Chapter 8
img
The Logistics

This chapter could have been placed much earlier in the book, as it describes the most challenging aspect of implementing the CPS model in a school: organizing and sustaining the effort. And you want to plan for this aspect before you begin trying to tackle everything else you've read about so far. But it seemed to make more sense to describe the CPS model in its entirety before getting to the really hard part. Now that you know what you're trying to accomplish, we can give more consideration to the nuts and bolts of making it happen.

Yes, it can be hard to learn to use the ALSUP, but not that hard. It just takes practice. And it can be challenging to master Plan B. But if you put in enough reps, self-assess how things go each time, get a handle on the routine pitfalls you seem to be falling into, guard against those pitfalls in each subsequent Plan B, and practice some more, you'll be fine. It'll start coming more naturally.

Organizing and sustaining the effort is much harder. So here are two important words to get you started: start small. Although it's very tempting to think that it will be possible to get everyone in the building good at the CPS model in one fell swoop, it's just not gonna happen. Until there's a cadre of staff in each building who are proficient in the model—until you've “built capacity,” so to speak—it's unlikely that the model will be sustained. It'll just be another good idea that didn't stick. Better to plan ahead so that doesn't happen.

Until there's a cadre of staff in each building who are proficient in the model—until you've “built capacity,” so to speak—it's unlikely that the model will be sustained.

Steps to Organizing and Sustaining the Effort

So let's think about the specific components that will get and keep the ball rolling.

Step 1: Select the Core Group

Although it's fine to do a book study on CPS for the entire staff, starting small means that after the book study is completed, the cadre of staff—usually seven or eight participants, often called the core group—who are going to become proficient in the model must first begin meeting regularly (preferably weekly) to ensure continuity of effort. The core group should expect to meet over a duration of approximately four to six months to achieve proficiency in the CPS model. Then—and not really before—they'll be ready to help others in the building become proficient in the model as well.

Who should be selected for the core group? Certainly, staff members willing to devote the time, resolve, and extra energy to practicing and mastering the key components of the CPS model. It might seem that the core group should comprise only staff members enthusiastic about the CPS model, but it's actually good strategy to include participants who are still on the fence or even philosophically opposed, especially if they're open minded and willing to give the model a good try. Early antipathy toward the model shouldn't be viewed as a permanent state of affairs; in all the schools, inpatient psychiatric units, residential facilities, and juvenile detention centers in which the CPS model has been implemented, many of those who were most resistant early on became among the most ardent advocates for the model over time.

The core group should also include staff with influence in the building; if they're excluded, there's the risk that they'll go “underground” and undermine the effort. And the core group should definitely include the principal and the assistant or vice principal. They need to get their hands dirty and their feet wet right alongside everyone else. More about school leaders in a later section.

Perhaps the most crucial characteristics of core group members are bravery, a willingness to make and discuss mistakes, and perseverance. Changing practices and being more responsive to behaviorally challenging students can feel daunting. Becoming proficient in using the ALSUP and Plan B requires fortitude.

Step 2: Get Comfortable with the ALSUP

The core group should not spend much time debating competing views and philosophies on behaviorally challenging kids, as such debates seldom reconcile anything. Better to just get started with the nuts and bolts of the CPS model. The first thing the core group should tackle is the ALSUP. Core group members should complete ASLUPs in real meetings with real staff about real students and bring those completed ALSUPs to core group meetings where members review and critique the wording of unsolved problems, with the guidelines as their reference point. Then they should do it again. And again. After three to five weeks, the core group members should be feeling a lot better about their skills in using the ALSUP.

Step 3: Practice Plan B—a Lot

Mastery of Plan B comes next. Core group members should practice Plan B with real students on real unsolved problems, and if the school allows, audio-record the discussions and play those recordings in core group meetings. Members should provide feedback to each other on each step, with the Drilling Cheat Sheet and Plan B Cheat Sheet (Figure 8.1) guiding the way. Then they should go back and do it again. And again. After twelve to fifteen weeks, members should be starting to feel pretty good about their Plan B skills.

