Challenging student behavior is a concern for teachers and administrators across the United States, and the situation in West Virginia is no different. In response to these behaviors, principals often use an exclusionary approach to discipline, including detentions, suspensions, and expulsions. While research indicates a functional approach to…

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…

This dissertation contains two studies that examine family therapy services within public schools related to behavioral or discipline concerns. Both studies stem from an ecological and family systems theoretical framework in examining relationships between the student, family, and school systems. The first study is a scoping review on family…

There are high rates of disciplinary issues present in urban elementary schools in the United States, and school administrators need more effective strategies for improvement. Researchers have found that exclusionary discipline practices like suspensions and expulsions are often overused, have questionable efficacy, and disproportionately affect…

Preschool children exhibiting externalizing behavior problems are frequently subjected to harsh disciplinary measures, such as expulsion, which can have lasting negative effects. Teachers have the potential to better support these children by fostering their development of social-emotional skills. In this study, the researcher collaborated with a…

Managing student misbehavior at school is a reality today's school staff must be prepared for. Researchers and practitioners have been implementing a variety of strategies to support students with challenging behavior; however, the opportunity gap for specific students continues to exist. The number of students who are excluded, suspended, or…

This research study examined the impact of negative behavioral consequences on the academic achievement of 9th-grade students from three rural high schools in South Carolina before and after COVID-19 and by gender. The researcher used a comparative research design to examine achieved data of different genders, incidents at school, actions taken by…

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national enrollment rate for pre-k children ages 3 to 4 was 40% (a drop from 54% in 2019; National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). This is partly due to fewer children in the 0-5 age group (23.4 million of 72.8 million children in the United States in 2020; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020).…

Exclusionary discipline like a Discipline Alternative Education Program (DAEP) has not decreased student discipline referrals. Instead, economically disadvantaged students are often disproportionally assigned exclusionary discipline consequences, and often the impact of these consequences are overlooked (Anderson & Ritter, 2017; Moore et al.,…

Public school administrators use restorative practices (RPs) as a discipline intervention to reduce student expulsions and suspensions. The problem addressed in this qualitative study was that despite the implementation of RPs in a school district in the Southwestern United States, student misconduct increased. The purpose of this basic…

Student behavior is one of the top concerns for classroom teachers (Freiberg & Reyes, 2008). Student discipline has been a historic problem for teachers and schools alike. Students who misbehave tend to obstruct learning outcomes for students and negatively impact the efficacy and well-being of teachers (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy,…

Disciplinary exclusion, particularly school expulsion, presents a significant challenge to school-age children and their families. Although the impacts of disciplinary exclusion from school on children are well-known, less is known about how this phenomenon affects their parents. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to…

The problem of exclusionary discipline and the negative impact on students of color has been documented in the literature for many years. This pragmatic, qualitative dissertation examined teachers' and school administrators' practices and interventions they utilized to avoid exclusionary discipline. A structured interview process was used to…

A disproportionate number of Black students with disabilities experience exclusionary discipline practices (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) in K-12 public schools. This disparity persists, regardless of the severity of identified problem behavior, the school's average socio-economic status, or the type of public school attended. Given that…

Enny Elementary School (This is an actual school with a different name to protect the identity of all stakeholders. All data is real, and any names used are pseudonyms.) is in South Florida and operates under the auspices of The Palm Beach County School District. The school serves over seven hundred students with forty-three teachers and…