Students are often placed in alternative education schools or settings (AES) for behavioral issues that cannot be effectively supported in a general education setting. A large portion of students educated in AES have a diagnosed emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD). An AES teacher is required to provide students with the most effective behavior…

Most students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have challenging classroom behaviors and poor postschool outcomes. Self-determination promotes positive classroom behavior and successful postschool outcomes. By incorporating choice-making, an element of self-determination, teachers across grade levels can address behavioral issues and…

TikTok has gained in popularity across teachers. One TikTok trend related to classroom management is called "Secret Student." Secret Student aims to improve classroom behavior by rewarding an anonymous, randomly chosen student. In this article, I describe common practices and variations of the Secret Student intervention as well as…

Sometimes, despite the most perfectly delivered writing lesson implemented with fidelity, students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) do not make the progress expected by teachers or themselves. In these instances, teachers may individualize and differentiate for students with EBD not making adequate progress by purposefully…

Early adolescents entering middle school are at a pivotal developmental phase as they become less dependent on parents/guardians and seek greater autonomy while encountering a complexity of social demands requiring them to regulate their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors to achieve academic and social success. Yet, students who receive services…

Recent decades have been marked by a wave drug treatment research in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This work has resulted in improved ability to treat commonly occurring behavioral challenges associated with ASD including most prominently irritability marked by aggression, self-injurious behavior, and severe tantrums. While treatment of…

Alcohol consumption has profound effects on behavior, such as impaired judgment, addiction or even death. It is estimated that alcohol contributes to around three million deaths worldwide, 13.5% of them in young people with ages between 20 and 39 years. Consequently, it is necessary to raise awareness among college and high school students of the…

Performing newly acquired skills over time (i.e., maintenance) and across settings and stimuli (i.e., generalization) is central to what students need to accomplish in preparation for life beyond the classroom. Students, including those with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), need opportunities to practice for the purposes of maintaining…

School teachers devote time to facilitate learning as well as behavior management to produce an environment of positive learning. For the typically-developing youth, most behavioral management interventions are successful to deter problematic behaviors and conduct compliance. However, for youth who have conduct disorder, the usual behavioral…

Students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) struggle to acquire and develop writing skills. To support their students' unique needs, it is important for teachers to monitor student writing progress to make instructional decisions based on data. In this article we describe methods for progress monitoring focused on…

New science demonstrates how students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders experience trauma at higher rates than their peers. When providing writing instruction to these students, it is imperative that the approaches used be viewed through a trauma-informed lens. This article describes steps teachers can take to view writing…

Limited emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD)-focused intervention mixed methods research (MMR) has been published, particularly in top-tier EBD journals (i.e., "Behavior Disorders" and "Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders"). The lack of published MMR creates what could be perceived as a Catch-22 situation wherein…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) can exhibit severely challenging behaviors that lead to events of crisis in an inclusive classroom. This article provides practitioners with an overview of the cycle of dysregulation experienced by some students with EBD. The article includes descriptions of stages in the dysregulation cycle,…

For students with severe or complex challenging behavior, incorporating hypothesis testing as a component of functional behavior assessment (FBA) is often warranted. Several hypothesis testing strategies (i.e., functional analysis, antecedent analysis, concurrent operant analysis) can confirm whether and how features of a student's environment…

The best social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum can be difficult to implement when students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are unregulated and unprepared to engage in instruction. Daily mindfulness practices can help students with and at risk for EBD regulate their emotions and behaviors and be prepared for…