Responsiveness-to-Intervention and School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports: Integration of Multi-Tiered System Approaches

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and No Child Left Behind emphasize the use of scientifically based research to improve outcomes for students. From this emphasis, response-to-intervention has evolved. We present one perspective on the defining features of response-to-intervention and application of those features to school-wide positive behavior supports (SWPBS). We suggest that the initial purpose of response-to-intervention has expanded from a focus on screening and improved outcomes for students with learning disabilities to a general approach for improving instructional and intervention decision making for all students. We describe a similar evolution of SWPBS, only with a focus on the (a) social culture within the whole school and (b) behavior supports for those students with problem behavior. We conclude by suggesting that the response-to-intervention approach offers an excellent umbrella of guiding principles for improved assessment and intervention decision making, and that SWPBS is an example of the application of these principles to the challenge of establishing formal systems of behavior support for all students' school-and classroom-wide. To guide SWPBS implementation, we offer a self-assessment protocol for school and leadership implementation teams to improve the development of an integrated continuum of behavioral interventions and practices that is effective, efficient, relevant, and durable.