PAWS

School-wide Behavior Program

A letter from Ms. Holmes...

Dear Parents,

Our school has been participating in an important initiative. It is called Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).

What is Positive Behavior Support?

PBIS is a process for creating safer and more effective schools. It is a systems approach to enhancing the capacity of schools to educate all children by developing research-based, school-wide, and classroom behavior support systems. The process focuses on improving a school’s ability to teach and support positive behavior for all students. Rather than a prescribed program, PBIS provides systems for schools to design, implement, and evaluate effective school-wide, classroom, non-classroom, and student specific plans. PBIS includes school-wide procedures and processes intended for all students and all staff in all settings. PBIS is not a program or a curriculum. It is a team-based process for systemic problem solving, planning, and evaluation. It is an approach to creating a safe and productive learning environment where teachers can teach and all students can learn.

What is PBIS at our school?

We have adopted a unified set of school rules. Similar to the Atascadero Unified School District’s core values, these rules define our expectations for behavior in our school. You will see these rules posted throughout the school and your child has been learning about them all year. Our unified school rules, found in every classroom and non-classroom setting in the school, are as follows:

San Benito Bengals PAUSE for PAWS:

Positive Attitude

Act Responsibly

Work Hard

Safety First

As part of our PBIS process, teachers and other staff members use evidence-based practices to increase student learning and decrease classroom disruptions. To keep students on the rules in a positive manner, we do the following when teaching academics and behavior:

⇒ Constantly teach and refer to our school-wide expectations.

⇒ Provide students with more praise than correction.

⇒ Talk to students with respect using positive voice tone.

⇒ Actively engage everyone in the class during instruction.

⇒ Use pre-correcting, prompting, and redirecting as we teach.

⇒ Look for the positive first and provide positive, immediate, frequent, and explicit feedback.

We also have a school-wide system of consequences. One of the most important functions of the school is to ensure that a safe and healthy environment is maintained at all times. School and classroom rules for student behavior are established so that this goal can be achieved. Violations of school rules will be addressed in every case using an Office Referral system. Student discipline data will be recorded in the computer system. Written notice of infractions and action taken will be sent to parents with each incident that resulted in a referral. Steps listed below will be followed in the referral process:

1st Referral: Conference with Yard Supervisor (if from playground) or office staff (if from classroom). Possible consequences: verbal or written warning, think-it-through, loss of recess, call home.

2nd Referral: Conference with principal. Possible consequences: verbal or written warning/think-it-through, loss of recess, community service, call home.

3rd Referral: Conference with principal. Possible consequences: extended loss of recesses, extended community service, phone call home, written essay about the infraction.

4th Referral: Conference with principal/teacher/parents. Possible consequences: recess detention, community service, in-house suspension, suspension.

5th Referral: Conference with principal, teacher, and parent for development of a behavior plan/contract. Possible consequences: student suspension 1 – 3 days.

6th Referral: Conference with principal, teacher and parent Possible consequences: in-house suspension, suspension 3 – 5 days, modified/reduced day/schedule change.

Please note that some violations of school rules will not be given progressively increasing consequences. State law governs all violations for weapons, drugs, tobacco, violence, etc. For example, a first offense of brandishing a knife, possessing a gun or explosive device, or sale of drugs on school campus are grounds for suspension pending an expulsion hearing. The incident would also be referred to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

If you have questions about Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, please feel free to contact your child’s teacher.

We look forward to a wonderful year of teaching your child.

Kathryn Holmes

Principal

We are utilizing a nation-wide program called Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (P.B.I.S.) for our school-wide behavior program at San Benito. This program is designed to support and increase students academic success and behavioral skills. It is a school-wide plan that helps out students reach important social and learning goals.

As part of the PBIS program, we have established several clear expectations for the behavior we expect in all areas of our school. These core values are PAWS!

P = POSITIVE ATTITUDE

A = ACT RESPONSIBLY

W = WORK HARD

S = SAFETY FIRST

We will clearly teach these behavioral expectations to the students and reward them frequently with positive praise. The expectations for student behavior will be clear throughout our school. Look for your child to talk about Bengal Bucks. We utilize Bengal Bucks to reward our students for demonstrating PAWS behaviors at school. Each staff member provides five Bengal Bucks daily. At the end of each month, we have a Bengal Store where students are able to spend their "bucks" for small items and reward coupons/passes.

Our student council has created short videos to help us learn our PAWS rules. Thank you student council!

Common Language



Pause for PAWS sign
KYHFOOTYPosterKeepYourHandsFeetandOtherObjectstoYourself.pdf
Solution Wheel
Conflict Resolution Poster