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Are you feeling swamped by the demands of being a principal? From juggling emails, calls, and decisions to boosting test scores and wading through endless paperwork, the pressure is real.
But imagine a scenario where you no longer feel this overwhelming stress. Picture yourself as a more resilient leader, concentrating on enhancing your school rather than merely coping with the daily tasks that currently consume your time.
I‘m Barb Flowers. Drawing upon my eight-year experience as an elementary principal, with a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and certification as a life coach, Along the way, I've mentored and coached school leaders, guiding them to change their mindset, set boundaries and focus on their own well-being while navigating their roles.
Each episode offers practical insights on time management, communication, overcoming overwhelm, boosting confidence, and fostering a positive mindset. We'll also discuss topics like working with stakeholders, implementing new initiatives, and managing discipline. Let's set boundaries, focus on well-being, and reignite your passion for being a principal. Welcome to "The Principal's Handbook."
I firmly believe that to be an impactful educator, you must first become a confident and well-rounded individual. Join us in this journey to empower and enhance your confidence as a school leader.
Why PBIS Tier 2 Matters and Tips to Make it Simple and Sustainable
[00:00:00] In today's episode, we are going to be talking about PBIS tier two and why it matters. That's all coming up next on the Principal's handbook.
Speaker: Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority. I.
Well, welcome everyone. I'm so glad you're here. Today we are talking about PBIS Tier two, I have a love hate relationship with it because the last [00:01:00] building I was a principal of, we focused a lot on PBIS.
In my new building, we will as well, but we focused a lot on PBIS and we had tier one down. The principal who was there before me was really great with tier one, helped me implement it, learn about tier one, and we got the bronze medal from the state of Ohio, which just means you have 80% or higher implementation with tier one.
And really we're rocking it. And so we decided, okay, we're gonna step it up and go to the next level and work on our tier two systems. And tier two is the trickiest, I think. And talking to other consultants and things who are helping us. They agreed and said this as well, that when working with a lot of buildings, tier two is so tricky because we're really good at tier one where it's universal and then we're really good at tier three, where it's that individualized student who may be on an IEP or needs a functional behavior assessment.
You know, we're good at that, but it's kind of [00:02:00] the kids in the middle that are a little bit harder. , and when we think about PBIS tier two. We think about there should be 10 to 15% of our students who are on tier two because if 80% of our students are responding to tier one, then 10 to 15% should need tier two, and five to 10% should need tier three.
And so we struggled in our building implementing tier two. . We created a tier two team based on all of our success with tier one of people who were interested in getting it up and running for the building.
But it was a challenge just because, like I said, we went to trainings and things like that, but there was so much paperwork. And when we started, what we were really trying to do that I think was the wrong approach, is we were trying to go for the silver medal.
So like I said, in Ohio there's the bronze. Which means you have 80% fidelity for tier one. If you have 80% fidelity for tier two, you get silver, and for tier three you get gold. And so we were like, okay, [00:03:00] we're going for the silver award, and we just focus so hard on getting that award
instead of creating a system that worked well for our building. And so what happened was we created the system to get the award, but then I felt like it wasn't sustainable, it just didn't work for us, and we needed to go back to the drawing board. And so we had to make a lot of tweaks to it. And so really today what I wanna talk about is why tier two matters and.
Give you the mistakes that we made, what our process was, and how we finally got a tier two system that we really liked and was actually working to support teachers and students. . First, I just wanna jump into why tier two matters. Well, like I said, we need a framework to support 10 to 15% of students who aren't responding to our tier one system.
And if we have a solid tier two system in place, it's going to help reduce our office referrals. It's going to help to support teachers when they feel like nothing they're doing in the classrooms working. And it really helps with just [00:04:00] people feeling burnt out and inconsistent discipline. It also helps with inequities on how behavior's handled because there's a clear system and process.
. So that's really why it's important. It is important to have some sort of system in place. If we think about academics, of course we have interventions in place for kids who are struggling academically and not just the most intensive, but kids who just aren't up to that 80%.
So tier two for behavior does matter. It is important to have a process. So I wanted to talk about a little bit about our process. So what we did and how we implemented tier two was kind of similar to how we did our RTI model. I know a lot of people in different states and different districts, everybody talks about it different.
