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PBIS

PBIS General Overview

Foster City Elementary School supports a school-wide program based on the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework.

School­-wide PBIS is a research based framework that has been proven to improve
school climate, reduce problem behavior, and increase academic instructional time in schools. Two primary areas of emphasis in PBIS are positive intervention and instruction of social behavior.  PBIS is based on the idea that when students are taught clearly defined behavioral expectations and provided with predictable responses to their behavior, both positive and corrective, all students  are more likely to meet those expectations.

The Foster City Elementary PBIS Team is comprised of teachers, support staff, and administration that have developed school-wide procedures to accomplish the following:

  1. Define Behavior Expectations.  A small number of clearly defined behavioral expectations are defined in positive,  simple rules.  These expectations are defined across school settings in the expectations matrix.
  2. Teach Behavior Expectations. The behavioral expectations and school procedures are taught to all students and are taught in real contexts.  Behavioral expectations are taught using the same teaching formats applied to academic
    instruction.

Our Falcon Four: 

Be Respectful, Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Ready to Learn!

Acknowledge Appropriate Behaviors.  Once appropriate behaviors have been defined and taught, they need to be acknowledged on a regular basis.  Giving regular positive feedback when students  use behaviors they have been taught is a critical step to teaching and maintaining desired behavior. Foster City Elementary School has developed  and acknowledgment system to encourage regular recognition of desired behavior in the school. We have Falcon Four cards that encourage and recognize students who are demonstrating the Falcon Four while on campus! 

Positive or negative environments for students and staff are the result of the accumulation of individual positive or negative interactions. Research suggests that a 5:1 positive to negative ration fosters the most positive and productive school environments.  Positive interactions can occur in many meaningful ways (smile, verbal praise), but the goal of an acknowledgment system is to provide a regular reminder to staff during  busy days to acknowledge students making great choices.  Negative interactions are any time we give attention to students for problematic behavior (e.g. "Dave, keep hands and feet to yourself", “Remember class, all eyes on the teacher", "Stacey, that's a beautiful drawing, but it's time to start math.") As a school we will strive to achieve and maintain a 5:1 ratio for all students.

Through our PBIS program, “Falcon Cards" will be used by individual staff members and school volunteers to recognize students for engaging in positive behaviors.  Staff members can award “Falcon Cards" to students across all school settings, whether they teach the student or not. When handing out “Falcon Cards" staff members should always clearly identify the specific positive behavior the student is being recognized for and  match it with one the school behavior expectations: “Be Respectful, Be Safe, and Be Responsible." School-wide drawings will occur each week to recognize students for their positive behavior.

  1. Responding to Problem Behavior. Despite our efforts to proactively set  students up  for behavioral success and to prevent problem behavior, there will still be incidents of  problem behavior.  When it comes to responding to problem behavior we have three primary goals:
    1. Make sure to keep everyone safe
    2. Minimize the loss of instructional time for all students (including the student who engaged in problem behavior)
    3. To teach the student the appropriate behavior to use instead of the problem  behavior

Every occurrence of problem behavior is an important opportunity to teach the
appropriate, desired behavior to the student. In developing the Foster City Elementary PBIS program it is our responsibility to provide fair and consistent consequences for problem behavior. The focus is to teach our students the appropriate behavior and reengage them in academic instruction.