Historically, the least restrictive environment (LRE) is the environment that allows students who receive special education services to be with typically achieving peers to the greatest degree that is appropriate. Recently, there has been an emphasis on supporting all students during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Students have gone through…

Students who are identified as having a disability are more likely to experience exclusionary discipline and significant negative student outcomes than students without a disability. Therefore, this study sought to examine the relationship between special education school staff's levels of stress, appraisal of problematic student behavior, and…

Among the many children with mental health needs, few actually receive mental health services. The children who do receive services are often initially referred by teachers (Sciutto, Terjesen, & Frank, 2000). However, the potential influences of child characteristics, like symptoms, gender, ethnicity, and school professionals' attitudes on…

Substantial empirical data indicates that elementary school teachers are disturbed by student behavior problems in a classroom. The current study was conducted in order to determine which behaviors teachers report to be most disturbing, whether there are any teacher gender differences, and what teachers report as being most effective in handling…

The purpose of this research was to explore the teacher self-efficacy beliefs of early childhood preservice educators and their preparedness to teach students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Phase One of this mixed-methods approach asked preservice early childhood educators (N = 34) to complete the short form of the "Teacher Sense of…

There remains a gap in research surrounding school administrators' perceptions of behavioral characteristics of bullies. Specifically, there is a lack of research that examines these perceptions by gender of administrator and gender of the bully. Using Goffman's frame theory, perceptions of behavioral characteristics of bullies influenced by…

The rise in the number of students found to have autism has been staggering over the past ten years. Accommodating these students effectively and appropriately in a public school is a challenge many teachers are deemed with, sometimes without adequate training. This study was aimed at affecting the underlying social misunderstandings inherent to…

This study focused on the perceived ethics of the decisions superintendents make in response to a situation with a teacher that was value-laden, potentially volatile, and potentially affected by the teachers' gender or ethnicity. Superintendents (N = 123) each read one of 12 versions of a vignette depicting a sexting incident between a…

Site level administrators make decisions during the course of a day that have ethical dimensions that challenge their personal values and ethics. This study examined the extent to which particular factors would affect principals' and vice principals' judgments of the ethicality of sanctions given a teacher who had been sending sexually…

This mixed-methods study was designed to determine how principals perceived the ethicality of sanctions for students engaged in sexting behavior relative to the race/ethnicity and gender of the student. Personality traits of the principals were surveyed to determine if Openness and/or Conscientiousness would predict principal response. Sexting is…

The present study examines the relationship between preservice teachers' implicit theories of behavior and their intervention selection. Specifically, this research shows how the malleability of preservice teachers' perceptions of problem behaviors in the classroom influences the selection of behavioral interventions. Preservice teachers with…