Research suggests that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) profoundly affect multiple aspects of childhood development. The present study endeavors to elucidate the impact of ACEs on critical school-related outcomes within the areas of internalizing and externalizing behaviors, academics, and school disciplinary measures. Utilizing a…

Although behavioral threat assessment and management (often shortened to "threat assessment") has become widely used in US schools, no studies have systematically examined how frequently schools conduct threat assessments and how threat assessment rates vary as a function of student and school demographics. Of particular concern is that…

This study presents findings from an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) initiative in Arizona called Smart Support. The IECMHC used an early childhood mental health consultation model as an early childhood education intervention to address the needs of preschoolers with challenging behaviors. Disparities in…

Threat-assessment procedures are advanced for their utility in reducing racial disparities in punitive and exclusionary school discipline outcomes. Generally unexamined, however, is bias in who gets referred for school-based threat assessment and under what circumstances. Cultural-competence considerations hold promise for addressing sources of…

Schools' ability to manage student misbehavior rests largely on students' perceptions of the discipline system and authority. According to the procedural justice perspective, when schools use discipline practices students perceive as unfair, they fail to see authority as legitimate, making them less likely to comply with rules and demand. Youth…

Threat assessment is a violence prevention strategy used to investigate and respond to threats to harm others. In 2013, Virginia mandated the use of threat assessment teams for threats to self and to others, effectively subsuming suicide assessment with threat assessment and raising questions about the distinction between the two practices. In a…

This paper describes implementation (fidelity, perceived acceptability) and tier 1 and Tier 2 outcomes of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports approach including mental health supports at Tier 2 in two K-8 urban schools. Interventions for Tier 2 consisted of three manualized group cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) protocols…

This study examined the relationships between implementation of a school-wide approach to behavior, School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS), and teacher self-efficacy. Twenty-two teachers from schools implementing SWPBS and 40 teachers from schools not implementing SWPBS completed a questionnaire measuring aspects of self-efficacy.…

Office discipline referral (ODR) data are increasingly used to monitor student behavior problems and the impact of interventions, but there has been limited research examining their validity. The current study examined the concordance of ODRs with teacher ratings of student behavior using data on 8,645 children in 335 classrooms at 21 elementary…

This multilevel study examines the extent to which individual- and school-level variables are predictive of three aspects of students' perceived school climate (order, safety, and discipline; fairness and clarity of school rules; and teacher-student relationship) by using a nationally representative sample. A wide range of social and academic risk…

This article focuses on the development and implementation of primary and secondary behavior supports at a schoolwide level. The approach described is consistent with previous efforts to address behavior at a systems level (e.g., G. Sugai, R.H. Horner, & F.M. Gresham, 2002). In this article, we illustrate this process through a school-based…

A recent article by Leviton develops a taxonomy for individualized school discipline including use of corporal punishment with conduct-disordered pupils. Research shows corporal punishment does have a negative effect on some types of behavior-disordered children, but it may not be wholly inappropriate for all types of misbehavior. (Author)

This paper presents a case for the need to individualize discipline as well as instruction. The selected review of the literature indicates that published information on classroom management currently does not provide such an individualized approach. A child-type by intervention technique interaction strategy is suggested with specific examples…

Problem-solving approaches incorporating interventions at multiple levels have gained in popularity in recent years. One such model, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), was developed to assist schools to more effectively promote positive student behavior through a systematic and recursive approach to developing and assessing…

School discipline referrals (SDRs) may be useful in the early detection and monitoring of disruptive behavior problems to inform prevention efforts in the school setting, yet little is known about the nature and validity of SDRs in the early grades. For this descriptive study, SDR data were collected on a sample of first grade students who were at…