PBIS, MTSS, SEL, Character Education, or Mental Health? Why the Right Program Fits Them All

This article was written by Dominic Frisina. Dominic spent his career as a teacher, instructional coach, and principal in New York before joining The Positivity Project. As a school leader, he implemented P2 in a school that reduced behavioral incidents by 93% in a single year.

If you had told me a few years ago that in 2026 I’d be spending my weeks advising and consulting with school districts across the United States and internationally, I would not have believed you. My world used to be one school, one staff, one community. But here we are on a Monday, and I might spend my time talking with folks in Michigan, California, Texas, or Lebanon.

No matter where I am, I keep running into the same universal truth: almost everyone I talk to is genuinely trying to put good resources, good strategy, and good systems in front of their staff. The intent is there. The care is there. What gets in the way is the planning process behind what to select. Understanding how to navigate that process, honestly, is one of the most powerful things a school or district leader can learn.

I know this because I’ve sat on both sides of the table. I’ve been the one reviewing programs, sitting in committee meetings, filling out rubrics. And now I’m the one districts call when they’re trying to make these decisions well. From either seat, I can tell you exactly how good programs get eliminated before anyone ever sees them work.

It happens on paper. Somebody asks, “Is this an SEL curriculum or a character education program?” Or, “We’re a PBIS district. Does this fit PBIS?” Or, “Our funding is tied to mental health. Is this a mental health program?” And if the answer doesn’t match the label on the folder, the conversation ends right there.

I understand why. Districts run on frameworks. Frameworks are how you organize funding, staffing, professional development, and accountability. If something doesn’t have a home in your framework, it doesn’t have a budget line. And if it doesn’t have a budget line, it doesn’t exist.

Here’s what I’ve learned working across the country in rural, suburban, urban, public, private, and charter school settings, and now internationally: the framework is the container. What fills it, in every single one of them, is the same two ingredients: character and relationships.

That’s why I want to walk through the frameworks one at a time. Your framework isn’t the problem. I want to show you why a strengths-based approach to character strengthens the framework you already have.

If You’re a PBIS School

I’ve worked with a lot of PBIS schools, and I’ve lived it myself. I know what PBIS does well: it gives adults a consistent system for expectations, acknowledgment, and data. What PBIS doesn’t hand you is the content. The daily instruction that teaches students who they are and why other people matter.

PBIS is the system; character strengths are the substance. Your matrix says “be respectful,” and P2 teaches what respect actually looks like through strengths like kindness, fairness, and self-control, giving students and staff one language to talk about it. Schools tell us the acknowledgments get richer, too. Instead of a generic ticket, a teacher names the strength: “That was bravery, raising your hand when you weren’t sure.”

When my school committed to this, we went from 1,672 referable incidents in year one to 116 in year two. A 93% reduction. The system gave us the structure and the data. What changed the building was students and adults understanding each other.

If You’re an MTSS District

This is the question I get most from district leaders: “What tier is this?”

P2 is a Tier 1 universal program. Proactive, daily, for every student. And that’s the point. A strong Tier 1 is one of the most cost-effective investments a district can make, because universal, daily support lightens the load your intervention tiers have to carry. 

Prevention is cheaper than intervention, in dollars and in staff hours. We can’t Tier 2 and Tier 3 our way out of a Tier 1 problem. If excessive numbers of students are qualifying for intervention, that’s a signal to go back and look at what’s happening in your Tier 1 programming.

But we didn’t stop at Tier 1. P2 includes a Tier 2 Toolbox for strategic small-group support and Tier 3 toolkits for individualized work with counselors and specialists, all built on the same strengths language students already know from daily lessons. That consistency matters. A student in intervention shouldn’t have to learn a second vocabulary. Support should sound like more of what they already trust.

One more thing your MTSS coordinator will want to know: P2 meets the criteria for an evidence-based intervention under ESSA, which keeps it eligible for federal funding streams that require evidence-based status.

If You’re an SEL District

Social-emotional learning asks students to build self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Those are the right goals. The question is what students actually use to reach them.

Our answer is character strengths. When a student can say that their perseverance is what got them through a hard unit, that’s self-awareness with real vocabulary behind it. When a class talks about how curiosity and teamwork showed up in a group project, that’s social awareness and relationship skills, practiced daily, not once a semester.

The Positivity Project gives every student, PreK-12, a shared language built on the 24 character strengths identified by positive psychology research, plus what we call the Other People Mindset: five habits of putting the relationship first. It’s delivered in 15 minutes a day, by the classroom teacher, with fully prepared lessons. If your strategic plan says SEL, P2 is how SEL becomes something students can see, name, and practice.

If Your Focus Is Mental Health and Wellness

Districts are being asked to solve a student wellbeing crisis with a counselor-to-student ratio that makes it mathematically impossible. One counselor can’t carry a school alone. I’ve watched them try.

A strengths-based approach distributes work across every adult in the building. Daily lessons build the protective factors the research keeps pointing to: belonging, positive relationships, self-worth, optimism, gratitude. West Lake Middle School in North Carolina measured a 33% increase in students’ sense of belonging in a single quarter. At Discovery Elementary in California, chronic absenteeism dropped 69%. Different schools, different measures, but they rhyme: students are more likely to show up to a building where they feel connected.

P2 is not a clinical mental health service, and I won’t pretend it is. What it does is strengthen relationships in advance, creating an environment where students who need clinical support also have proactive, daily measures around them, beyond the clinical help they’re receiving, and giving your counselors a whole-school culture that works with them instead of against them.

If You’re Looking for Character Education or Whole-Child Success

Some communities want the word “character.” Some want “whole child.” Some, frankly, want to stay away from certain acronyms altogether. I work with all of them, in every setting you can imagine, and here’s what I’ve found: when you put the 24 character strengths in front of parents, things like perseverance, honesty, kindness, teamwork, gratitude, and self-control, nobody argues. These are the things every family wants for their kids, in every community I’ve ever worked in. That’s true in upstate New York, and it’s true when I’m on a call with a school in Beirut.

Character education is the most durable framing there is. It’s the oldest goal schools have.

So Which One Is P2?

Yes. All of them: PBIS-aligned, MTSS Tier 1, SEL, wellness, character education. We’re not claiming to be everything to everyone. Every one of those frameworks is reaching for the same outcome: students who understand their own strengths and understand that other people matter. Get that right, universally and daily, and everything your framework measures moves. Behavior, attendance, belonging, and yes, academics.

A rising tide lifts all boats. Character and relationships are the tide. Your framework is the boat, and we’re not asking you to trade it in.

Remember what I said from the start: the leaders I talk to every week already want to put good things in front of their staff. So if you’re evaluating programs right now and P2 doesn’t seem to match the label on your folder, do me a favor: don’t eliminate it on paper. Ask us the fit question directly. Fifteen minutes with our team, the same length as one of our lessons, and you’ll know exactly where it lives in your framework and how districts fund it, from Title I, II, and IV to IDEA and state grants.

The paperwork should never be the reason kids don’t get this.

Wondering how P2 would fit your district’s framework? Access free lessons or schedule a meeting with our team.