Figure depicting drilling cheat sheet and plan B cheat sheet describing the various components of empathy step, define adult concerns step, and invitation step. The components include the goal of the step, usage of appropriate words, drilling for information (empathy step), extending more help, your thoughts, and what should not be done (don't of the step). img

Figure 8.1 Drilling Cheat Sheet and Plan B Cheat Sheet

Step 4: Expand the Effort

After gaining proficiency with the ALSUP and Plan B, the core group members can begin strategizing about how to introduce colleagues to the model and create mechanisms for those colleagues to practice what they're learning. The colleagues probably already have familiarity with the ALSUP, because core group members have practiced using the ASLUP in meetings. To expose colleagues to Plan B, it's often helpful to have staff sit in as observers on Plan Bs being done by core group members. Although some people find role-playing Plan B to be useful, I often find role plays to be a bit contrived; when it comes to practice, there's nothing like the real thing. It's often thought that students will be uncomfortable with another adult observing the Plan B, but I don't typically find that to be the case, though it's good to be sensitive to the possibility.

Next, Plan B novices should take the lead on a few Plan Bs, with a core group member sitting in to provide guidance, coaching, and feedback as needed. There are guidelines for such coaching and feedback later in this chapter. Over time, in the exact same way that core group members eventually became more confident and independent in their use of Plan B, the novices become more confident and independent as well. Then they aren't novices anymore.

Slowly but surely, staff start to experience success with the model. They have jaw-dropping moments in the Empathy step, moments when they discover that their notions about kids' concerns were inaccurate. They notice that kids are willing to listen to adult concerns, and even take them into account in generating solutions. Problems that have been causing challenging behavior for a very long time start getting solved. The ALSUP and Problem Solving Plan become integral components of meetings. The components of the model become routine. The lenses change. The language changes. The practices change. CPS becomes the norm; it becomes automatic. This doesn't happen fast, but it does happen.

Problems that have been causing challenging behavior for a very long time start getting solved. Slowly but surely, the model becomes the norm in the building.

How long does it take? Well, it's going to take the core group four to six months to master the ALSUP and Plan B. Then it's going to take another year for everyone in the building to be exposed to the model and to get some supervised experience in using it. And then it's going to take one more year for the model to become the norm. If that sounds like a long time, consider what we're trying to accomplish here: completely transforming the manner in which behaviorally challenging students are understood and treated. That's no small undertaking. It's worth it. Very few transformative changes in schools happen more quickly. It's the quick fixes that end up taking the longest time.

The reality is that each school has its own timing on accomplishing the mission. The schools that have had the greatest success with the CPS model didn't just “taste” the model as though they were sampling wines—they committed to doing it. Many even established specific goals, and time lines for achieving those goals. One thing is almost guaranteed: some staff members are going to struggle with and passively or actively resist the change. Some people find the tenets of the CPS model to be at odds with their own thinking or training. It's important to clarify whether there's actually much thinking behind the thinking. There are so many clichés applied to behaviorally challenging students (see chapter 2), and those clichés so often take on lives of their own, that initial reactions to the CPS model often aren't based on deep philosophical beliefs but rather those clichés. Gently challenging clichés can be productive.

Ultimately, the goal is for all staff members to move off of some of the automatic thoughts that kick in when they're dealing with challenging behavior (She's doing this to make me mad/She's trying to get thrown out of my class/Her parents are incompetent disciplinarians/What consequences can I impose to teach her a lesson and let her know I take this behavior seriously?) and replace them with more accurate, compassionate thoughts (She's not challenging all the time, only some of the time/What is her challenging behavior communicating about the expectations she's having difficulty meeting?/What are those expectations telling me about the skills she's lacking?/When am I going to do Plan B to solve those problems with her?). There is tremendous harm being done by the first group of thoughts. Harm is what happens when helpers aren't helping.

The Role of Administrators

Now, one more essential word: leadership. Without question, the schools that have had the greatest success with CPS are those in which school leaders led the way. Administrators assembled and galvanized the core group. They were active participants in the core group; they were in the trenches, just like everyone else. They helped people keep their eyes on the ball. They celebrated successes; they empathized and were supportive when things were hard and didn't go so well. They expressed confidence that transforming discipline was something the school not only could accomplish but had to accomplish. They made sure that people stayed focused on the high stakes: the fates of our most vulnerable students and what we teach all of our students about how to deal with individual differences.

