Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

Social, emotional, and behavioral competence has been shown to be as important as cognitive skills in ensuring a young child’s success in school. Additionally, early childhood educators report that a lack of social competence and the presence of challenging behaviors in their classrooms is their biggest concern. In order to address these issues DECAL is engaged in an initiative to provide training and support to early childhood educators, families, and others in evidence-based practices designed to improve classroom climate by promoting social competence and addressing challenging behavior in young children.

DECAL’s early childhood Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) initiative includes training and support in implementation of Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children. This model is a framework of evidence-based practices developed by two national, federally-funded research and training centers. This tiered framework provides universal supports promoting the social emotional development of all young children, as well as additional supports for children and families with more complex needs. If you would like more information about the model please go to http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/.

Our VISION is for all young children in Georgia to have strong social emotional foundations for lifelong learning and enhanced academic success that are strengthened through a network of professionals, families, and community members.

The core values that drive this work are:

• All children are capable, competent individuals who thrive in high quality learning environments.
• Early relationships matter.
• Children are individuals who develop at various rates.
• All children can be successful in high-quality early learning environments.

For more information about Pyramid Model training or DECAL’s early childhood PBIS initiative contact Cassa Andrews cassa.andrews@decal.ga.gov.