Teamwork is important. We all do better work when we’ve got a great team supporting us. Positive Behavior Interventions and Support, or PBIS, involves the whole campus. To successfully implement PBIS on your campus, you’re going to need a stellar team. So, what does a PBIS team look like?
To build an ideal PBIS team, it’s important to represent all aspects of your community. Think about who represents your school and invite them into the PBIS Team. Teachers, both general and special education, interventionists, elective teachers, parents, office staff, cafeteria works, maintenance workers; all are part of your campus staff and all can have a strong voice on your PBIS Team.
Your representatives will actively interact with their group and advocate for their needs and interests. This helps your team develop a custom and specialized campus plan, as, what works for one school doesn’t always work for another. The best way to know the ins and outs of your school is to get as many people involved as possible. For smaller campuses this could be as few as three people, but for bigger campuses it could be up to eight representatives.
In our experience, it’s critical that your PBIS team has a representative of campus administration. The administrators should be committed to and active in the PBIS process. Campus administrators can be great advocates for your PBIS team while also giving you unique insights into how your campus functions.
PBIS Team Roles to fill:
As with many teams, there are several roles that you need to fill to make things run smoothly.
- Team Leader: The team leader starts your meetings, reviews the purpose for meetings, facilitates the meeting, and keeps the team focused on each step. This is a role that’s great for someone who’s organized and understands the ins and outs of your PBIS plan.
- Recorder: Find someone who can take notes, transcribe your team’s response on chart paper, and generally keep records of what’s said. You’ll be tossing around a lot of great ideas during the meeting. You’ll want to make sure that after the meeting, those ideas don’t disappear.
- Timekeeper: Keeping track of your time is crucial. It’ll make sure you get to all the issues you want to tackle and stay organized and efficient. Allow your time keeper to give ten-minute warnings to keep everyone on track and participating.
- Data Specialist: You’ll need someone who’s a whiz at entering and accessing data from your SWIS data system.
- Behavior Specialist: Someone on your campus who is competent with behavioral principles and assists with analyzing data.
- Administrator: Your administrator actively encourages team efforts, provides planning time, feedback, and support initiatives.
- Communications: Your team will need a point person for all things communication. This person will talk between the team and staff about PBIS and behavior issues.
- PBIS Coach: Either a district-level (external) or a school-based (internal) person that helps guide your team through the process. This person will be the school’s main contact for all things PBIS.
The PBIS Team’s Process
Once you’ve built a fantastic team and gathered your representatives, it’s time to implement PBIS! At the beginning of the year, you should focus on building and promoting your campus-wide behavior expectations.
As the year progresses, your team will be gathering discipline data and noticing campus trends. Start focusing on broader picture concerns and trends by listening to your representatives and using the data they provide you. This data will help your team shape the future of your efforts in addressing your campus’ needs.
By building in organization and gathering multiple representatives, your whole campus will be an active stakeholder in the success or failure of PBIS. And, with the proper PBIS team supporting you, it’ll be even easier to accomplish your goals!
Janice Burch has 28 years of experience in education. She is currently in her 12th year as an Education Specialist at Region 13. Janice provides trainings and coaching on a variety of topics including Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), classroom management, CHAMPs, CPI, and Dealing with Difficult Students.
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