Logical Progressive Discipline

Presenters

• Nathan Maynard, HighfiveFollow

First Presenter's Highest Degree Earned

B.A.

Year First Presenter's Degree Was Awarded

2009

First Presenter's Field of Study

Behavioral Neuroscience

Institution Where First Presenter Received Highest Degree

Purdue University

First Presenter's Institution

Highfive

First Presenter's Brief Bio and Description of Credentials for This Presentation

Nathan is an educator, author, and school discipline innovator with extensive experience helping schools redesign behavior systems through PBIS, restorative practices, and trauma-informed approaches. He has partnered with districts across the United States and internationally to implement logical, instructional responses to behavior that reduce suspensions, increase instructional time, and improve climate survey results. Nathan co-created one of the field’s most widely used books on restorative school discipline, now used in over 400 universities and educator-preparation programs, and has supported the launch of therapeutic classroom models and multi-tiered systems of support in diverse settings. As founder of an organization focused on school climate, culture, and behavioral innovation, he works directly with classroom educators, building leaders, and district teams to translate research into practical tools: discipline matrices, classroom playbooks, data dashboards, and re-entry protocols. His work centers on making discipline more equitable, relationship-based, and sustainable for both students and staff.

Location

Scarbrough 1

Document Type

Individual Presentation

Primary Strand

Positive Behavior Interventions and Support

Relevance to Primary Strand

This session will teach how Logical Progressive Discipline operationalizes PBIS by turning everyday behavior incidents into structured opportunities for teaching, healing, and accountability; across all three tiers and with shared leadership from staff, students, and families.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

School Safety

Brief Program Description

This session will show how Logical Progressive Discipline can be used as a school safety system; helping schools prevent escalation, respond consistently and fairly, and design re-entry processes that keep students, staff, and families safer over time.

Summary

This session introduces a practical, classroom-ready model of Logical Progressive Discipline that integrates directly with school-wide PBIS and school safety priorities. Rather than relying on punitive or fear inducing responses, this framework treats every behavior incident as an opportunity to teach skills, repair harm with forgiveness, and strengthen a positive, predictable climate.

Participants will learn a step-by-step structure for designing logical consequences that are: (1) directly connected to the behavior, (2) instructional and restorative, and (3) aligned with the school’s existing expectations and tiered supports. The session will show how to translate these principles into simple classroom tools such as behavior pathways, reflection routines, repair plans, and re-entry conversations that keep more students in class while still increasing accountability.

The model is grounded in a three-tiered approach. At Tier 1, educators will see how to embed logical consequences into school-wide expectations and routines to improve consistency and reduce low-level disruptions. At Tier 2, the framework demonstrates how to pair small-group interventions and targeted skill-building with logical, non-punitive responses. At Tier 3, participants will explore intensive, highly individualized logical consequences and restorative processes that support students with significant needs, including those with disabilities or at risk of exclusion.

Throughout the session, participants will practice using brief scenarios and plug-and-play templates they can adapt immediately for their own classrooms, teams, or schools. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies for: reducing repeated misbehavior without increasing suspensions, responding to incidents in ways that support safety and belonging, and using discipline data to refine interventions over time. The goal is for every participant to walk away with a clear, usable roadmap for building a more logical, restorative, and sustainable discipline system within their current PBIS and school safety structures.

Evidence

The proposed Logical Progressive Discipline framework is not theoretical; it has been developed, power-tested, and refined over more than a decade of implementation in diverse K–12 settings, including urban, suburban, and rural schools across over 30 states. It has been embedded within school-wide PBIS systems, therapeutic classroom models, and district-level culture and climate initiatives.

Across these implementations, schools report fewer repeated discipline incidents, reductions in office referrals and suspensions, improved classroom instructional time, and increased student reports of feeling safe, respected, and supported on climate surveys. Leaders also note higher consistency in how staff respond to behavior and fewer informal, exclusionary removals from class.

The model has been field-tested with educators at all grade levels through ongoing coaching, multi-year partnerships, and large-scale professional learning. It has been used to design school-wide discipline matrices, classroom playbooks, and re-entry protocols, as well as specialized supports for students with disabilities and students at risk of exclusion. These experiences have generated practical tools showing behavior pathways, reflection routines, repair plans, and re-entry scripts that have been iteratively improved based on real-time feedback and outcome data from schools.

The approach is grounded in well-established research and promising practices. It integrates the three-tiered PBIS framework; research on natural and logical consequences as more effective than arbitrary punishment for building internal motivation; restorative practices focused on repairing harm and restoring relationships; social-emotional and self-regulation skill-building; and trauma-informed, neuroscience-aligned strategies for de-escalation and co-regulation. The framework aligns with MTSS principles by matching levels of support to student need and using data to refine interventions. This proposal translates that research base and field-testing into a clear, replicable model that educators can implement immediately to make discipline more logical, accessible, and effective within existing PBIS and school safety structures.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to design and apply logical, instructional consequences that align with PBIS expectations and increase classroom safety and predictability.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to use simple tools (behavior pathways, reflection routines, repair plans, and re-entry conversations) to respond to incidents in ways that teach skills and repair harm rather than just punish.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to analyze behavior patterns and use data to adjust interventions across Tiers 1–3, reducing repeat incidents and exclusionary discipline.

Start Date

6-1-2026 1:00 PM

End Date

6-1-2026 2:00 PM

Recommended Citation

Maynard, Nathan, "Logical Progressive Discipline" (2026). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 15.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2026/2026/15

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.