Whether it's mTSS as a whole, that's your RTI and PBIS underneath together, or you know, we kind of do our RTI and PBIS separate, but it's all part of that [00:05:00] MTSS system. Okay. So very similar processes, but we just did them separate. If it's more of an academic behavior, they're going to RTI, response to intervention.
If it's more of a behavior issue, they're going to PBIS. Tier two. . And then from there we could decide if it's tier three, which we're not getting into today. So what our process was, was we really, first formed a team. So our team consisted of, , an administrator, which was me, the assistant principal was there.
We had our school counselor, we had teacher reps. , we had a behavior coach on there. We had. Teachers who were just good at behavior. We tried to have a specialist on there and then a general classroom teacher because the specialists saw all students. So that was really helpful. I'm in an elementary, so when I say specialist, I'm talking art, music, library, pe, computer.
And that just was helpful because they see all students, so they have a different perspective. So we formed a team. We all had different roles on the team. So one of the [00:06:00] teachers was actually the chair of the committee, , that kind of helped the flow of things. Also, one person was usually the note taker and
, helped to make sure that we kept our minutes and helped to make sure that we were tracking our referrals, who was coming in, things like that. So we had those roles, we had the people on the team, and then we scheduled biweekly meetings. So we would pick like every other Tuesday. We're gonna have PBIS tier two and tier one might be once a month on Thursday, because tier one we only needed once a month.
Tier two, we needed twice a month. And we used an agenda, to know which students were being referred, what students we needed to discuss their interventions. And then we tracked progress as a team. So that was the first thing, forming that team. Then we created clear criteria. So we thought about, okay, how are students being referred?
Well, one way we wanted them to be referred was we did office managed behaviors. We did not track data for classroom managed [00:07:00] behaviors, and it just worked for us. , but we did office managed behaviors. So one way students could be referred is if they had multiple, like three plus referrals and a short period of time, within six weeks, they're having office referrals for the same incident.
That could be a tier two kid. The other way we did it was teachers could refer students, so that was the other way, and parents could refer students, but rarely did a parent refer a student that a teacher didn't. Already refer. Most parents who would've wanted to refer their child, the teacher was already on it and referring them.
So that's what we did. And we had a referral form that teachers filled out and they brought them to the PBIS team. We would meet, we would come up with interventions based on what the teachers already tried based on. , just things going on with that student, what we knew about that student. We also made sure that the teacher notified the parent before coming to the meeting, just so that they were on the same page and knew that students were coming to tier two.
They [00:08:00] explained, , that it was a tier. That it was a team of teachers who would be helping and supporting, come up with interventions to help with behaviors. And one of the nice things about that was that sometimes we know when working with parents, , some parents take it very seriously when their kids have a behavior issue.
But some do not. And so being able to take them to a team and them getting a letter saying, Hey, they're going to tier two, it stepped up the seriousness of it a little bit and made them realize, okay, this might not be typical. That's what we would tell parents if they weren't getting it. This is not typical behavior, which is why we need extra supports.
. So those were some things. So we started with our team, then we started with the referral process. And we had teachers come to the meetings and we would give them the interventions. Now, one thing when you're thinking about interventions, so that's the next step is having those interventions to launch is you want to start very small.
We would go on our first year and look at what different people we're doing and we'd have all these different interventions. It ended [00:09:00] up being that the main intervention we use was check-in checkout, which makes total sense because it's one of the number one tier two interventions. .
So just having one to three interventions that you start with is really helpful because then you can make sure you have a fidelity check and make sure it's implemented with Fidelity. You can make sure your progress monitoring the intervention. Okay. Right, and that was the thing that we learned was we were trying to implement too much the first time around in too short of amount of time.
Nobody had the proper training or understanding because we were just going through the motions. Like I said, trying to like check the boxes that we had everything we needed for tier two, and it wasn't really supporting kids the way that it needed to because we were just trying to get the forms and the things that we needed.
