BEACONS

In October of 1997, Dr. Terry Bergeson, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Mr. Lyle Quasim, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services appointed a 30-member Task Force on Behavioral Disabilities to “make recommendations and identify resources in the areas of (a) policy and regulation, (b) program and placement, (c) funding, (d) cross-system access and collaboration (e) parent involvement, and (f) school safety.”

The Task Force reviewed extensive literature on best practices, met with constituent groups, and convened meetings with national experts to reach the following conclusions in their final report:

1. To meet the serious need identified, a mandated infrastructure must be established to coordinate existing services in a transdisciplinary “Comprehensive System of Care” - cutting across boundaries of funding, professions, disciplines and roles, and relying on extensive collaboration from families, education, social, human and health services.
2. Efforts of this infrastructure must address issues of prevention and intervention strategies for all children at risk of developing a serious behavior disorder, and the training required for practicing professionals and families to provide prevention and intervention services.

The Task Force recommended that a Comprehensive System of Care be developed and implemented throughout the state that addressed three levels - universal, targeted at-risk, and intensive - based on a child's emotional and behavioral needs. The levels were suggested as critical in an article by Walker et al. (1996) and include:

Universal Services

Services are provided to the entire “universe” of children to help them develop healthy behaviors, and could include skill-building for group play, conflict resolution and sports.

Targeted At-Risk Services

Services are directed to children with an elevated risk of developing behavioral problems and could include mentoring, behavior intervention plans, and skill-building for anger and behavior management.

Intensive Services

Services are provided to children with serious behavior problems and could include behavior intervention plans overseen by teams of professionals, day treatment, or alternative education, or residential treatment for the most serious cases.

To be effective, the proposed Comprehensive System of Care shall be:

• Endorsed by state and local policymakers, educational institutions, social service and health agencies, and families.
• Supported by an adequate, flexible funding source that finances a child's need.
• Guided by well-documented and well-researched strategies of best practices that are continually evaluated to ensure both program efficacy and fiscal efficiency.
• Committed to prevention and intervention, and the training needed to achieve the greatest service effectiveness.

A full copy of the report can be accessed at the OSPI Website [www.k12.wa.us/] under Publications.

In 1998, Doug Cheney, one of the co-chairs of the Task Force and a professor in the area of special education at the University of Washington, submitted a proposal to the US Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services to establish PBS demonstration sites in Washington. The proposal was supported by members of the Task Force was subsequently funded from 1998-2002. The sites that were initially funded to serve as demonstration sites were located at Ness Elementary in Spokane Valley, Burnt Bridge Creek Elementary in Vancouver, Seahurst Elementary in Burien, and Syre Elementary in Shoreline, Washington.

The results of the BEACONS Project, as well as the findings of the University of Oregon's Center for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), indicate that the BEACONS model positively impacts school capacity and climate in a number of ways. The self-assessment and action planning process provides an opportunity for school staff to target areas of concern for systematic improvement. This process brings the school faculty together in order to set clear expectations, define procedures and processes for addressing concerns, and establish priorities for the school. Results demonstrate that school climate improves, office discipline referrals decrease, and both teachers and administrators regain instructional time that had previously been lost to responding to problem behaviors (Sugai & Horner, 2002, Cheney, Walker, & Blum 2002).

BEACONS schools used a more thoughtful and data based system for tracking and evaluating discipline problems, and became more adept at responding to issues such as bullying and the disproportionate discipline for children of color. The emphasis on early identification and intervention for students at-risk for school failure resulted in a more efficient use of school resources. Support teams focused on meeting student's emergent needs rather than responding to well established problems, as well as reduced the number of students referred to a multidisciplinary team for special education eligibility. BEACONS Project schools also saw an improvement in both the social and academic functioning of their at-risk students based on reviews of both report cards and state achievement test scores. Classroom observations indicated that at-risk students improved the level of their on-task behavior, as well as reduced the level of disruptive behaviors, to a level comparable to their typically developing peers (Cheney, Walker, & Blum 2002). Additionally, the consistent use of Functional Behavior Assessments has made it possible for students with Emotional or Behavioral Disabilities to more successfully access the general education curriculum. (Walker, 2002).

Finally, families became more involved in school activities and supports. One school in the BEACONS Project developed a program to increase parent involvement and support. This program provides a range of family services, from monthly parent nights, parenting support groups and training, as well as linkages to community services. Reports from the school suggest that families who were not previously connected to the school have significantly increased their involvement in school programs (Cheney, Walker, & Peterson, 2002 Yakima).