Engage Parents

At some point along the way, you'll want to involve parents in the collaborative effort as well. I've seen some schools involve parents from the get-go; others wanted some time to get comfortable with the CPS model before involving parents. Either approach is OK; but if you choose to hold off, don't wait forever.

Over the years, a lot of the parents I've worked with have stated that they felt blamed and uninformed by their children's school; that they haven't felt listened to by school personnel; and that teachers and administrators were very keen on Plan A, not only in interactions with the kids but also in interactions with the parents. Amazingly enough, many teachers had some of the same complaints about the parents! What's clear is that Plan B is just as applicable to teacher-parent problem solving as it is to teacher-student problem solving.

What's clear is that Plan B is just as applicable to teacher-parent problem solving as it is to teacher-student problem solving.

Here are a few statements of the obvious. Blaming is remarkably counterproductive, even if it seems clear that a student is going home to a situation that is less than ideal. And imposing your will on others (Plan A) is not the ideal path to fruitful collaboration and communication.

Yes, many kids who exhibit behavioral challenges at school are going home to problematic family circumstances. But many well-behaved kids come out of less-than-ideal situations too. And many behaviorally challenging kids come out of seemingly idyllic families. Yes, many kids who are behaviorally challenging at school are also behaviorally challenging at home, but that just means that the kid is struggling to meet expectations in multiple environments, and that the problems haven't yet been solved in those multiple environments. But that also means that the adults in those different environments have shared concerns and frustrations. And that should make collaborating easier, not harder.

Do the home folks need to be a party to every Plan B that takes place at school? No way. In fact, the home folks don't need to be involved in most of the Plan Bs that take place at school, because the unsolved problems don't involve them. Some unsolved problems at school do involve the parents—for example, truancy, tardiness, incomplete homework—but most do not. So while it's a very good idea to keep parents informed of the problems being solved at school, their actual involvement in Plan B is frequently unnecessary.

And what about circumstances in which efforts to collaborate with parents aren't going well? The very same pitfalls that apply to adult-child problem solving are equally applicable to adult-adult problem solving (see chapter 7). For example, using Plan A instead of Plan B. Using Emergency Plan B instead of Proactive Plan B. Failing to identify and clarify the concerns of both parties. Dueling solutions (power struggles) are a big one. If all else fails, never forget that you can still do a kid a lot of good in the six hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year that she's in school, even if her parents aren't involved in the effort. And that the kids who are going home to situations that aren't ideal need the folks at school to be on their game more than anyone else.

Teaching Colleagues About Plan B

Teaching colleagues about using Plan B can be challenging. It's not easy to maintain a balance between providing colleagues with feedback, helping them maintain their optimism, and promoting independence. So here are some pointers on being a good teacher and coach.

Introduce the Plans and Plan B

First, novices need to know about the ALSUP and how it's used. But we covered that previously in the book, so let's assume that the novices are now ready to learn about the Plans and Plan B. Here are the key points to emphasize along these lines.