So, again, I'm gonna go back through it because I know you're probably listening while you're driving or walking. So first we started with our team. , then we looked at our referral criteria, how teachers would refer, how we would notify parents.[00:10:00]
Then we chose and had those interventions in place that we used at the meeting to share with teachers, and then usually at the meeting we would train teachers in the intervention. Then you could do a whole group training with teachers on. It just seemed to be more meaningful if teachers got that one-on-one explanation of exactly what check-in checkout was with the team right there.
You know, and we wouldn't do it right in the meeting, but like maybe the behavior specialist or one of our intervention specialists who was really good at behavior, would meet with that teacher one-on-one and help them understand the check-in checkout once they got the one the.
A tracker that was customized to their student. Okay. So we just, that's how we did it. That seemed to be the way that worked the best. , and then, like I said, we had criteria of what that looked like, and then we monitor progress. We would check in every, it was usually about every six to eight weeks as a team.
Now granted, I, as the principal knew. Which kids were having behaviors in the school. And so [00:11:00] if it was a little bit higher of a priority of tier two, I would go check in more frequently. Sometimes we would have our behavior coach go observe to have another set of eyes, to see something from a different perspective. , because I never wanted to observe as the evaluator, but that was just something that we did. So we always monitored that progress. And then they would come back to tier two, we would see if it was working or not working. Now how we know if they're a true tier two student is, tier two should be short term.
If they're on tier two all year long, , they're probably turning into a tier three student. Okay? The goal of tier two is to be very fluid. They go in it, they go out, right? Like they come in because of a behavior, they go out. , so that is the idea. Another intervention that we did. , my assistant and I did that was really helpful was we did it, it came from behavior academies and I actually have a podcast episode that I'll link in the show notes where they talk about behavior [00:12:00] academies.
The authors of the book were on the podcast, but , the behavior academies were amazing. So it's basically taking a topic and you teach on that topic to help change the behavior. So that's something I'll link in there too, but again, I wouldn't start with it right away.
You wanna keep it super simple. So I just wanna talk a little bit about some mindset shifts that we had to really address with the staff and with the team. Because what happened was we created this process, and especially the first year, right? We had so many forms and we were so excited. We got it all created so quick.
But a lot of people weren't referring. And even then, when we, modified it a little bit and made it fit our building better, people weren't referring right away. So what had to happen was the PBIS team, the tier two team, had to talk to teachers. We wanted informal conversations.
What are you hearing? Why aren't they referring people? Can you please remind them? And then we would actually talk about it. Like every staff meeting. Remember, if you have a student who's struggling, they're not [00:13:00] responding to tier one, you're referring them to the office.
Of course, we had the office data. Then they might be a candidate for tier two. Let's fill out a referral form. And what I found from talking to teachers and what other teachers found from talking to teachers is that teachers had the mindset, if I refer a student, it means I've failed as a teacher. Not every teacher there were teachers who would come to us.
, but some of the teachers, especially I would say like the, you know, I was in a K five building especially. Teachers who taught like fourth and fifth grade, they might think that it said something about them. They just handled. The kids in the classroom. And so an important part of the tier two process is actually the mindset shifts that have to happen because we just stressed over and over again the shift of, instead of it means you failed, it actually is here for support, not judgment.
Okay. So reminding them that the team is here for support, not judgment. And then another one is it's more paperwork. Well. [00:14:00] Again, the paperwork is going to help in the long run.
It wasn't a long form. We tried to keep it as simple as possible, but that's going to help with the behavior and make things easier on the backend. The other thing was teachers would say, well, nothing's going to change if they go to tier two. And again, we had to reframe that as of course things are going to change.
And we had to share success stories because. If it's not a student in their class, they didn't know the success stories that were happening from kids being referred to tier two. So those were just some mindset shifts we had to address with the staff.
Some common pitfalls that we fell into were teachers weren't sure how to refer, no matter how many times we talked about it and explained the process. You go on a staff meeting, you hear how to refer a student to PBIS tier two, and then two months goes by. And you forget when you need it. .
So we talked about it a lot, but we realized that we had to give them cheat sheets. We had to repeat the training a lot, which we just kept short and simple, but we had to be [00:15:00] talking about it all the time on how to refer. We would talk about it at staff meetings. We would put it in the weekly notes, just as a quick reminder, because again, if the team showed teachers at the beginning of the year and three months passed, they totally forgot, and then they're stressed, they're overwhelmed.
