EBIS Effective Behavior & Instructional Supports Tina Rodriguez June 23, 2013

What It Is A blended model of Response To Intervention (RTI) & Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Allows districts and programs to be able to meet the academic and behavioral needs of all students.

3 Purposes To review school-wide behavior and academic data to evaluate the effectiveness of core programs. To screen and identify students needing additional academic and/or behavior support. To plan, implement and modify interventions for these students (depending on each student’s “response to intervention,” a formal referral for special education evaluation may result).

How Students are Identified as Struggling & Needing Support Continuous data is collected on student behavior, reading, math, and writing. This data is presented to each grade level every 6 weeks during EBIS meetings (this is in lieu of student study teams, etc.). Each grade level meets about 3x/year, which creates 1 EBIS meeting each week, which means tons of data being tracked and shared weekly!

Who tracks all this data? Building Literacy Specialist DIBELS, reading interventions Building School Psych/Counselor CICO, attendance, counseling referrals, health room Building Principal Math (This may be unique to the school I was at…) Building Learning Specialist Behavior & academics for students already in Special Education

How Students are Identified as Struggling & Needing Support Each meeting follows a prescribed agenda (see handout) & building principal facilitates (i.e., keeps the flow and keeps people on track). This agenda clearly lays out the decision rules used in TTSD to identify students who are struggling & needing support either in behavior, reading, math, or writing. These decisions are based almost entirely on data (with the exception of some behavioral issues).

How Decisions are Made to Match Students to Interventions See handout! TTSD provides a standard protocol that includes decision rules about when students change interventions, when interventions should be individualized, when students should be referred to SPED, and when students should be exited from intervention. TTSD provides all its schools with a menu of evidence-based interventions to be used depending on the need of a student.

Data Collection Reading: DIBELS Behavior: ODR, Red Slips, Health Room, Attendance, CICO Math: CBMs Writing: CBMs

Reading DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills): A set of assessments used for universal screening and progress monitoring in grades K-6. Help guide school personnel in identifying students who may need additional literacy instruction in order to become proficient readers.

How TTSD Uses DIBELS Students are continuously progress monitored. This means they are “probed” once a week, every week, for the entire school year. Literacy Specialist tracks all student DIBELS data This data is the precursor to who needs what intervention (see handout). DIBELS data is presented by the Lit. Specialist every week during EBIS to each grade level meeting.

More DIBELS… A basic breakdown of how students are identified as needing extra reading support based on DIBELS data: After collecting 6 data points or “probes” (so after 6 weeks), the team looks at the students whose scores are in the bottom 30%. Students who received 5/6 data points above their aimline stay in the “green zone”. **The aimline is created using the median of the three data points prior to an intervention change.

More DIBELS… Students who received 3-4/6 are moved to the “yellow zone”. Students who receive less than this move to the “red zone”. If a student remains in the “red zone” after another 6 weeks, the student is considered for a Tier 3 intervention (see handout…)

Durham Data Example

More DIBELS… The student is considered for exiting from intervention when they have 3 progress monitoring data points at or above the next DIBELS benchmark and core reading assessments and interventions indicate grade-level proficiency and the student has met the benchmark goal on OAKS.

Behavior What data is tracked and presented weekly: Red Slips (minor infractions) Office Discipline Referrals (major infractions) Progress on Behavior Support Plans Daily behavior data from CICO Counseling referrals Health room visits

Behavior Decision Rules See handout! K-1 students that teachers believe may need behavior support are screened by the “Early Screening Project” (ESP) ESP = A screener for 3-5 year olds experiencing either internal or external preschool adjustment problems. Helps initiate early intervention and to identify students who may be at risk for emotional problems, speech/language difficulties, attention deficits, and more.

Behavior Decision Rules K-1 cont.: Students who score in the “high-risk” or “extreme- risk” range on ESP are considered for First Step to Success (FSTS) program. FSTS = a home & school intervention program for preschool - 3rd grade that recruits parents as partners with the school in teaching the at-risk child a behavior pattern contributing to school success and the development of friendships. Students identified as “at-risk” or “deficit” on Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) are considered for Tier 2 Reading and/or Behavior Interventions.

Behavior Decision Rules K-5 Place students in Strategic (Tier 2) intervention if: Student has 2 or more ODRs within 3-month period. If more than 5 absences in 30-day period: EBIS team reviews data to determine appropriate interventions. *Consider a referral to the district Behavior Team if student isn’t successful with the strategic intervention.

How Students are Referred to Special Education Reading: Referred for evaluation if after one highly- structured, 6-week, individually designed intervention (Tier 3), progress continues below aimline OR the team determines that the support is so significant that the student will need continued individual and intensive instruction.

How Students are Referred to Special Education Behavior: This is much less clear and students receive a TON of support before any referral to SPED occurs. A student first receives intervention and support from staff at the school (a lot of CICO). If this is unsuccessful, a FBA and BSP are completed and implemented.

How Students are Referred to Special Education If this is unsuccessful the district’s Behavior Team steps in to implement another FBA and BSP. Meanwhile, staff also works with students and families to get any outside support that might be needed (i.e., counseling, parent coaching, etc.). I’ve seen parents participating in PCIT (Amanda ;) ), which is great!

How Students are Referred to Special Education Specifically, TTSD protocol says: Place students in Intensive (Tier 3) Intervention AND refer to Red Zone Team if: Progress is below the expected rate after 6 weeks of Strategic Interventions. Perform FBA & develop BSP. Student receives 6 or more behavior referrals. Perform FBA, develop BSP, & consult with Care Coordinator (outside counseling) and/or Juvenile Court Counselor.

How Students are Referred to Special Education There is a significant concern regarding mental health issues, anti-social behavior, or serious concerns about family support. Student’s behavior poses a potential risk to self or others.

How Students are Referred to Special Education Math: If progress is below the expected rate after 6 weeks of Intensive (Tier 3) Intervention. Writing: If progress is below the expected rate after 12 weeks of Intensive (Tier 3) Intervention.