns.
4. Track the implementation of interventions to assure they are
implemented as intended and to assess the degree of
effectiveness.
5. Identify and use a process for resolving conflict
6. Identify procedures for temporarily removing a student from the
classroom when necessary and for re-teaching expectations
7. Identify procedures for re-entry when a student has been
 removed from class and / or suspended. Whenever possible a re-
entry conference following a suspension should include any staff
involved in the incident leading to the suspension, the student
and his /her parent / guardian. The conference should include a
discussion of how to repair harm done.
F. Use of Data and Problem Solving
1. Monitor behavior; including tracking the number of out of class
behavior referrals and other office referrals, and number and
length of suspensions.
2. Review data with staff and engage them in identifying
patterns, problem solving, and using the data to inform practice.
3. Disaggregate data by gender, culture, grade, and other variables
October 10, 2007 | Key to Student Success
identified by the school to identify areas of need, including
individual students who are struggling with behavior issues,
classrooms and staff who need additional intervention or
professional support, times and places where problems occur.
4. Ensure that teams of teachers and support staff provide
interdisciplinary problem solving and to address identified needs
5. Involve students and families in problem solving for individual
concerns
6. Solicit input from students and families about school climate and
other concerns. Invite students and families to be involved in
problem solving
38
 Effect of PBIS on Percentage of Students At
Sullivan Communications Center Receiving Behavior Referrals
PBIS examines school-wide behavior referral data to gauge how well behavior strategies are working in a school. The Green Zone
represents the number of students in a school who receive 1 or zero behavior referrals in a year. The Yellow Zone represents 2-5 referrals,
and the Red Zone represents 6 or more. The goal is to get more students into the Green Zone, which will result in less time focused on
behavior management and more time focused on teaching and learning.

In the first year of implementation alone, PBIS has been effective in the districts five pilot schools, with schools typically moving from 60-
70% of students in the green zone, to 70-80% of students in the green zone. The example below shows how Sullivan moved more
students into the green zone over a three-year period of time.

n Percentage of students receiving 1 or zero behavior referrals in a year.

n Percentage of students receiving 2-5 behavior referrals in a year.
n Percentage of students receiving 6 or more behavior referrals in a year.

October 10, 2007 | Key to Student Success 39

 Indicators of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
Best Practices for Minneapolis Public Schools
Educating the Whole Child within the Context of the Principles of Learning (POL)
Supporting Academic Rigor by Building Students Social Emotional Competence with
Positive Behavior Support (PBIS)

Rationale for linking POL and PBIS: Research indicates

that schools can create and establish clear expectations for
learning and positive behavior, while providing firm and fair
discipline. Students will be more motivated if they are in
environments that are perceived as safe, positive and predictable.
Increased motivation is associated with improved acquisition of
skills that will be of value for years following formal education
(Katz cited in Sprague & Horner, in press).
Principle of Learning: Organizing for Effort
PBIS links:
Commitment to a sustained school focus on positive and
preventative aspects of school climate and safety using a
three-tier supportive approach (all, some, few)
80% of staff supports implementation of PBIS
Representative school-wide PBIS team organizes school
effort and accountability system
Administrators support effort and are active members of
school-wide PBIS team
Positive school-wide expectations are set and promoted
and linked to SIP
School-wide plan to teach, practice and recognize expected
behavior
Active supervision in common areas provided to protect,
expect, connect and correct students regularly
Problem behaviors are clearly defined, systems and
consequences in place to effectively correct problem
behaviors for students and staff
Systematic assessment of the nature, prevalence and
effects of behavior using performance-based data used for
active decision-making to improve targeted behavior
support
October 10, 2007 | Key to Student Success
Principle of Learning: Clear Expectations
PBIS links:
3-5 positively stated school-wide are set and promoted
Develop clear goals and objectives for improving school
discipline, supported by the entire school community
(including guidelines to help school to identify, prevent
and address incidents)
Clear lesson plans to teach, practice and acknowledge
behavior expectations exist for all levels (i.e., school-wide,
classroom-wide, common areas and for individuals)
Students and staff can name expectations, understand
rationale and have been acknowledged for demonstrating
expectations regularly
Behavior expectations developed and taught directly
(lesson plans in embedded matrix) in all school areas (e.g.,
classrooms, halls, lunchroom, bathrooms, assemblies,
community trips, dances, etc.)
Principle of Learning: Fair and Credible
Evaluation
PBIS links:
Performance-based data used for active, ongoing decision-
making
o Regular evaluation of behavior and academic data
linked to evidence-based support systems
o Effective Behavior Systems (EBS) survey conducted
yearly to assess school climate
o School Evaluation Tool (SET) conducted yearly to
directly observe and assess areas of strength and
needs and determine fidelity of implementation
40
Principle of Learning: Recognition of Additional PBIS links: (related to Principles of
Accomplishment Learning: Thinking Curriculum, Accountable Talk,
PBIS links: Socializing Intelligence, Self-management of Learning
Frequent recognition (4:1 minimum) of positive and Learning as Apprenticeship):
behavior/positive interactions to reprimands in school for Social skills curriculum adopted, taught, modeled,
both adults and students practiced, recognized and generalized school-wide
Regular school-wide celebrations of accomplishment with Students able to demonstrate skills in problem solving,
family and community empathy, impulse control and anger management
Teachers scaffold student performance during initial
learning, gradually remove supports as students internalize
skills

Reference:
Sprague, J., Walker, H. (in press); School Wide Positive Behavior Supports; In S. R. Jimerson & M.J. Furlong (Eds.), The Handbook of School Violence and
School Safety: From Research to Practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

This guide for creating a School-Wide Positive Behavior Plan was supported in part by Safe Schools Healthy Students.

For more information about creating a school-wide

positive behavior plan, please contact Larry Burgess,
Director of Student Support, at 612-668-0860.

October 10, 2007 | Key to Student Success 41