The objective of this project was to learn what elements of a systemic-focused implementation guide are key to facilitating the involvement of families and faculty in rural southeastern North Carolina elementary schools as an intervention to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline for children's externalized behavior in school. Guided by the conceptual framework of the family process and content model, this project is founded on systems theory. A child cannot be completely understood separately from their family, and a family's process and function contribute to how the entire family interacts with its environment to include the child in their school. Since family functioning is linked to child behavior, the purpose of this project was to develop a program implementation guide using the McMaster model of family functioning to be implemented in the school setting to address family functioning in at-risk elementary school children. With an action research design, I presented six subject matter experts (license or certificate-holding professionals such as marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, social workers, school counselors, elementary school teachers, and administrators) with a condensed version of the implementation guide. Subject matter experts were interviewed, and recorded interview data was analyzed using narrative analysis to capture and consolidate emerging ideas. Six key elements were identified: key players at each step within the guide, utilization of structured assessment to communicate needs, easy-to-follow and self-contained steps throughout the guide, building trust through cultural competency and a need for sensitivity, maintaining privacy, and awareness and respect for school resources. A macro theme was also identified, dividing the elements into two theme categories: implementation and service. These findings demonstrated that there are ways to align structured outpatient services within school settings to integrate systemic programs or interventions. The implications of these findings bring the potential for this process to inform ways to integrate other systemic programs or interventions once key service delivery factors have been identified. This project can be improved by soliciting minority professionals in education and mental health disciplines and comparing their opinions regarding key elements to the findings in this project. Attaining feedback from a more diverse sample may identify different key elements. [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.]