They're not sure how to do it, and so they just don't do it. So repeated training, cheat sheets, keep it top of mind. The other, , common pitfall that we faced was meetings would run long. So I mean, we didn't have a long time because we did it in the morning from eight to eight 30, so we couldn't have them run long because teachers had to get to their classes.
What would happen is we might schedule three teachers to be part of that PBIS meeting to talk about kids, but we would only have time for one because a teacher could talk for 25 to 30 minutes about one student. Think about that. When you have a student with behaviors. There's a lot of things you could say, which is all important, but that's the point of the form.
We gotta keep it really concise. And then a lot of, like ISC administrator knew that student, a lot of people knew. We just [00:16:00] needed the highlights so that we could come up with the interventions. We didn't need the whole history, and so we had to really get better at using timers, focusing on following the form as we talk about the student.
, and just keeping people on time to really respect everybody's time in the meeting. And then another pitfall we faced was low parent communication. And so we really made it clear that teachers had. To talk to parents before the team letter went out, because we never wanted a parent to get that team letter that said the tier two team is here to support your child, and they have no idea what they're talking about.
They never knew there was a behavior issue. So that was an important thing, is that teachers were communicating along the way that there's a behavior. And then another pitfall that we faced is staff overwhelm, right? And we as the team felt overwhelmed, like I said, because we just dove in and did way too much to start, and it was very overwhelming and it was not sustainable.
So [00:17:00] we took a step back, started simple, celebrated those small wins with the staff so they could see what we were doing, what was working, what wasn't working, and really focused on creating simple, sustainable systems. For tier two. , , if you're just getting started, the thing I would say that we did is don't wait for perfection.
. Don't wait for everything to be perfect. You just gotta jump in with something small. It's progress over perfection . . Remember that tier two isn't about fixing kids, it's about supporting their growth. . , sometimes I think we get wrapped up in , we want quick results.
We wanna see change right now, but we're talking about kids and it takes a while for us to see behaviors change. And we'd have kids that would do awesome and then all of a sudden something would happen at home and it could change the behavior, right? We've all experienced that as educators. It's not a straight line of progress, and so we have to remember that.
They're gonna make progress and then go down and make progress and go down. But the goal is that it is going [00:18:00] up in the long term. So just remember, you don't need to do it all at once, but you do need to create a simple, sustainable system that works for your school and your students because your kids and your teachers deserve it.
They deserve to have the support from the tier two team and have the resources in place to support when a student isn't responding to tier one. And, I really encourage you because of the difficulties we had in our first year .
I created A-P-B-I-S tier two toolkit for principles that will actually give you all the forms that you need to start PBIS tier two, all the steps that we took as a building and take you step by step through it. I even have, a Google sheet of a training that you can do PD with your staff.
I have so many resources because like I said, I was just pulling stuff from everywhere. And I was overwhelming everyone. I overwhelmed myself. I overwhelmed the team. We overwhelmed the [00:19:00] teachers. It was just too much. And so I wanted to take that whole experience of just the overwhelm of implementing tier two and create a simple and sustainable process.
So I do have that. I'll put the link in the show notes if you're interested in that PBIS Tier two toolkit. Also follow me on TikTok at the eight to four principle for quick leadership, tips on behavior and many other topics.
And if you go back, listen to the previous episode I did on tier one and having that tier one system in place because we know that having that tier one universal system in place. Is really setting that foundation so that you have less kids in tier two. So I hope you found this helpful. I hope that you listened to this and you didn't feel overwhelmed by hearing all the components of tier two.
Maybe you're even doing all of this in your building, which is amazing. Maybe you're doing some of it, but if you want, like I said, I'll put the tier two toolkit in the show notes. Grab that. If you need help getting started to just to avoid the overwhelm, avoid the frustration that [00:20:00] we felt our first year of doing PBIS tier two.
, if you like the podcast, I would love if you'd leave a review. It helps other people find the podcast , keep in mind, you have the power to shape your life according to the mindset you choose. I hope you have a great week. I'll see you back here next time. Okay