The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to determine how high school EBD program staff describe their self-efficacy and support systems in place to build social skills and social emotional learning skills (SEL) within their students. Bandura's Social/ Behavior Learning theories and research of self-efficacy provided the theoretical foundation. The two research questions asked how do high school emotional and behavior disorder (EBD) program staff describe their self-efficacy to build social skills and SEL skills in their students and how do high school EBD program staff describe their support system to build their self-efficacy in working with their students to build social and SEL skills? twelve staff members participated in the study. In-depth semi-structured interviews and a focus group were the sources of data with descriptive findings from a demographic questionnaire. A six step thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Six themes were identified: (1) the program staff were able to effectively coach their students to be successful in and out of school; (2) the program staff were provided useful SEL curriculum and strategies to share with their students; (3) the program staff demonstrated effective modeling of skills with their students; (4) the program staff established powerful connections and relationships with their students; (5) the program staff were provided practical professional learning opportunities to enhance their competency; and (6) the program staff described effective team collaboration was essential in order to demonstrate success with students. The results of this study provided practical strategies to enhance the effectiveness and professional skills of the staff that guide and support them. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]