District & State PBIS

Group of friends getting to school. Three are walking, while one is in a wheelchair.
Initiating, expanding, and sustaining PBIS at the school level requires systemic support from the district, state, or region. Organizing across multiple schools improves efficiency in resources, implementation efforts, and organizational management. PBIS at the district and state level provides a supportive context for implementation at the local level.

What is District and State PBIS?

School-level PBIS implementation is more successful when it’s supported by district- and state-level systems. By supporting multiple schools in the same area, districts and states create a shared vision, language and experience that makes everyone more effective. There are four components for successful district or state PBIS implementation:

  • Leadership Team to actively coordinate implementation efforts
  • Adequate funding, broad visibility, and consistent political support
  • Groups to provide coaching support for local implementation and to train teams on the practices and processes of school-wide PBIS, as well as a system for on-going evaluation
  • Small number of demonstration schools to prove PBIS is possible within the local fiscal, political and social climate of the state/district.

Why Address District and State PBIS?

Initiating, expanding, and sustaining PBIS at the school level requires systemic support from the district, state, or region. Organizing across multiple schools improves efficiency in resources, implementation efforts, and organizational management. PBIS at the district and state level provides a supportive context for implementation at the local level.

District and State Leadership Team and Mission

Initiating PBIS at the district or state level starts with a leadership team spearheading efforts to build capacity at the school level. To enable and support school-level implementation, the district/state leadership team must have

  • Adequate and sustained funding
  • Regular, wide, and meaningful visibility
  • Relevant and effective political support  

The leadership team’s core mission is to increase capacity at the school level in four primary areas:

Training

The district or state needs to establish resources and systems for training schools at the local level. This means knowing the professional development needs, creating a training action plan, investing in building local training capacity, and implementing effective and efficient training activities.

Coaching

Leadership teams organize the personnel and resources to facilitate, assist, maintain, and adapt school training implementation efforts. The team must commit resources for both initial training and on-going implementation support.

Evaluation

The district or state implementation must include measurable outcomes. Leadership teams identify methods to evaluate progress and use data to modify or adapt action plans accordingly.

Coordination

Effective implementation requires coordinating materials, time, personnel, and more from the action plan across multiple schools and contexts. The leadership team carries this responsibility.

Assessing District and State Level Implementation

District and state leadership teams should regularly assess the status of factors associated with systemic implementation of PBIS. Self-assessment results are used to develop and modify district/state action plans. Assessment tools include:

Get Started…

The first step to establish district and state oversight is to download the PBIS Implementation Blueprint. Districts and states getting started with PBIS implementation will also want to establish a leadership team. Be sure to include people whose roles, responsibilities, and activities are associated with:

  • Training
  • Coaching
  • Evaluation
  • Coordination
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Tools

Resources in this section include assessments, blueprints, examples, and materials to aid in implementing PBIS.

Publications

Publications listed below include every eBook, monograph, brief, and guide written by the PBIS Technical Assistance Center.

Presentations

Presentations about their experiences, published research, and best practices from recent sessions, webinars, and trainings

Videos

Recordings here include keynotes and presentations about PBIS concepts as well tips for implementation.