  1. Describe the three Plans in detail, beginning with Plan C Emphasize that Plan C is the prioritizing Plan. Be sure to make the distinction between prioritizing and “giving in” or “capitulating.” Point out that prioritizing is important because it helps caregivers avoid trying to solve every unsolved problem in one fell swoop. It's best to indicate that Plan C involves setting aside unsolved problems rather than dropping them forever.
  2. Describe both Plan A and Plan B as attempts to solve the problem that are distinguished primarily by the fact that Plan A is unilateral and involves the imposition of adult will (as denoted by the words “I've decided that …”) and (often) adult-imposed consequences, while Plan B is collaborative and involves a partnership between student and adult. Emphasize that solutions arrived at through use of Plan A are also uninformed, whereas solutions arrived at through Plan B are informed by the information gathered from the student in the Empathy step.
  3. In describing the three steps of Plan B, provide an example of what each step would sound like. Best to use an unsolved problem that has been identified on the ALSUP that has already been completed for a particular student. Providing an example also increases the likelihood that, when it comes time for people to observe Plan B, they'll recognize what they're seeing. Describe the Empathy step as the part of the problem-solving process where information is being gathered from the student about her concerns, perspective, or point of view on a given unsolved problem; the Define Adult Concerns step is where the caregiver enters his or her concern into consideration; and the Invitation is where student and adult collaborate on solutions that are realistic and mutually satisfactory.
  4. Indicate that the introduction to the Empathy step begins with the words “I've noticed that” and ends with the words “What's up?” Inserted between these two stems is the unsolved problem. By the way, the best time to introduce the drilling strategies and the Drilling Cheat Sheet is when you're providing an example of what the Empathy step would sound like. If you don't describe the drilling strategies, the caregivers will have no idea what you're doing when they're observing Plan B.
  5. Indicate that the Define Adult Concerns step begins with the words “My concern is …” or “The thing is …” Also point out that caregiver concerns almost always fall into one or both of two categories: how the unsolved problem is affecting the kid and/or how the unsolved problem is affecting other people. You'll want to reiterate that there's no discussion of solutions until the Invitation step.
  6. Emphasize that the Invitation step begins with the words “I wonder if there's a way …” Although the kid is given the first crack at the solution (that's good strategy), coming up with solutions is a team effort.
  7. Gauge people's reactions to the three Plans. Clarify points about which they may be confused, and facilitate a discussion about how Plan B differs from the ways in which they've been solving problems thus far.
  8. Make sure people are aware that Plans B and C are best used proactively. If you provide examples of Plans B and C, make sure the examples are proactive so that people aren't confused about the timing. Remind colleagues that the hard work that was devoted to identifying unsolved problems on the ALSUP—and the prioritizing that occurs with the Problem Solving Plan—are what make proactive intervention possible.

Remind colleagues that the hard work that was devoted to identifying unsolved problems on the ALSUP—and the prioritizing that occurs with the Problem Solving Plan—are what make proactive intervention possible.

Demonstrating Plan B

Telling people about Plan B is great, but showing them Plan B is indispensable. When core group members become confident in their use of Plan B, they're ready to start demonstrating its use to novices in the building. As you've read, this can occur in various formats. The core group member can do Plan B with one of his or her own students, with the novice—having already been introduced to the three Plans and to the three steps of Plan B—sitting in to observe. Or the core group member can do Plan B with one of the novice's students, with the novice pitching in (especially in the Define Adult Concerns and Invitation steps). To help novices get the most out of the Plan Bs they observe, it's productive for the demonstrator to actually describe what he or she is doing at each step along the way. This can feel very strange to the demonstrator; but observers appreciate the connections that are made between what they've previously been told about Plan B and what they're now seeing in action.

Here are some guidelines for what to say for each of the steps:

