Alternative education (AE) programs and schools usually serve distinct populations of students with educational disabilities and mental health or other needs. AE program staff often employ a range of curricula, interventions, and strategies that form an eclectic approach to addressing student needs. This may result in practices that are misaligned, contraindicated, or improperly implemented and lead to poor outcomes. In addition, this eclectic approach may not be implemented in an organized, tiered manner that ensures all students’ access to a continuum of supports and services. In this article, a decision-making process for staff in AE settings to adopt and embed positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) practices is presented. This process is rooted in the PBIS framework of systems, data, and practices, and in a public health model of team-based decision making. The authors submit that this approach could be used across a variety of AE program models.

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