Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) are placed outside of their public school more frequently than other students with disabilities, yet there are gaps in the literature on reintegration processes and the possible negative impact when collaboration between schools is minimal. Public schools rely on private placements in…

After-school programs are potential contexts that may promote positive youth development (PYD) and reduce problem behaviors among African American children. One way after-school programs may be associated with reduced problem behaviors is by fostering an affirming sense of identity. Prior research on racial-ethnic identity among African American…

Schools face an unprecedent demand for mental health services. Student mental health problems can be addressed via a continuum of mental health evidence-based practices (EBPs) integrated within school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). However, integrating mental health interventions with PBIS can be challenging. The…

Little is known about the feasibility and acceptability of interventions designed to address the needs of high school students with emotional and behavioral challenges and adopted by their teachers. In this study, 336 general and special education teachers rated classwide interventions (e.g., expectations, routines, positive student-teacher…

Purpose: Parent-focused interventions (PFIs) are a promising method for supporting parents and promoting children's well-being. Few PFIs in the USA, however, include physical health promotion content and are universal programs. The purpose of this paper is to describe a universal health-promoting PFI for parents of elementary school-aged children…

Background: The Student Assistance Program (SAP) is mandated kindergarten to 12th grade in Pennsylvania schools to address barriers to student academic success. Following student referral, SAP teams use a systematic process to inform recommendations for school or community-based services. To evaluate program outcomes, a review of student SAP…

The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of the implementation of the Mystery Motivator intervention as an interdependent group contingency to decrease disruptive behavior in an urban eighth-grade general education science classroom. The study was conducted using an A-B changing criterion design. The effectiveness of the intervention…

Ivymount Social Cognition Instructional Project (IvySCIP) supports teachers and related service providers to implement data-driven social and emotional learning (SEL) instruction for their kindergarten through 5th grade students with social cognition challenges, especially those with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HF-ASD). Based on…

One in three children in this country is overweight or obese. One in five children lives in food-insecure households that struggle to put food on the table. Both problems affect millions of children. Both can occur in the same child at the same time. Both are linked to poor academic performance, behavior problems, and high rates of school…

The School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Program is being implemented in many schools in Pennsylvania and across the county. The primary focus of this program is to provide schools with the tools necessary to deal with students and the increasing number of behavior problems. Although there is plethora of information on the School-Wide Positive…

In line with family systems theory, we examined patterns of hostile interactions within families and their associations with externalizing problems among early-adolescent children. Using hostility scores based on observational data of six dyadic interactions during a triadic interaction (n = 462; i.e., child-to-mother, mother-to-child,…

Middle and high school students subjected to harsh school discipline policies and practices such as suspensions and expulsions are more likely to disengage from the classroom and course work, and increases their chances of dropping out, according to this new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report recommends implementing…

The purpose of a physical restraint is to control the behavior of a student. It can involve physically holding a person immobile against his or her will to using chemical or mechanical devices to control a person. This study was designed to contribute to the paucity of existing research literature in regards to a school administrator's impact on…

Acting out behaviors is a hindrance to learning across the country. The school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) model is a behaviorally-based systems approach to addressing problem behaviors in our school today. The problem this study is designed to address is the issue that student misbehaviors and disruptions cause a loss of valuable…

Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs) have advanced and matured, a number of states and localities have undertaken evaluations to validate the systems. Such efforts stem from the desire to ensure that the system is designed and operating in the ways envisioned when the system was established. Given that a central component in a QRIS…