Visual activity schedules (VASs) are an effective, efficient intervention designed to promote positive language and behavioral development for elementary students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). However, VAS design and implementation varies widely in the extant research, prohibiting the ease of implementation in classrooms. The purpose of this article is to provide systematic guidance for educators to design, plan, implement, and progress monitor VAS effectiveness for students with or at risk for EBD.

Some students with disabilities, particularly those with emotional and behavioral disorders, may struggle with transitions, demonstrating inappropriate behaviors during them. Visual supports, previously determined to be an evidence-based practice for students with autism, is a proactive classroom management strategy addressing transitioning. In this article, we describe the use of visual activity schedules that can be integrated into existing classroom management practices to reduce disruptive behaviors during transitions.

Research suggests that a cycle of misbehavior can escalate quickly from corrections over minor rule infractions to threats of serious disciplinary consequences. There is also evidence that Black youth may be especially at risk for these escalations due to subtle or implicit racial bias, or cultural mismatches that may lead teachers to believe that minor rule violations, especially those that require subjective judgments, convey willful defiance or disrespect. In this article, we provide a brief overview of data confirming that Black students experience disproportionate disciplinary outcomes, explore the idea that one contributor to disproportionality may be cultural disconnects between adults and the student population, and consider the idea that many punitive disciplinary actions evolve from relatively minor classroom conflict, disruption, or rule violations. We argue that fairly simple, low-intensity antecedent strategies that show promise in defusing problems rather than exacerbating them may offer mitigation against disproportionate disciplinary outcomes.

Differential negative reinforcement of alternative behavior is a technique in which students can escape a portion of a task they perceive to be unpleasant by reaching a predetermined criterion. In this article, we define the negative reinforcement trap and review research on differential negative reinforcement of alternative behavior. We then describe procedural steps for teachers to effectively prevent students from escaping tasks or activities they find unpleasant as well as increase work accuracy and productivity.

Fractions are an imperative skill for students to master to achieve success in future mathematics concepts and classes. Yet many students, especially those experiencing math difficulties and/or characteristics of emotional and behavioral disorders, continue to exit elementary school without a concrete foundation of fractions skills required to successfully transition into higher level math courses. In this article, we present an overview of SRSD Fractions, a strategy instructional framework to teach adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. We highlight the benefits of using the framework to promote student engagement and skill mastery and identify free-access resources for educators to successfully implement the math intervention in their own classrooms.

While noncompliance is a concerning challenging behavior and commonly reported by educators, its measurement is likely to be invalid and inaccurate given the subjectivity of the operational definition. Engagement is offered as a more valid, accurate measurement that may provide data regarding the amount of instruction accessed by the student. In this article, we outline limitations of noncompliance measurement and provide resources for educators to measure and support varying forms of engagement to improve student outcomes.

Check-in/check-out (CICO) is an evidence-based practice for addressing the behavioral needs of students with and without disabilities from kindergarten through the 12th grade. The CICO intervention is easily adapted to address other areas of need, beyond behavior, including academics and social integration, making CICO appealing for all school grade levels and differing student needs. Recently, transition skills have been targeted and integrated into CICO for adolescents with disabilities. Building from the transition-focused applications of CICO, adaptations and intensifications specific to high school students with emotional and behavioral disorders related to transition-readiness skills of self-monitoring, social skills, and vocational training are provided.

Given the writing struggles of students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) served in general and special education classrooms, it is imperative that teachers provide effective writing instruction. One way to learn effective writing skills is through writing instruction through practice-based professional development that scaffolds instructional methods to teach evidence-based writing strategies. Within this article, a framework is described to develop an effective professional development for general and special education teachers who work with struggling writers with and at risk for EBD.