Principal Newsletter: Sharing PBIS Annual Data with Your Community

PBIS annual data newsletters serve two audiences simultaneously: families who want to know whether the school's behavior framework is actually working, and families who do not know what PBIS is and need context before the data means anything to them.

What PBIS Is in Plain Language

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is a data-driven, school-wide approach to behavior. It uses consistent expectations, positive reinforcement for behavior that meets those expectations, and tiered support for students who need more intensive help. It is designed to reduce reactive, punitive responses to behavior and replace them with proactive teaching of behavioral skills. Families who understand the framework can evaluate the data with context. Families who receive a list of referral numbers without explanation cannot.

The Data: What Improved

Start with progress. If office referrals declined, say by how much and compared to what baseline. If minor incidents in specific locations decreased after an environmental change, describe it. If positive behavior recognition numbers increased, name them. Data that is presented as pure progress without any acknowledgment of remaining challenges is as unconvincing as data that is only presented when things are good.

The Data: What Needs Work

Name the patterns that concern you. An increase in afternoon behavioral incidents in the cafeteria. A persistent referral pattern for a specific student group. Suspension rates that remain higher than district or state averages. These trends are worth discussing publicly because families of affected students deserve to know the school has identified the pattern, and because hiding concerning data erodes the trust that positive data communication is trying to build.

Equity in the Data

If your discipline data shows disparities by race, disability status, or other demographic factors, address them specifically in the newsletter. Something like: our data shows that Black students received office referrals at a rate 2.3 times higher than white students this year. We are working with our PBIS team and an equity consultant to understand what is driving that disparity and what specific changes we need to make. This kind of transparency is hard. It is also what families of students in over-represented groups have been waiting to hear.

What Changes Are Coming Next Year

Connect the data to action. What does the school plan to do differently based on what the data showed? More tier 2 supports in the fourth quarter when referral rates typically spike. A new cafeteria protocol for the after-lunch period. Implicit bias training for all staff. Additional check-in/check-out students for the coming year. Families who see data connected to a specific response plan trust the system more than families who see data presented without any forward movement.

Using Daystage for PBIS Data Communication

Daystage makes it easy to build a data newsletter with charts, plain-language summaries, and an action section. You can include a brief explanation of the PBIS framework for families who are new to the school or the framework itself. Tracking engagement helps you see how many families are reading the annual data communication and whether you need additional outreach to reach those who missed it.