Using Office Discipline Referrals as a Behavioral Screener - Considerations From NCII and the Center on PBIS - October 2020

Oct 15, 2026

Few schools use validated screening assessments to proactively identify students for behavioral supports, often because of time, effort, and cost burdens. Educators frequently rely on office discipline referrals (ODRs), which are cost-effective, easy to collect, and readily available. Research critiques ODRs due to variability in teacher referral practices, limited identification of internalizing challenges, and demographic disproportionality. The report provides considerations for using ODRs within data-based decisions, stressing gated, multi-source screening for more reliable student-level determinations.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Overview

Why Schools Rely on ODRs

Critiques of ODRs as a Screener

Considerations for Data-Based Decisions

Multiple-Gate Screening Approach

Conclusion

References

Using Office Discipline Referrals as a Behavioral Screener: Considerations From NCII and the Center on PBIS October 2020 National Center on Intensive Intervention and The Center on Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW Washington, DC 20007-3835 [www.intensiveintervention.org](www.intensiveintervention.org) [https://www.pbis.org/](https://www.pbis.org/) This document was produced under U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Award Nos. H326Q160001 and H326S180001 . Celia Rosenquist and Renee Bradley serve as the project officers. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this document is intended or should be inferred. 2020_OCTOBER Few schools use validated screening assessments to proactively identify students for behavioral supports. This lack of utilization could be due to the time and effort it takes teachers to complete them (McIntosh, Frank, & Spaulding, 2010), the monetary burdens on schools (Severson, Walker, Hope-Doolittle, Kratochwill, & Gresham, 2007), and concerns about identifying students for intervention when evidence-based practices are not yet in place at Tier 2 or 3 (McIntosh, Reinke, & Herman, 2009) . Instead, educators often use office discipline referrals (ODRs) to identify students for behavioral intervention. ODRs are defined as representing an event where “(a) a student engaged in behavior that violated a rule or social norm in the school,(b) the problem behavior was observed or identified by a member of the school staff, and (c) administrative staff delivered a consequence through a permanent (written) product that defined the whole event”(Sugai et al., 2000, p. 96) . ODR data are cost-effective (Predy, McIntosh, & Frank, 2014), easily collected (Wright & Dusek, 1998; Irvin et al., 2006), and readily available (McIntosh, Fisher, Kennedy, Craft, & Morrison, 2012), and therefore appealing to schools as a way to identify students for behavioral intervention. In the research literature, however, ODRs have been critiqued for use asa behavioral screener for the following reasons: • The marked differences between teacher tolerance of behavior and diverse classroom management styles create variability in which behaviors warrant discipline referrals (Girvan, Gion, McIntosh, & Smolkowski, 2017; Morrison, Peterson, O’Farrell, & Redding, 2004; Morrison & Skiba, 2001); • ODRs do not identify students with internalizing challenges (e.g., anxiety, withdrawal) that need intervention (McIntosh, Campbell, Carter, & Zumbo, 2009; Walker, Cheney, Stage, & Blum, 2005); and • Students from the following demographic groups are more likely to receive ODRs than their peers: Black/African American, students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBDs), and males (Anyon et al., 2014; Skiba et al., 2011; Smolkowski Girvan, McIntosh, Nese, & Horner, 2016) . Because of the widespread use of ODRs as a behavioral screener, leaders from the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII), along with the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), offer the following considerations for using ODRs to make data-based decisions: • ODRs, in general, are a reliable measure of overall school health (e.g., school climate, school engagement, and effectiveness of schoolwide interventions; Morrison et al., 2004; McIntosh, Frank, & Spaulding, 2010) . • ODR data may be used to identify teachers and staff who may benefit from further classroom management training. • ODRs may be an effective tool for individualized decision making within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) if there is a systematic and consistent understanding among staff of ODR definitions (Wright & Dusek, 1998; Todd

FAQs

Why do some schools not use validated screening assessments for behavioral supports?

Because completing them can require substantial time and effort, impose monetary burdens, and create concerns about identifying students for intervention before Tier 2 or 3 evidence-based practices are fully in place.

How are office discipline referrals (ODRs) defined in the report?

ODRs represent events where a student violates a rule or social norm, staff observe or identify the behavior, and administrative staff deliver consequences documented in a permanent written product defining the event.

Why might ODRs be insufficient for student-level decision making?

ODRs can be influenced by differences in teacher tolerance and classroom management styles, they do not capture internalizing challenges well, and they may show demographic disproportionality among students receiving referrals.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Alex Sinclair