PBIS FET Leader: Loftiss RYDC

Story support from Summer Sanders and PBIS Director Janette Nihles

The Loftiss Regional Youth Detention Center’s (Loftiss RYDC) Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Team (PBIS) recently was awarded a statewide award for having the highest overall Facility Evaluation Tool (FET) score (98/100) for PBIS organizations at the Department of Juvenile Justice. FET testing is conducted twice per year to gauge the effectiveness of the PBIS program in specific juvenile facilities. Judge Thomas Jefferson accepted the award on behalf of the Loftiss RYDC. This is the second time this year that the Loftiss RYDC has obtained the top score for FET.

PBIS is an evidence-based, data-driven framework proven to reduce disciplinary incidents, increase a school’s sense of safety and support improved academic outcomes. More than 23,000 U.S. schools are implementing PBIS and saving countless instructional hours otherwise lost to discipline. The premise of PBIS is that continual teaching, combined with acknowledgement or feedback of positive student over the counter behavior, will reduce unnecessary discipline and promote a climate of greater productivity, safety and learning. PBIS schools apply a multi-tiered approach to prevention, using disciplinary data and principles of behavior analysis to develop school-wide, targeted and individualized interventions and supports to improve the school climate for all students.