According to the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS; 2022) three notable discipline problems reported by public schools including acts of disrespect toward teachers, verbal abuse towards teachers, and widespread disorder in classrooms has been consistently increasing over the last decade (U.S. Department of Education, 2022). Noncontingent…

Meaningful student-teacher relationships form a crucial foundation for teachers to deliver effective interventions leading to better outcomes for students with challenging behavior. By implementing simple recommendations for facilitating genuine and intentional interactions with students and regulating their own emotional responses, teachers can…

The U.S. Department of Education released a data set in 2011-2012 regarding discipline in schools in the U.S. The data revealed Black girls were the fastest growing population of students experiencing suspension and expulsion. Compared to their White peers, Black girls were suspended at a rate of six times more. The theoretical framework for this…

Although teachers are ideally positioned to support increasing social-emotional needs of their students, they may not always have knowledge or confidence in implementing strategies to support the student's mental health needs. This can lead to negative perceptions of students with challenging behaviors and misunderstandings of so-call…

Richard O. Welsh takes on the school discipline crisis in "Suspended Futures," delineating the persistent racial disparities in how educators perceive and respond to the behavior of students. Welsh offers a framework for disrupting and dismantling a disciplinary system that disproportionately disadvantages students of Black, Latinx, and…

Drawing upon Judith Butler's conceptualisation of performativity and subjectification, this article explores the effects of different kinds of counter political action to disrupt exclusionary school practices that further marginalise children who are, often already, on the edges of school life. Firstly, tracing the impossibilities sometimes…

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…

Exhaustion, as a key facet of burnout, is one of the most common risks that compromises teacher well-being and contributes to a shortage of teachers. While the school social environment has been identified as an influential context for teacher exhaustion, the relative importance of its different facets remains unclear. This study focused on the…

This study investigated special education teachers' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through qualitative, semi-structured interviews, 15 educators shared detailed reports of how efforts to reach students strained their mental health. They felt stressed due to frequently changing expectations and pressure to comply with federal special…

Exposure to violence among children and adolescents has been linked to negative outcomes including posttraumatic stress disorder, externalizing problems, low academic achievement, and impaired social-emotional adjustment. Aggressive behaviors specifically are shown to be strongly predicted by both direct and indirect violence exposure. Aggressive…

The problem investigated is that high discipline referrals in schools serving at-risk high school students often lead to student attrition and lack of academic success. A qualitative methodology with a narrative research design was employed/utilized to investigate the impact of high discipline referring in schools in Alabama, including the…

The beneficial relationship of school climate with various positive student outcomes has been demonstrated in several studies, though the relationship has not been thoroughly explored with regards to a student's likelihood of being suspended from school. The relationship of school climate and out-of-school suspensions was investigated using a…

Schools in the United States have experienced an increase in student classroom behavioral issues and mental health struggles since the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators who remained in the teaching profession through the pandemic possess valuable insights into the techniques used to address the increased emotional and behavioral needs of students both…

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…

Students often arrive at school not ready to learn due to stress and trauma. In order to thrive in school, students need to know that within the school is an intentional, multi-layered system of caring. This manuscript details strategies at the individual, classroom, and school level. Having targeted strategies to assist students is essential in…