High School Teachers' Experiences with Increasing Attendance Rates for Indigenous Students Within a PBIS Model in a Grade Eight-12 High School: A Qualitative Case Study

The purpose of this case study is to understand the reasons for chronic absenteeism of Indigenous students living on the reservation at a small independent school and how the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) framework may increase attendance rates. The theory guiding this case study is Skinner’s behavior theory. Behavior theory is used to describe the reasons behind the problem behavior of not attending school. Behavior theory includes antecedent and consequence interventions that may help to reduce chronic absenteeism and can be implemented within a PBIS framework. The PBIS framework may be used to implement proactive interventions in the school system to decrease the gap of high school Indigenous youth graduation rates. The participants are teachers in a grade eight through 12 high school implementing a PBIS framework. The data was collected and triangulated from individual interviews, a focus group, and three journal prompts using a thematic analysis with coding and memoing.