Special education continues to document the poor within and post-school outcomes among children and youth with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders (EBD). While the poor outcomes are due to a myriad of causes, three issues routinely emerge as problematic in the field. First, the need for early intervention and prevention has been well documented, and…

When chronic problem behaviors occur in schools, the tendency is to react with stringent and restrictive consequences. Recently, emphasis has shifted toward proactive prevention strategies. In this article, we focus on what we know and need to know about school-wide applications of effective practices and systems for preventing problem behaviors.…

Bullying behaviors are a growing concern in U.S. schools. We present here a behavioral approach to bully prevention utilizing a schoolwide intervention. Bully prevention in positive behavior support (BP-PBS) teaches students to withhold the social rewards hypothesized to maintain bullying. A single-subject multiple baseline design across 6…

There is increasing concern over the number of young children who exhibit challenging behaviors in early childhood settings. Comprehensive prevention models are needed to support teachers' management of challenging behaviors and to avert the development of such behaviors within at-risk populations. One approach utilizes a three-tier prevention…

In this introductory article, the main features of positive behavior support are described, including a prevention-focused continuum of support, proactive instructional approaches to teaching and improving social behaviors, conceptually sound and empirically validated practices, systems change to support effective practices, and data-based…