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How Intervention Based ISS Fits Into Your Schoolwide Support Systems

When schools talk about discipline reform, MTSS and PBIS always enter the conversation. These systems guide how campuses support students academically, behaviorally, and socially. The challenge has always been figuring out where ISS fits. For years the answer has been unclear because traditional ISS models never matched the intent of MTSS or PBIS. In truth, they often worked against them.

Intervention Based ISS is different. It provides structured support, predictable routines, and genuine academic intervention for the small group of students who need it most. This page explains how ISS becomes a natural extension of MTSS and PBIS once it shifts from a punitive room to a targeted intervention space.

MTSS and PBIS are built on support, skill building, and consistent systems. Traditional ISS, on the other hand, has been built on removal and compliance. These two philosophies rarely match.

Traditional ISS fails to align with MTSS and PBIS for several reasons:

• No instructional continuity
   
• No targeted academic support
   
• No identification or repair of skill deficits
   
• No consistent data collection
   
• No reflection or re-entry process
   
• No collaboration with classroom teachers
   

Under MTSS, students receive tiered support to help students access learning. Under PBIS, consequences should be predictable, structured, and designed to teach skills. Traditional ISS has not done either of these things.

Intervention Based ISS solves that problem.

MTSS organizes student support across three levels.

Tier 1: Schoolwide instruction and behavior expectations
Every student receives this foundational support in class.

Tier 2: Targeted intervention
About ten to fifteen percent of students require additional help in academics, behavior, or both.

Tier 3: Intensive individualized support
A much smaller percentage of students need long term, specialized assistance.

ISS should serve the all tiers, not as punishment, but as an opportunity to accelerate growth.

The same students who land in ISS repeatedly are often the ones who need Tiered services the most. ISS is one of the only places where these students are in a small, structured setting long enough for meaningful intervention to occur.

Intervention Based ISS helps schools provide exactly what MTSS requires. 

Skill focused academic intervention

Students complete all daily assignments, and the ISS facilitator identifies gaps that prevent access to grade level work. Short, targeted instruction repairs those gaps. 

Structured behavior routines

Clear expectations, predictable consequences, and neutral redirection create an environment that supports regulation and reduces emotional stress. 

Reflection and re-entry

Students prepare to return to class with clarity about expectations and strategies for success. 

Data for MTSS teams

Recidivism, assignment completion rates, behavior patterns, and facilitator feedback provide some of the most useful data MTSS teams ever receive.

In a well run system, ISS becomes a Tiered intervention hub.

PBIS requires clarity, consistency, and instruction in behavioral expectations. Intervention Based ISS aligns with these requirements by design. 

Predictability

All expectations are posted, modeled, and reinforced. Students know exactly how their day will go. 

Positive structure

Rather than relying on power struggles or emotion driven discipline, ISS uses calm, neutral redirection and consistent routines. 

Instructional focus

PBIS teaches that consequences should support learning. ISS strengthens executive functioning and academic skills. 

Skill building

PBIS calls for teaching replacement behaviors. ISS teaches them through modeling, reflection, and guided practice. 

Safe environment

Students feel more emotionally regulated when the room is structured and predictable. PBIS identifies this as a core condition for learning.

PBIS creates the expectations. Intervention Based ISS provides the space for students to practice them.

MTSS requires early identification of students who are struggling. ISS data often reveals patterns long before classroom teachers realize how significant the need has become.

ISS provides early indicators such as:

• repeated placements
   
• consistent skill deficits
   
• inability to complete assignments
   
• patterns of avoidance
   
• emotional deregulation during structured tasks
   
• strengths that do not appear in the classroom
   

This gives MTSS teams a head start. Instead of waiting until a student fails across multiple classes, ISS data reveals concerns early enough for targeted intervention.

Here are the most effective ways schools align ISS with MTSS.

Use ISS data as a standing agenda item
Academic and behavioral patterns from ISS should appear in every MTSS meeting.

Create a predictable pathway from ISS to intervention
If a student shows a clear skill deficit during ISS, route that information directly to the intervention team.

Collaborate with teachers before and after placement
Teachers should know exactly what was accomplished in ISS, and ISS staff should receive notes on student needs.

Build consistent reflection tools for students
Use the same re-entry form campus wide so teachers know what to expect when a student returns.

Share data across teams
ISS becomes a bridge between classroom teachers, counselors, behavioral support, and intervention teams.

Schools that fully integrate ISS into MTSS and PBIS consistently see:

• reduced recidivism
   
• improved academic achievement for at risk students
   
• stronger classroom behavior
   
• higher completion of assignments
   
• fewer lost instructional minutes
   
• clearer communication between teachers and ISS staff
   
• more accurate placement into Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports
   
• stronger relationships between students and adults
   

ISS becomes a tool that strengthens the entire system rather than an isolated room that absorbs discipline referrals.

ISS has always been viewed as punishment. MTSS and PBIS have always been viewed as support. Intervention Based ISS bridges the two. It allows administrators to enforce accountability while also keeping students learning. It allows teachers to maintain classroom momentum while receiving valuable data about student needs. It gives students a structured environment where they can recover, rebuild skills, and prepare to succeed.

MTSS and PBIS do not work without strong systems for students who need extra help. Intervention Based ISS is one of the most powerful tier aligned systems a campus can implement.

Related Articles:

Does The Art of ISS Align with MTSS? 

How Trauma Informed ISS Aligns with the PBIS Framework

Why Teaching Behavior Directly Doesn't Work