Historical background

The collaborative effort among educational researchers led to the progression of several steps to form a European professional platform that promotes the SWPBS logic and inclusive education. During 2010-2016, researchers in Europe started implementing SWPBS across various settings (e.g., schools, institutions) and with different populations (students with special educational needs, at-risk students, adults with severe disabilities). To date, efforts have been documented in northern Europe (e.g., Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Iceland, United Kingdom), central Europe (e.g., Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands), eastern Europe (e.g., Hungary) as well as southern Europe (e.g., Greece, Croatia, France, Spain, Cyprus). Country-level implementation efforts have increased significantly and thus, a growing interest in cross-cultural collaboration on SWPBS has sparked among Europeans to initiate preliminary talks around creating a European professional network community that would promote the science of PBS. 

In June 2016, a group of European researchers met and started preliminary talks around forming a European Network on SWPBS. In November 2016, the group met again to define its mission, goals, and priorities and in December 2016 the group submitted a petition to the Association for Positive Behavior Support (www.apbs.org) Board to become an official network. In January 2017, the Positive Behavior Support (PBS)-Europe Network was established as an official APBS network and its first Board was elected in November 2017.