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sonnel, families and community (Sugai et al., 2000). That's why it's important to have a school-wide, positive, behavior support program. Six thousand schools in 37 states use Positive Behavior Support (PBS) (Danielson, Cobb, Sanchez, & Horner, 2007). In Using Staff and Student Time Engaged in Disciplinary Procedures to Evaluate the Impact of School-Wide PBS, Scott & Barrett (2004) describe positive behavior support as the application of positive behavioral interventions and systems to achieve social change.

Walker, Cheney, Stage and Blum (2005) describe PBS as a 3-tiered model for early intervention with students to prevent school failure due to behavioral difficulties. According to George, et al. (2003), the focal point of PBS is problem behavior prevention using a 3-tiered approach that includes primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Tier 1 aims at school-wide prevention by setting behavioral expectations, teaching students and reinforcing expectation. Tier 2 is for those students who did not respond favorably to Tier 1 and are at risk of social and behavioral problems. Tier 3 is for extreme nonresponders who continue to struggle. These students require individual interventions (Gagnon, Rockwell, & Scott, 2008).

The Office of Special Education Programs (2004) recommends that the PBS team include an administrator, teachers from each grade level, support staff and parents. They are responsible for developing school-wide behavioral expectations and plans for teaching and reinforcing appropriate behavior. The PBS team is also instrumental in problem solving and data-based decision making. The team's critical role is to ensure that the program is being implemented and any new information is being delivered to the staff (Netzel & Eber, 2003). PBS professional development will help the staff understand the program; therefore, commitment and support will arise. This professional development should take place before staff begins planning (Luiselli et al., 2005; Metzler et al., 2001; Netzel & Eber, 2003; Oswald et al., 2005; Scott, 2001).

Brainstorming activities such as setting behavioral expectations and planning teaching and reinforcement activities is an approach that helps engage the staff (Oswald et al., 2005; Scott, 2001; Turnball et al., 2002). To increase the likelihood of the plan being followed, ensure that the PBS action plan is one that's agreeable to the staff. Program implementation can be promoted by reinforcement of staff for helping to implement the action plan (Netzel & Eber, 2003).

According to Scott (2001), in order to be effective, all school personnel must be committed to the program. The effectiveness of PBS has been the focus of research. Evidence shows that PBS is an effective approach to student behavior in regular public schools (Sugai & Horner, 2005). Cohn (2001) believed that PBS is an empirically validated, function-based approach to eliminate challenging behaviors and replace them with prosocial skills. The use of PBS decreases the need for more intrusive or aversive intervention (i.e., punishment or suspension) and can lead to both systematic as well as individualized change.

According to Hendley and Lock (2007), when schools properly and effectively implement PBS, students benefit by improved academic achievement and increased appropriate behaviors. Horner, Sugai, and Todd (2001) indicated