Culturally Responsive School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: A Practical Approach to Addressing Disciplinary Disproportionality with African-American Students

Zero tolerance policies have contributed to suspension and expulsion becoming common methods of addressing problem behaviors in schools. If suspension and expulsion are being used as forms of punishment, they should theoretically result in a reduction of problem behavior after their administration. In reality, exclusionary disciplinary practices have not been associated with reductions in problem behaviors among students. It has also been consistently established that disproportionate discipline practices and outcomes take place in schools. African-American students, in particular, are overrepresented in their respective rates of suspension and expulsion. School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) provide strategies that facilitate behavioral support for all students, including those with and without disabilities. Discourse on SWPBIS has suggested that implementation strategies are culturally neutral, and subsequently should be appropriate in all schools. However, African-American students continue to be over-disciplined when compared to their White peers, even when SWPBIS is implemented with sufficient fidelity. This information suggests that a culturally responsive adaptation of SWPBIS is needed. This article provides a framework for implementing culturally responsive School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.