  1. Narrate the wording of the introduction: “You may remember that the introduction begins with the words, ‘I've noticed that…’ and ends with the words ‘What's up?’ In between, I'll insert the unsolved problem we decided we'd be talking about with Joelle today. So here goes: Joelle, I've noticed that it's been difficult for you to write the three paragraphs on Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha … what's up?”
  2. Narrate the drilling strategies: “OK, Joelle's response was that it's boring. So, as you know, the first thing the kid says doesn't usually give us a very clear sense of her concern, perspective, or point of view on the unsolved problem, so now it's time for me to start drilling for more information. And I'm going to be using the drilling strategies on the Drilling Cheat Sheet that you have in front of you. The one that makes the most sense to me right now is reflective listening, which is where I'm simply saying back to Joelle what she just said to me and clarifying further. So here goes: So, it's boring. Can you tell me more about that?”
  3. Continue narrating the drilling strategies: It's very easy to get “caught up doing Plan B” and forget to tell the observer what you're doing. But what you're doing will make more sense to him if you're actually telling him.
  4. Let the observer know when you're summarizing: “OK, so we've gathered a fair amount of information from Joelle on this problem. Let me summarize what we've heard so far and ask Joelle if she has any other concerns to share.”
  5. Let the observer know when you're leaving the Empathy step and moving on to the Define Adult Concerns step: “OK, so Joelle has told me that she has no other concerns to tell me about on this unsolved problem. So now I'm going to move on to the Define Adult Concerns step. This is where I'm going to tell her my concern, and that usually begins with the words, ‘The thing is…’ or ‘My concern is…’ So here we go: Joelle, my concern is that if you don't write the three paragraphs on Siddhartha, I'm not going to know if you read it and understood the material.”
  6. Let the observer know when you're leaving the Define Adult Concerns step and moving on to the Invitation step: “OK, so now I've told Joelle my concerns. So next we'll move on to the Invitation. Notice, we haven't started discussing solutions yet because we had to make sure we understood the concerns of both parties first. But now we're ready. The Invitation begins with the words, ‘I wonder if there's a way…’ And what I'm going to try to do here is recap or restate the concerns we heard about in those first two steps. Ready? So, Joelle, I wonder if there's something we can do about the fact that you're having a very hard time understanding what information I'm looking for in the three paragraphs… and a very hard time understanding Siddhartha in the first place… and I can know if you've read and understood the material. And now I'm going to give Joelle the first crack at the solution; again, not because it's her job to solve the problem, but because I want her to know that I'm very interested in her ideas. So now I say to Joelle, Do you have any ideas?”
  7. Narrate the processing of solutions: “All right, Joelle has suggested that maybe I could help her understand Siddhartha and clarify what I'm looking for in the three paragraphs after school one day. Now we need to figure out if that meets our two criteria for good solutions: they need to be realistic and mutually satisfactory. Let's do mutually satisfactory first. That's where we consider whether the solution would address the concerns of both parties. Let's think about those concerns again. I think it would address Joelle's concern that she needs help understanding Siddhartha and my expectations for the three paragraphs. Joelle, do you agree? And it would address my concern that I want to know that Joelle's reading and understanding the book. But I'm wondering about the mutually satisfactory part. Joelle, are you sure you're able to stay after school? I know you take the school bus, and that makes staying after hard for you.”
  8. Agree to return to Plan B if the first solution doesn't get the job done: “So, it sounds like we're ready to run with the solution. I'm now going to remind Joelle that if the first solution doesn't work, we'll get together again, figure out why, and come up with a different solution.”

Do kids mind all that narrating? No, they're often interested in what's going on. Is narrating hard for the demonstrator? Yes. Does it make it easier for the observer to understand what's going on in preparation for his first attempt at Plan B? No question.

Is narrating hard for the demonstrator? Yes. Does it make it easier for the observer to understand what's going on in preparation for his first attempt at Plan B? No question.

Coaching Plan B

Let's now think more about the two most important words to characterize your efforts to coach others in the use of Plan B: promote independence. Your goal as a coach is to help Plan B apprentices become increasingly independent in using Plan B, and the nature of the feedback you provide will be crucial in this regard. In other words, there's feedback and coaching that promote greater and lesser levels of independence. You don't want the apprentice to twist in the winds of Plan B, but you do want to provide feedback that promotes as much independence as the apprentice can handle.

The least independence-promoting form of coaching is to simply take the reins of Plan B if the apprentice is struggling (for example, “OK, I'm going to take over here”). Although this might be necessary in some instances—just to make sure that the Plan B goes well or to keep both parties hanging in there—it's not an especially independence-promoting approach. Somewhat more independence promoting is to tell the apprentice exactly what to say or do (for example, “You need to do reflective listening here … say back to Joelle what she just said to you”). This may also be necessary sometimes, especially with apprentices who are brand new to Plan B, but it's still not going to promote much independence. Still more independence promoting is to provide more general guidance or reminders, but without explicitly telling the apprentice what to say or do (for example, “You may want to think about whether you're really ready to leave the Empathy step just yet” or “Don't forget the two categories of adult concerns” or “You may want to think about the concerns of both parties before you sign off on that solution” or “I don't know if you're going to be able to address all those concerns in one Plan B”). The most independence-promoting strategy, of course, is to say virtually nothing while the apprentice is doing Plan B (assuming it's going well). This is a sign that you've been a very good coach and that the apprentice is no longer an apprentice.

