Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) for PA Distance K-8 Students

To help PA Distance become a safer and more effective school, we have implemented a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program, a research-based and school-wide classroom behavior support system. As a reward for students exhibiting desirable behaviors, they can earn “Scholar Dollars” to use at the PA Distance PBIS Rewards School Store.

“PBIS Rewards is to reinforce the Core Four at the K-8 level,” Elementary Principal, Mrs. Aubrey Ploesch, explained.

“We put several universal structures in place to support students and this is one of them,” she explained.

The Core Four is made up of four behaviors that PA Distance feels students need in order to be successful in life as well as school. Students are instructed and rewarded for organization, self-advocacy, working independently, and attending school.

Students can receive Scholar Dollars when they display desired behaviors relating to the Core Four. During class, a teacher can reward a student with a Scholar Dollar for a specific reason like if they answer a question correctly or if they work on an important assignment independently.

“Our new PBIS Rewards program is centralized and houses the data all in one place,” she said. “Any teacher throughout the school can reward students Scholar Dollars whether they have them for a class or not.”

The points are stored on the PBIS Rewards online portal making it easy for teachers to track points for each of their students as they move from class to class. Points that are earned can be used to purchase items at the online school store which is set up similar to any other online store.

"Students can go into the School Store to view what’s available and what they can afford with the points that they have,” Mrs. Ploesch explained. “Every two weeks, we go into the School Store to collect all of the items that students have ‘purchased’ and ship them directly to them.”

“We can even set it up where students can earn interest if they save their Scholar Dollars,” she added. “It reinforces career-ready skills that encourage responsible financial decisions.”

What makes the new PBIS Rewards program helpful is the opportunity for school teachers and administrators to collect data and use it to the students’ benefit.

“We can run reports to see which students are getting points and what types of behaviors in which they are earning points,” she explained. “We use the data that we see to focus on students who need more support and more attention.”

“The idea behind it is that PBIS Rewards should support engagement and engagement should increase student academic improvement,” she explained.