There is a growing concern among teachers and parents regarding how best to teach children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in a remote learning format. Students with EBD may have specific needs that present as unique and challenging for teachers to address and when engaging in remote learning. We will discuss research-informed,…

Behavior is a form of communication. For many young children, they may engage in certain behaviors to consciously or subconsciously communicate a need to access something, such as a desired adult or peer, sensory stimulation, or a tangible item. Other times, children may engage in a behavior to escape or avoid something, such as a particular…

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare, but serious, metabolic disease that can cause a variety of neurological, psychological, and academic complications. Fortunately, many individuals with PKU who are identified and treated early can go on to live a relatively normal life. However, PKU does continue to present with a variety of complex underlying…

The school-age population of students is becoming increasingly more culturally and linguistically diverse. There is mounting recognition that English Learners (EL) represent a unique group of students who have special educational and linguistic needs. This article considered the needs of learners with diverse special needs such as (a) learning and…

Crisis intervention programs have been developed to help educators be better prepared to prevent and respond to students in crisis. Schools spend millions of dollars for the use of these commercial programs, many of which are based on the principles of the Cycle of Acting Out Behavior (Colvin & Scott, 2015), which is considered the "gold…

This brief helps educators implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework, like positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), organize classroom supports for preventing, teaching, and responding to students' social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs across the continuum. In classrooms, each educator implements,…

When students misbehave, understanding the problem behind their actions can make all the difference in the effectiveness of teacher response. Teachers and students sometimes view the same behaviors differently. When students break school rules, teachers consider the behavior a problem. But for the student, that behavior is often a solution to some…

The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, a 45-year study of children born into poverty, offers a number of lessons for practitioners. Among these are the potency of early relationship experiences for predicting developmental outcomes and the fate of early experience following developmental change. This article describes the…

According to research, as many as 68% of students have experienced at least some form of trauma (Cavanaugh, 2016). Yet, most educators report feeling inadequate about understanding trauma-informed practice, including understanding how trauma can impact student behavior in the classroom. This article provides a primer about trauma that can allow…

To address the daunting behavioral and mental health needs of Kansas' rural and underserved communities, Telehealth ROCKS (Rural Outreach for the Children of Kansas) Schools project partnered with school-based health centers, school districts, and special education cooperatives to provide a range of telebehavioral health intervention services and…

Office discipline referrals (ODRs) are a data source commonly used by school teams to identify students who need behavioral intervention. In this brief, the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) and the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) provide a brief synthesis of the research on using ODRs has a…

This brief describes how educators use a function-based approach to (a) prevent contextually inappropriate behaviors and (b) teach and encourage social, emotional, and behavioral skills throughout the PBIS continuum of support. In addition, this brief highlights critical features of effective functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and behavior…

Due to the increased risks of neurocognitive impairment when a child is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) at an early age, early identification and assessment are critical. A study by Nadebaum et al. (2012) found that cognition is impaired in a significant number of children at the time of diagnosis, and those who are initially impaired show a…

The primary purpose of conducting a structured interview as part of a functional behavior assessment (FBA) is to assist teams in generating a hypothesis about the reason for a student's problem behavior based on specific information. Although the use of an interview can be beneficial in identifying the function of a student's behavior, it often…

Students with disabilities benefit from positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS; Meyer et al., 2021). The use of school-wide and class-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) shows promise in helping educators to integrate evidence-based practices for the benefit of all students, including those diagnosed with…