Q & A

Question: In schools that have implemented CPS, where did they find the time to do it?

Answer: Time is the factor that impedes all new initiatives in schools. So every building has to deal with the time issue in implementing CPS. Now, as you've read, Plan B can be done during some existing blocks of time during the course of a school day: before school, after school, during lunch or recess or the teacher's prep time (if the teacher has prep time). One of the reasons it's so important to have building leaders integrally involved in the implementation process is that they're often in a position to create time, whether by providing coverage or rearranging schedules. But the key factor here is commitment to making the time. If time is left to random chance, there won't be much Plan B going on nor many problems being solved.

So, many schools have implemented something called 15 Minutes a Day. This involves every teacher in the building committing to carving out fifteen minutes every day to solving problems with individual kids. That's seventy-five minutes a week. Five hours a month. Forty-five hours every school year that every teacher in the building is committing to solving problems with kids. Best to start with the behaviorally challenging ones, the ones causing the most disruption to their own learning and that of others. If you're systematic and diligent about it, you're going to get a lot of problems solved with those kids over the course of the first three to four months. Then it's time to turn to the others.

By the way, the others have probably noticed what you're doing. I had an elementary school teacher tell me that after three to four months of doing 15 Minutes a Day, one of her well-behaved students approached her and asked if he could have one of those slots, as he had something he wanted to talk with her about. She was both amused and eager to hear what he had to say.

Question: Who should do Plan B with a given student on a particular problem?

Answer: Early on, it will presumably be a member of the core group, as core group members are the only staff dedicating time and practice to becoming proficient in the model. But, as you've read, once that happens, core group members start inviting other staff to sit in on and observe Plan Bs so that those other staff have a feel for the process. Then those staff start trying to lead Plan B discussions with a core group member sitting in, to provide coaching and feedback. Then, just as the core group members did, those staff start trying Plan B independently.

Eventually, the ideal person to do Plan B with a student is the staff member whose expectation the student is having difficulty meeting. What if the relationship between that student and staff member is so far gone that Plan B feels impossible? Have someone else—someone the student is most likely to talk to—lead the Plan B, perhaps with the staff member sitting in as well. If things go as hoped, eventually the staff member and student will be able to do Plan B together without facilitation by someone else.

The ideal person to do Plan B with a student is the staff member whose expectation the student is having difficulty meeting.

Question: There are a lot of initiatives for behaviorally challenging kids in schools these days. Which ones are most compatible with the CPS model?

Answer: Here's the interesting thing about all those initiatives: they're often implemented in very different ways in different schools and school systems. An initiative that is transformative in one school or school system barely changes mentalities and practices in another. So a lot of the compatibility with CPS depends on where the school or school system is in its journey to a more compassionate, enlightened view of kids' behavioral challenges.

But let's take 'em one at a time. There is significant congruence between the goals, structure, and practices of Response to Intervention (RTI) and the CPS model. For the unfamiliar, the impetus for RTI comes, at least partially, from the recognition that the needs of many students receiving services in special education could be met in general education classrooms. Thus the first and most important school personnel to implement intervention are classroom teachers. The CPS model is an excellent fit with RTI in this regard. RTI also represents an attempt to introduce scientific, data-based methods into school classrooms to guide the selection, use, and evaluation of academic and behavioral interventions. CPS is a good fit along these lines as well.

There's also some congruence between CPS and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), but some significant points of divergence as well. The two models are certainly similar in their emphasis on proactive, preventive intervention and in the belief that children with challenging behavior should be treated with the same level of interest and importance as children with academic challenges. However, in assessing the function of a kid's challenging behavior, PBIS is still largely oriented toward viewing the behavior as “working” for a kid by helping her get, escape, and avoid. As you know, this contrasts with the view in CPS that behavior is simply the mechanism by which a student communicates that she is lacking the skills to respond adaptively to certain expectations. Thus, while PBIS allows for the possibility of lagging skills as an explanation for challenging behavior, it places a strong emphasis on using environmental reinforcement to train replacement behaviors. The CPS model places a strong emphasis on adult-child problem solving as the primary mechanism for teaching lagging thinking skills and helping kids solve problems. But perhaps the most striking difference between the two models is that PBIS doesn't involve collaboration between adult and kid; it is an adult-driven model. There is no major emphasis on collaborating with kids to identify their concerns (only a major emphasis on identifying adult concerns) and no emphasis on enlisting the kid in coming up with a mutually satisfactory action plan; rather, the adults come up with the action plan.

