The BEACONS project started in 1998 as a result of the work of the Washington Task Force on Behavioral Disabilities. The Task Force met from 1997-99 and prepared a comprehensive set of recommendations to assist schools and communities in a coordinated approach for addressing the challenging behavior of students with and without disabilities. Since 1998, BEACONS has been working with schools to develop school-wide, targeted, and intensive interventions for students. To date, 20 elementary schools in 6 regions of the state have joined the BEACONS network to meet the needs of children with or at-risk of developing behavioral disabilities.
See also the complete Task Force on Behavioral Disabilities Final Report.
Our Goals
- Build school capacity to meet the social and emotional needs of students & families.
- Improve students' academic and social performance in special and general education classrooms.
- Enhance the knowledge and skills of educators to meet the needs of students with challenging behavior.
- Provide school staff with tools and skills to facilitate the use of data for informed decision-making at school, classroom, and student levels.
- Align with the school wide, targeted group, and intensive intervention approaches as developed by the National Center on PBS at the University of Oregon [pbis.org].
BEACONS has been funded by grants from the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Washington State's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Washington Education Association.