In 2003, we began “scaling-up” the BEACONS project. The Beacons Outreach Project is an expansion project building off of contributions of the BEACONS Project (Cheney, Blum, & Walker, 2004; Walker, Cheney, Stage, & Blum, 2005). Schools participating in this project were invited to join an emerging statewide network of school districts implementing PBS. The goal of the network was to “scale-up” or extend the successful PBS work completed in four demonstration schools (Cheney et al., 2004; Walker et al., 2005) to 20 schools in school districts in five regions of Washington state (East, Central, South, West, and Northwest). School districts in these regions educate about 80% of all students in the state, and we targeted regional training to build a sustainable network of schools implementing PBS.

The focus of the Beacons Outreach Project is to enhance schools' structures and strategies at three levels of PBS: school-wide, targeted and intensive. On-going professional development to support their knowledge, skills and strategies across 4 major Training Goals: 1) To identify, teach, and reinforce students' positive social skills and decrease discipline problems in schools, 2) To identify students who are at-risk of school failure based on their social behavior and to provide them with targeted supports, 3) To identify students with significant behavior problems and provide them with intensive intervention and support, and 4) To enhance collaboration practices with families and local agencies and to expand services and supports for students.

A major focus of the Beacons Outreach Project is staff training in strategies for implementing the PBS model, including both school-wide and targeted group systems. Upon entering into the project, PBS teams were constructed at each school and those teams attended a two-day summer institute focusing on development and implementation of school-wide positive behavior support. School teams attending the summer institute learned, reviewed, refined, or developed positive school-wide behavioral expectations. The teams worked on methods to display and produce written products in their schools around these expectations. Examples of products produced were posters for every classroom and non-classroom setting and revisions of the school's handbook on policies and procedures relating to student conduct and discipline.

School teams also developed lesson plans for teachers to use in their classrooms to teach desired social behavior based on the recommendations of Sugai and Lewis (1998). Additionally, the team reviewed their approaches for both reinforcing desired behavior that met school-wide expectations and for discouraging and consequating problem behavior in schools. Teams worked on revising office discipline referral forms to match the fields in the School-wide Information System (SWIS; May et. al., 2000) and practiced using the SWIS system in a computer lab that was onsite at the training facility. Teams were also given an overview of the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD; Walker & Severson, 1992) so that they would be prepared to screen students during the winter of the first year of implementing PBS. Throughout the school year, each school's PBS teams met at least twice a month to assess progress with school-wide implementation and targeted intervention. Beacons project staff conducted regular school visits to monitor progress and provide additional training and support as needed.

This project has been supported by grants from the US Office of Special Education, Washington's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Washington's Education Association grant funds provide schools access to training and technical assistance in exemplary practices, and small grants to implement those practices.

Project efforts in the 2006-7 school year were focused on compiling and reporting data collected during the three years of project implementation, and supporting schools in their efforts of sustainability of PBS practices.

Cheney, D., Blum, C., & Walker, B. (2004). An analysis of leadership teams' perceptions of positive behavior support and the outcomes of typically developing and at-risk students in their schools, Assessment for Effective Intervention, 30, 7-24.

Cheney, D., Walker, B., & Blum, C. (2002, November) Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports: Results from schools in Washington. Paper presented at the Teaching Educators of Children with Behavior Disorders Conference, Tempe, AZ.

Cheney, D., Walker, B. & Peterson, L. (2001, June) The BEACONS Project: Positive behavior supports through school improvement and family involvement. Paper presented at the Washington Behavior Healthcare Conference, Yakima, WA.

May, S., Ard, W., Todd, A., Horner, R., Glasgow, A., Sugai, G. & Sprague, J. (2002). School-wide Information System, University of Oregon, Educational and Community Supports.

Sugai, G. & Horner, R. (2002). The evolution of discipline practices: School-wide positive behavior supports. Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 24, 23-50.

Sugai, G. & Lewis, T. (1996). Preferred and promising practices for social skills instruction, Focus on Exceptional Children, 29, 2 – 16.

Walker, B. (2002). Bringing functional behavior assessment and positive behavior support plans to life in general education classrooms. Unpublished manuscript, University of Washington, Box 353600, Seattle, WA 98195.

Walker, B., Cheney, D., Stage, S., & Blum, C. (2005). Schoolwide screening and positive behavior support: Identifying and supporting students at risk of school failure. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 7, 194-204.

Walker, H.M., Horner, R.H. Sugai, G., Bullis, M. Sprauge, J.R., Bricker, D., Kaufman, M.J. (1996). Integrated approaches to preventing antisocial behavior patterns among school-age children and youth. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 4, 194-209.

Walker, H. & Severson, H. (1992). Systematic screening of behavior disorders (SSBD): A multiple gating procedure. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.