Poorly managed classrooms and buildings negatively impact
student learning. By contrast, well-managed classrooms and buildings positively impact
student learning. Therefore, administrators
and educational leaders must take research-based steps to promote a district-wide
climate that cultivates well-managed classrooms and buildings. Administrators and educational leaders can do
the following:
1. Encourage all teachers to establish and define reasonable
classroom norms or rules and appropriately communicate these to each student. Each norm or rule should be stated in positive
terms. Assess student awareness of each
rule’s purpose.
2. Facilitate commitment from all staff for teaching students
the appropriate school behavior in a manner similar to teaching, reinforcing,
and assessing academic skills. This
requires formal lessons on social skills, interpersonal problem solving, and
conflict resolution to be presented by teachers and counselors. Diverse programs designed to assist schools in
this regard provide significant professional development.
3. Establish universal expectations for various areas of
each building. Staff should be competent
describing what “respect” entails within the classroom, library, lunchroom, and
restrooms. This provides consistency
with norms or rules throughout the building. Common understanding of expectations mitigate
disagreements among students and staff, thereby reducing anxiety for students.
4. Convey explicit behavior expectations and consequences to
parents and families. This encourages
support from home, reduces conflicts, and increases the positive home-school relationship correlate.
When trying to implement the safe
and orderly environment correlate, educational leaders can easily fall into
common traps (Simonsen,
Sugai, Negron, 2008; Horner, Sugai, & Horner, 2000). Behavior
management can be a key to student, teacher, and district success. Whenever serving students with disabilities, effective behavior management becomes even more critical.
Failure to implement proper discipline with students with
disabilities can have financial consequences. Although less tangible, the emotional toll upon
students for inappropriate behavior management can be significant. District administrators must be aware of both
the educational and legal issues required for effectively managing the behavior
of students with disabilities.
Therefore, implementation of districtwide policies and appropriate
interventions must also provide the opportunity for case-by-case consideration.
Despite implementation of the strategies
listed above, some students will not respond to district-wide strategies. Therefore, more individualized strategies will
need implementation. Knowing a range of
approaches and additional preventative strategies is crucial for addressing chronic behavior problems.
Whenever students exhibit chronic
behavior problems, staff must know how to consider the root cause and purpose
for the problematic behavior before attempting to identify an appropriate
replacement behavior. Effective,
well-versed, administrators draft policies and seek consensus for carrying out
disciplinary strategies. Depending on
the age of the student, empowering the student to participate in discussions of
the undesired problem may prove very helpful. Inviting the student’s family members to identify
solutions and strategies tailored to the child’s individual needs can also be helpful.
Whenever a student has an
individualized education program (IEP) or a
behavior intervention plan (BIP),
strategies need to be evaluated by the child study team (CST) or intervention and referral services (I&RS) team. Typically,
such child-centered teams include the child’s parent[s], general education
teacher, special education teacher, and other school officials with specialized
knowledge of the child’s needs. This
optimizes communication, collaboration, implementation, and effective integration
through the IEP or BIP. Some preventative
strategies may include:
•
Designate specific support staff such as a counselor, social worker or aide, to
regularly check in with the student or help the student needing time or space
to vent or cool down.
• Adjust the timing or content of the student's academic
schedule. This potentially lessens the
adverse impact of potential triggers that increase student stress and anxiety. For instance, it may be helpful to schedule
physical education between demanding academic classes.
• Directly teach the student various relaxation techniques, including
visualization, deep breathing, or yoga.
• Plan for the student’s need to take “timeouts” as an
accommodation to either calm down or regroup.
• Develop a succinct crisis plan, outlining procedures for effectively
responding to the student's problematic behavior. Such a plan may provide training in non-aversive
behavior management. This includes positive
reinforcement and communicative strategies that all support staff and
stakeholders can universally utilize.
• Provide counseling, mentoring, or intense social skills
training.
• Provide services and supports “wrapped around”
the student and the student’s family. These
include interagency services provided at school, home, and in the community. Given involvement of multiple agencies it is
important that a care coordinator oversees support services.
Preventative strategies are more effective when based on
valid and reliable functional behavioral assessment (FBA). Since individualized
strategies are intensive and may need to be in place over an extended time period,
it is crucial to involve the family in all stages of developing and
implementing them. Once again, this
encourages support from home to reduce conflicts and increase the positive home-school relationship correlate.
Although district-wide and
individualized preventative strategies intend to prevent student behavior problems,
encourage desired behavior, and mitigate chronic behavior problems, some
students may continue to exhibit misconduct or operant behaviors. When students with disabilities engage in
misconduct, administrators and teacher leaders must be aware that federal laws,
including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of
2004 (IDEA), provide such students with
specific procedural safeguards.
A proactive approach can mitigate the
conflict
cycle that exacerbates problematic
behaviors (Fecser & Long, 2000). The increasing popularity of school wide PBIS programs
(Walker et al, 2005) exemplify how schools recognize success based on related research. Administrators and teacher leaders should be
well-versed in appropriate district-wide and individualized preventative
measures for managing student behavior. Since the special education law can be intricate
and punitive for non-compliance, understanding the legal issues related to the
discipline of students with disabilities is essential. Professional development for staff and
stakeholders increases competencies, promotes collaboration, and mitigates
potential conflict. The result is
increased opportunity to sustain success and optimize the learning for all
mission.
To
Cite:
Anderson,
C.J. (September 30, 2017) The need to mitigate behavior problems and optimize
References:
Fetter-Herrott, A., Steketee, A.M,
& Dare, M (2009) Disciplining students with disabilities:
The legal implications of managing
these pupils. Retrieved from
http://www.districtadministration.com/article/disciplining-students-disabilities
Horner, R.H., & Sugai, G. (2000). School-wide behavior
support: An emerging initiative
Journal
of Positive Behavioral Interventions, 2, 231-232.
Schneider, T., Walker, H.M., & Sprague, J.R. (2000). Safe
school design: A handbook for
educational leaders. Eugene,
OR: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational
Management, College of Education, University of Oregon.
Sugai, G., & Horner, R.H. (2002). The evolution of discipline
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Walker, B., Cheney, D.,
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behavior support: Identifying and supporting students
at risk of school failure.
Journal of Positive Behavior
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Walker, J. S., & Schutte, K. M. (2004). Practice and process
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