If students at your school are not attending classes or coming to school at all, they may be engaging in school refusal. Understanding what school refusal is, as well as the functions behind it, is key to evaluation and a collaborative school-home approach to intervention.

Research has suggested that students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds (e.g., students of color and those with disabilities) have received higher rates of exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) than their peers who are White and without disability. Various interventions have been implemented to address this…

Students sometimes engage in challenging behaviors that require teachers to select and design appropriate behavior management interventions. Teachers may choose from various evidence-based intervention strategies when addressing students' challenging behaviors. Reinforcement-based strategies are preferred due to their desirable long-term outcomes.…

Functional communication training (FCT) is an evidence-based intervention that has been widely used and implemented to reduce problem behavior and teach replacement behavior in a variety of settings. Specific procedures have been researched and documented to ensure correct implementation. Functional communication training can be broken into three…

Classroom teachers are responsible for providing high-quality instruction to multiple students simultaneously. When students engage in problem behaviors, instructional quality and instructional time may be negatively impacted. A multiple schedule of reinforcement is a behavioral intervention strategy that allows teachers to signal to students…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) generally have behavior support plans that are based on a functional behavioral assessment. This article provides educators practical guidelines for conducting a "multiple stimulus without replacement" (MSWO) preference assessment to rank order preferred activities that will align…

A tremendous amount of evidence supports the importance of building relationships between educators and students (Kincaide et al., 2020). Because of this, there is an emerging focus in both research and practice on how student-teacher relationships are assessed, the impact of these relationships on student outcomes, and methods for building and…

In this article, we describe practical, usable ways teachers can build rapport with students, particularly students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. By establishing rapport, teachers can increase the effectiveness of the social and emotional learning curriculum and interventions delivered. Specifically, the warm welcomes,…

Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) are an effective support for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) for improving targeted behavioral skills. As one of the most important strategies in PMI, peer prompting and reinforcement (PR) provides an effective approach for developing and maintaining positive behavior. This article provides…

Students with disabilities benefit from positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS; Meyer et al., 2021). The use of school-wide and class-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) shows promise in helping educators to integrate evidence-based practices for the benefit of all students, including those diagnosed with…

This article discusses a three-phase model aimed at obtaining vocal speech with students who display selective mutism at school. The three phases discussed include: (1) establishing reinforcer influence; (2) enhancing motivation to speak; and (3) generalize to nontherapy settings. The utilization of this approach to get speech to occur and…

Since the reopening of schools after COVID-19, students and staff have been required to wear face masks. Some students, including those with extensive support needs (ESN), may have difficulty in wearing these novel protective garments. Fortunately, researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of several procedures for supporting the wearing of…

This article provides an overview of how reinforcement serves as the foundation for a function-based approach to support students with challenging behavior. Understanding reinforcement is essential when providing function-based support for students with challenging behavior. Reinforcement "strengthens" behavior, increasing the…

Functional communication training (FCT) is a strategy to address problem behavior for students with various disabilities that is supported by a broad evidence base. Despite this support, multiple factors continue to dissuade educators from utilizing FCT in their classrooms. This article outlines the process of developing and implementing FCT plans…

When a student exhibits challenging classroom behaviors that are resistant to traditional classroom management systems, his/her individualized education program (IEP) team conducts a functional behavior assessment (FBA). The FBA process is a series of assessments designed to identify the function of the student's behavior. This is done by…