Disciplinary intervention is an important responsibility for teachers and administrators. Undesirable behavior must be addressed as it can cause disruptions to the learning environment and ultimately impede student learning and progress. A variety of punitive disciplinary interventions, ranging from time out to exclusionary practices such as…

Child maltreatment is a widespread issue across the United States, directly impacting young children's learning and behavior. Yet, variability found in early education pre-service training does not include focus on this topic. Early education teachers often experience low wages, long work hours, and a lack of support to meet the needs of young…

A phenomenological study, according to Creswell (2013), is one that "focuses on describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon" (p. 76). This phenomenological study aimed to (a) explore teacher perceptions who have experienced teacher-directed student aggression by students with emotional behavioral…

Disciplinary exclusion, particularly school expulsion, presents a significant challenge to school-age children and their families. Although the impacts of disciplinary exclusion from school on children are well-known, less is known about how this phenomenon affects their parents. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to…

The results of this basic qualitative study explored the lived experiences of former students diagnosed with or at-risk for an Emotional Disturbance as they transitioned through the secondary setting. The purpose of this study was to uncover what contributed to within-school transition success in secondary settings for this population.…

Restorative practices and trauma-informed practices are being implemented in schools to improve the learning environment and reduce discipline referrals. This study aimed to determine how educators' level of understanding regarding restorative practices and trauma could affect how they interact with students that have experienced trauma. This…

The cross-sectionality of reading deficits and problem behavior begets many concerns including how exclusionary discipline is funneling Black students with reading deficits along the school-to-prison pipeline. Using a qualitative case study approach, this study investigated reading teachers' reports of the barriers they experience in predominantly…

Dual-factor models of mental health, those that include risk of psychopathology and wellbeing/protective factors, provide a more comprehensive understanding of an individual's complete mental health. Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are each independently linked in the literature with predicting the…

Since the early 1990s, American schools adopted exclusionary sanctions such as zero-tolerance policies (ZTP) to reduce student misbehavior as well as to sustain school safety. Due to the punitive nature of ZTP, some schools have sought alternative discipline models, like the restorative practices, to manage student infraction. This mixed methods…

This dissertation is composed of three articles analyzing the use of sensory rooms in schools to support student need as well as its use in other settings. Sensory rooms are rooms equipped with a variety of resources, strategies, and equipment to support an individual in de-escalation. They have been implemented in various settings including…

The purpose of this study was to understand the difficulties encountered by special education teachers while dealing with students who had dyslexia and demonstrated challenging behavior. The topic was the experiences associated with teaching dyslexic students. There is a lack of research centering on special education teachers' experience teaching…

The turnover of teachers nationwide continues to be an issue, with more teachers leaving the field than in the past. Teachers are experiencing emotional exhaustion and burnout (Baker et al., 2022). Emotional exhaustion and burnout could perpetuate a lower retention rate among teachers with the lack of training and support in classroom strategies…

Research consistently reflects novice teachers' feelings of inadequacy in effectively responding to students' disruptive classroom behaviors. Some teachers may quickly default to disciplinary write-ups or make behavior-related referrals to special education. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the perspectives of first-year…

The problem addressed by this study was that School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is not consistently being implemented with fidelity by special education teachers in urban high schools in California, which can have negative academic and behavioral impacts on students with disabilities. This qualitative descriptive…

The problem addressed in this study is that chronic absenteeism of special education students impacts school performance, graduation rates, and future employment opportunities. The purpose of the phenomenological study was to document the lived experiences of parents of high school special education students as chronic absenteeism of their special…