ZELIENOPLE — St. Stephen's Lutheran Academy has earned recognition for its recent implementation program aimed toward rewarding positive behavior for its students.

The school was recognized by the Pennsylvania Positive Behavior Support Network's for high fidelity implementation of Positive Behavior Interventions and Support.

St. Stephen's was one of 18 schools across the state — one of four schools in the Western Pennsylvania region, and the only private school — to earn implementation with fidelity at all three tiers of PBIS.

“PBIS is a proactive approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture and needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional and academic success,” according to a news release from the school. “Attention is focused on creating and sustaining primary (schoolwide), secondary (classroom), and tertiary (individual) systems of support that improve lifestyle results (personal, health, social, family, work, recreation) for all youth by making targeted misbehavior less effective, efficient and relevant, and desired behavior more functional.”

St. Stephen's is a licensed, private K-12 school located on the campus of Glade Run Lutheran Services. The school serves more than 300 students annually from 50 school districts across Western PA.

School districts place students at St Stephen's so children can benefit from therapeutic interventions in an educational setting. The school has been recognized in the past as a model program in Pennsylvania for School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports.

“We have kids who come to St. Stephen's because they are not successful in public school settings for a variety of reasons,” said Sheila Talarico, executive director for the Glade Run Foundation. “One of those reasons is often a behavioral reason. To work with such a diverse group of students from a diverse group of schools, it's helpful for us to have a tool like PBIS that encourages positive interactions as opposed to punishing for negative behaviors.”

Outcome surveys of the school have shown that 96 percent of students enjoyed their experience and 98 percent of the students reported that they learned to make good decisions, according to the release.

“Referring school district outcome surveys demonstrate high satisfaction with St. Stephen's offerings,” the release states.

Amy Richert, vice president of educational programming at Glade Run and St. Stephen's principal, said the school is “honored” to be recognized for the successful implementation of PBIS.

“PBIS is proactive strategy for supporting appropriate student behaviors and creating a positive school environment for our teachers and students,” Richert said in a release.