In many ways, CPS is also philosophically aligned with Restorative Justice (RJ) and restorative practices. Both CPS and RJ eschew traditional, punitive disciplinary procedures. Both place a strong emphasis on relationships and community building. RJ posits that “harmers” will choose more adaptive options when they come to understand, through dialogue and conversation with those harmed, the pain they have caused by their misbehavior. The CPS model asserts that challenging kids will evidence more adaptive behavior when the problems precipitating challenging behavior and conflict are solved. Although various aspects of RJ can be viewed as reactive, there are a wide array of restorative practices that are more oriented toward conflict prevention, including problem-solving circles, which are a great addition to the model.

There is substantial overlap philosophically between CPS and Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication (NVC) model, with some nuanced differences. The NVC paradigm places a heavy emphasis on empathy, clarifying concerns and feelings, and ways in which people communicate with one another that interfere with empathy and compassion. Although the precepts of NVC and CPS are congruent, CPS places a significantly stronger emphasis on lagging cognitive skills as the crucial factor contributing to challenging behavior.

Thomas Gordon's Teacher Effectiveness Training model shares many important themes with CPS as well, again without the emphasis on lagging cognitive skills and unsolved problems.

There are also crisis management models that overlap to some degree with the CPS model. But CPS isn't best thought of as a crisis management program. Crisis management programs are aptly named, as they're oriented toward managing crises. While it's good to know how to defuse and de-escalate a crisis—and Emergency Plan B is useful along these lines—CPS places significantly greater emphasis on crisis prevention. No other learning disability is handled in crisis mode, and a crisis is clearly not the best time to address the lagging skills and unsolved problems underlying social, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

Question: Is CPS truly realistic in a middle, junior, or senior high school, where kids have multiple teachers who don't always have a chance to communicate with one another?

Answer: Many middle and high schools are organized in teams or learning communities, which makes collaboration and communication easier. Nothing takes the place of ensuring that staff members have the time to talk about high-priority kids and meet periodically (preferably, at least weekly) to monitor the kids' progress and modify the Problem Solving Plan. Again, the only models of care that don't require good communication are the ineffective ones.

The only models of care that don't require good communication are the ineffective ones.

Question: I'm a school principal. I've been trying to help my teachers use CPS, and it's gone pretty well. But I have a few teachers who just aren't doing it. Advice?

Answer: Try to figure out why, starting with the Empathy step, as in “I've noticed that you haven't been participating much in our CPS work. What's up?” They may not be convinced about the rationale for Plan B. They may feel they don't have the skills to do Plan B yet. They may feel completely overwhelmed. They may be retiring soon and just don't see the point. They may have a bad case of Initiative Fatigue. We won't really know what their concerns are unless we ask. Then we can work toward ensuring that their concerns—and yours—are addressed. If CPS becomes the expectation for how teachers will handle unmet expectations in their classrooms, then we want to make sure those teachers get as much support as they need.

Question: How do you incorporate CPS into an IEP?

Answer: If you've identified a kid's lagging skills and unsolved problems (through use of the ALSUP) and established a set of priorities (through use of the Problem Solving Plan), you're ready to incorporate those priorities into an IEP. You're also ready to document how Plan B will be used to address those lagging skills and problems. You can find an example of an IEP that incorporates the language of CPS at www.livesinthebalance.org/LostandFound. And you'll find an example of a 504 Plan that incorporates the language of CPS in the same place.

Question: I'd like to incorporate CPS into my FBAs and Behavior Intervention Plans … are there examples of those as well?

Answer: Sure thing. You can find examples at www.livesinthebalance.org/LostandFound.

Question: How can we tell if our school is making progress in our handling of behaviorally challenging kids?

Answer: There's no single benchmark signifying that you've “arrived,” given that improvement is an ongoing process. But there are some pretty clear indicators: