Soft expulsion: A solution when there are no other options?

Abstract

In the United States, children in early childhood education settings are expelled at high rates. Teacher beliefs about expulsion have been found to be significant predictors of this practice; however, little is known about how teachers react when expulsion is not an option due to non-expulsion policies. Soft expulsion is the process of implicitly pushing children out of schools despite policies that prevent them from being expelled. This study used an anonymous online self-report measure to examine early childhood teacher and administrator beliefs, sense of support, and practices when faced with children with severely challenging behaviors in non-expulsion settings. Results showed that most teachers and less than half of administrators believed that there are children with challenging behavior who cannot be supported in their classrooms, yet the majority of both groups have had a child with unmanageable behavior in their setting. Regarding soft expulsion practices, approximately one-third of administrators and slightly less teachers have suggested to a family that their school was not a good match for a child without forcing them to leave, while both teachers and administrators reported a belief that sending a child home for challenging behaviors is sometimes needed to convince parents that the behavior is a concern. Most teachers and nearly half of administrators were unaware of their non-expulsion policies. The associations between availability of support and knowledge of non-expulsion policies on soft expulsion practices is also reported. Implications of these beliefs and practices are discussed.