Educators’ Perceptions on the Involvement of Students With Complex Support Needs in PBIS: The Role of Educational Placement

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based practice that promotes positive academic and behavioral outcomes for all students and is intended to support the needs of all students across three tiers of support. However, research suggests students with complex support needs have limited access to Tier 1 PBIS. Teachers’ perceptions of the appropriateness of PBIS to meet the needs of students with complex support needs has been hypothesized to impact the extent to which educators provide access to Tier 1. Using data from a national survey of 644 educators, we sought to determine the extent to which educational placement of students with complex support needs impacted teacher perception of the importance of providing Tier 1 PBIS. Our results suggest educators across placements agree students with complex support needs should be involved in PBIS, including acknowledgment systems and response and data plans. Educators differed in their ideas of how to teach school-wide rules and expectations and how to document behavioral violations. We discuss implications of these findings for research and practice.