Hudsonville updates board on PBIS implementation, reports tiered supports and declines in many suspension categories

Hudsonville Public School District administrators presented a year-to-date update on the district’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) work, describing how universal (Tier 1), targeted (Tier 2) and individualized (Tier 3) supports are being deployed across buildings.

Administrators said the district uses the Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI) to measure implementation; buildings score the TFI (15 items scored 0–2, maximum 30) and then set growth goals. Schools that achieve about 90 percent on the universal measures shift focus to Tier 2 systems. At the elementary level this year, staff reported the district provided Tier 2 interventions to more than 200 students (pre-K through grade 5), and 95 percent of those students were reported as responding or exiting the intervention: about 40 percent had exited during the year and about 55 percent were progressing toward goals. Administrators said the remaining 5 percent were receiving escalated support or referred to child-study teams.

High-school administrators said most suspension categories have fallen in recent years, but cheating and plagiarism incidents have increased; staff attributed part of the rise to increased availability of artificial-intelligence tools and student misunderstanding of acceptable use. The high school has taken a mix of academic and behavioral responses, including in-school reflection, academic consequences set by departments, and efforts to educate students about academic integrity and appropriate AI use.

Middle-school presenters reported declines across many categories but said vaping (e-cigarette) incidents and plagiarism showed slight increases; principals described school-level programs such as in-school suspension with educational components provided by the district nurse team, and counseling or nicotine-education resources for students.

At the building level, presenters described Tier 1 practices such as a common SOAR expectations program, schoolwide acknowledgements (tickets and weekly drawings), community circles and classroom lessons; Tier 2 interventions included check-in/check-out, skills groups and behavior academies; Tier 3 supports included mental health therapists and individualized behavior plans. Staff stressed communication with families: responsible-thinking sessions and Tier 2 discussions typically include parent contact, often by phone.

Board members asked about consistency across buildings and about whether data spikes reflect a small number of students with repeated incidents; administrators said their regular meetings and referral monitoring let teams distinguish systemwide trends from single-student issues and adjust supervision or targeted supports accordingly. Staff described the data as correlational when linking PBIS to behavior improvements rather than strictly causal.