The Institute for Understanding Behavior

1. The Institute for Understanding Behavior Supporting Our Students: Skills and Strategies for Responding to Challenging Behaviors Western Regional Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnerships: Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY May 14, 2014

2. The Institute for Understanding Behavior:a progressive and preventative approach for New York City Educators The Institute for Understanding Behavior is a joint initiative created by the United Federation of Teachers with the NYC Department of Education to help schools ensure that every child develops the social, emotional, and academic skills they to succeed in school and in life.

3. The Influence of Educators • Why do educators need an approach that is preventative and proactive? • What types of challenges are our students facing? How do they affect behavior in schools? • What is approach of the IUB? • How can it help us support students?

4. The Institute for Understanding BehaviorOverview of Action Plan for All Participating New Schools *The IUB requires a 3-Year commitment to help a school meet the goals outlined below. However, we believe that many benchmarks can be reached by the end of year 1 with full collaboration from the school. • 3-Year Outcome Goals • Reduction of suspension rates • Lower occurrence of level 1 and 2 incidents (preventing levels 3, 4, 5) • Improved attendance rates • Increased academic achievement • Use of data to support students and school community • Effective Behavior Leadership Team • School wide positive behavior support systems in place • Decreased incidents of staff injury and violence • Lower incidence of staff turnover • Positive change in Quality Review, Progress Report and Learning Environment scores • Enhanced social/emotional competence in staff and students • Self-sustaining practices • Deliverables • 4-Day Therapeutic Crisis Intervention Training for ALL school based staff • Weekend professional development retreat for up to 10 faculty members and follow-up conferences each year • SWIS (School Wide Information Systems) Licensing and Training • Direct School Support by IUB Behavior Specialist • Data Analysis Supported by External Evaluator • Workshops in Understanding Children’s Mental Health, Executive Functioning, Team-teaching, etc. • Ongoing Professional Development in Areas of Identified Need • Support Connecting to Community Based Organizations • Ongoing Consultation with IUB Team on Using School Data to Meet Action Plan Goals. • Training for All new Staff in TCIS When Hired

6. How do You Cope? • What are some coping strategies that you use to deal with stress? • Listen to the scenario, visualize that this is happening to you. • What are you feeling now? • What do you feel like doing?

7. A Crisis Occurs When • A Student’s Inability to Cope Results in a Change in Behavior

8. The Goals of Crisis Intervention are to: • SUPPORT:environmentally and emotionally to reduce stress and risk • TEACH:students better ways to cope with stress

9. Stress Model of Crisis

10. Recovery Phase

11. Skills Building Pyramid:Self-Awareness

12. Discussion about Self Awareness What situations do you find difficult in your work? What behavior on the part of the young person might trigger a stress response in you? What self-regulations skills do you use?

13. What does Assessment Really Mean?Four Questions We Ask Ourselves to Assess Crisis Situation 1. What am I feeling now? 2. What does this student feel, need, or want? 3. How is the environment affecting the student? 4. How do I best respond?

14. Effects of Anger “When we are at our angriest, we are at our stupidest.”

15. How Do I Best Respond? Manage the environment to neutralize potential triggers Engage the student and provide emotional support Exercise self-control over feelings

16. Feelings, Needs and Behaviors Behaviors Feelings + Needs

17. Assessing Behavior All behavior has meaning. Behavior reflects needs.

18. What Effects Behavior?Setting Conditions Anything that makes challenging behavior more or less likely to occur. • Organizational culture, e.g., control oriented, poor communication • Environment, e.g., hot, crowded, noisy, too much visual stimulation • Instruction, activities, routines related, e.g., staffing, quality of instruction,activities • Personal, e.g., illness, medication, trauma history, feeling unsafe • Relationship-based, e.g., excessive controls, “us versus them” culture, lack of caring community

19. Treat Each Student As an Individual With: • Individual baseline behavior • Different strengths and abilities • Specific effects of trauma • Underdeveloped co-regulation and self-regulationskills • Possible physical discomfort, e.g., illness, medication • A need for an individualized crisis management plan (ICMP) or safety plan

20. Identifying A Student’s Needs • What is this individual student’s baseline behavior? Is this typical behavior? • Is this normal for a student of this age? • Does this behavior reflect the student’s or family’s worldview? • Is this a pain-based behavior related to past trauma? • What feeling is the student expressing? • Does the student feel safe?

21. Meaning in Emotional Communication

22. Power Struggle

23. We Can Avoid or Stop the Power Struggle by: • Using positiveself-talk • Listening and validating feelings • Managing the environment, e.g., removing others • Giving choices and the time to decide • Redirecting the student to another positive activity • Appealing to the student’s self-interest • Dropping or changing the expectation