Building Infrastructure

The original project was started by the Iowa Department of Education with 8 demonstration sites (now called Cohort 1) in 2001. In January 2002, the Iowa Behavioral Alliance accepted responsibility for the training and continued expansion of PBS in Iowa.

In its ongoing efforts to implement PBS with fidelity throughout Iowa, the Iowa Behavioral Alliance took two important steps in 2004: identifying 14 expansion sites (now called Cohort 3) throughout Iowa (Des Moines has also identified 7 expansion sites) and commenced training of PBS Trainers and SWIS facilitators.

The 14 expansion sites received their first year of training at a Des Moines location with Rob Horner, from OSEP's Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support Technical Assistance Center in Eugene, Oregon, and the new PBS trainers in training. In years two and three, the expansion sites received training in a regional location to make it more accessible and reduce travel time, utilizing our newly trained PBS trainers. The Des Moines sites will receive training from George Sugai of OSEP's Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support Technical Assistance Center in Eugene, Oregon.

The first training session for the new 14 expansion sites took place on August 11 & 12, 2004. Training was provided by PBS Trainers Marion Panyan, Carl Smith, Lorie Spanjers, and Kathy Lockard. Robin Galloway, from ISU's RISE office, addressed the issue of data collection.

In August of 2005, the Alliance changed the training to a regional training and started the process with 17 teams (Cohort 4) representing 20 schools. Des Moines school district started 7 schools in 2003 (Cohort 2), an additional 7 schools in 2004 as part of Cohort 3 and 9 schools as part of Cohort 4 in 2005.