Teachers participating in a Houston Independent School District (HISD) survey ranked student discipline most often—after personal reasons—as their motivation for leaving the district. HISD needed a strategy to improve student behavior and promote a positive classroom environment to keep teachers teaching and to change the trajectory for students most at risk of failing in school and life.

In 2009, HISD partnered with AIR to implement the Good Behavior Game in first- and second-grade classrooms, with a grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). By 2015, more than 100 teachers will be trained, and more than 7,000 children will have been reached.