Understanding the CICO intervention in the PBIS system.

Depending on the school district and the state, schools implement different approaches to address the behavioral issues from the students that take place in the educational setting. In the case of Missouri, it is becoming more and more common the implementation of the PBIS system. The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) consists in a method that schools use to promote and establish positive behavior among students and safety in the school environment. This approach focuses in the aspect of prevention instead of punishment; by doing this, it is intended to generate in the students the learning of the skills that they need to make to behave according to expectations instead of creating frustration and rejection after a behavior that is not considered correct. PBIS centers part of it’s implementation in the need of teaching and transmitting to the students the expectations they are supposed to follow and respect, in order to generate a positive classroom environment. If the students are aware and familiar with the expectations, they will be able to behave in a respectful and responsible way with their peers and teachers.

The PBIS program establishes three tiers of support for students and educators. In Tier 1 students understand the expectations and the educators recognize the positive behavior from the students (using feedback, tokens, or prizes). The Tier 2 consists in additional interventions for the students that are finding difficulties to meet the behavior expectations (these interventions are evidence-based). Tier 3 is considered the highest level of intervention, in which certain students need to receive additional support because of their concerning behaviors.

The Check-In/Check-Out Behavior Interventions (CICO), is a method used to intervene in Tier 2 situations in the PBIS system. In this level, students require support in order to respond to their objectives and needs regarding social, emotional, and academic aspects. When applying a Tier 2 intervention, the main objective is moving the student’s situation back to the Tier 1 level.

CICO consists in a program in which students check in with their mentor at the beginning of school in order to set gleams for that day. This mentor needs to be an adult that is not a teacher of that student (for example a counselor). The teacher will evaluate the student’s behavior through the day and assign points based on his/her goals. At the end of the day the student meets with the the mentor in order to evaluate the behavior demonstrated during the day. After this, the student takes this evaluation card home and brings it back the next day signed by the parents.

This intervention results more effective when the students that have been assigned in this level respond good to adult attention; this way the mentor will be able to generate a more effective reflection and success when working with the student towards progress. The main characteristic of this system is that it focuses in the positive behavioral goals that are met by the student as well as the effort demonstrated when working towards a goal, instead of pointing out student’s struggles.

When the student is consistently meeting the goals and expectations and keeping a regular progress, the mentor can propose the “graduation” from the intervention, meaning that the student is considered ready to be placed back into Tier 1.