Preschool Expulsion Research Articles

"Your Child Should Not Return": Preschool Expulsion Among Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as an Early Indicator of Later Risks.

Young children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can have challenging behaviors putting them at risk for preschool expulsion and for adverse outcomes across child development, health, and education. We examined the association of preschool expulsion with ADHD symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and functioning among children with ADHD. Using the cross-sectional National Survey of the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD and Tourette Syndrome on 2947 children aged 5 to 17 years ever diagnosed with ADHD, parents reported on preschool expulsion, ADHD symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and functioning. Weighted analyses included calculations of estimated means, prevalence, and prevalence ratios. Preschool expulsion was experienced by 4.4% of children ever diagnosed with ADHD (girls: 1.5%; boys: 5.7%). Children with preschool expulsion had lower mean ages at first concern about ADHD symptoms, ADHD diagnosis, and initiation of ADHD medication and had higher prevalence of severe ADHD symptoms and other mental, behavioral, or developmental disorders. A history of preschool expulsion was associated with difficulties with overall school performance, organized activities, writing, handwriting, and the parent-child relationship, but not with math, reading, or peer or sibling relationships. Children with preschool expulsion more often received school supports, behavioral classroom management, peer intervention, and social skills training. Among children ever diagnosed with ADHD, history of preschool expulsion was associated with more severe ADHD symptoms, other disorders, earlier diagnosis and medication initiation, and academic and social impairment. Health care providers can use preschool expulsion as an indicator of risk for children with ADHD and connect families to effective treatments.

Child-focused infant and early childhood mental health consultation: Shifting adult attributions to reduce the risk for preschool expulsion.

Infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) in early care and education (ECE) settings is a promising approach to support young children. Although research on the effects of IECMHC is encouraging, it is limited by the complexities of the systems in which IECMHC is implemented and the variability in IECMHC models. The current study aims to clearly articulate a statewide, child-focused, short-term IECMHC model, assess consultee satisfaction, examine the effects of consultation on children's functioning in the school and home settings, and evaluate changes in teacher perceptions associated with expulsion risk following consultation. In total, 268 children ages 1-5 (69% White, 75% male) and their family and school caregivers participated in consultation in a New England state, and 95 children and caregivers were included in an evaluation subsample. Of this subsample, teachers and ECE administrators, but not families, indicated significant improvement in children's functioning from referral to end of consultation. There was also a significant decrease in children's risk of expulsion, as measured by teachers' perceptions associated with expulsion decisions. This study contributes to the IECMHC literature by providing results specific to a child-focused model of consultation and highlighting the possible role of adult attributions for children in ECE.

Predicting child externalizing behavior ratings in Head Start: Investigating the impact of child and teacher influences

One of the primary goals of early education is to promote overall school readiness, especially for children most at risk for educational challenges. However, there is a persistent disparity in equitable access to high quality early learning environments. This is due in part to children being suspended or expelled for displaying challenging behaviors even though for many children, some of these behaviors may be developmentally appropriate. The effects of exclusionary discipline can have long-term implications for their overall emotional and social development. Racial and gender-based disparities in school discipline begin as early as preschool. Some of these disparities can stem from disproportionality in teachers’ perceptions of children's behaviors. The ways in which teachers perceive and subsequently respond to preschoolers’ behavior have significant implications for children's experience in the classroom and are an important link in understanding decision-making pathways related to preschool expulsion. The goal of the present study was to examine factors that might predict teacher perceptions (i.e., ratings) of child externalizing (hyperactive and aggressive) behaviors. This study analyzed secondary data from a nationally representative study of Head Start. Findings indicated there were differences in how teachers rated children's externalizing behaviors based on child's sex and race. Further, a teacher's field of study, beliefs about family engagement, and attitudes toward Developmentally Appropriate Practices significantly predicted their ratings of children's aggressive and hyperactive behaviors. Policy recommendations are discussed.

Teachers' emotion regulation strategies and preschool expulsion risk: Suppression and reappraisal

Teacher stress has been implicated in decision-making related to preschool children's expulsion risk. The current study examines whether teachers' emotion regulation strategies moderate the relationship between child behavior and expulsion risk. In the study, 44 preschool teachers (68% lead and 32% assistant) completed surveys on their own emotion regulation strategies and child behavior (inhibitory control), student-teacher conflict, and expulsion risk for four randomly selected students in their classroom (n = 176). In multilevel models, higher inhibitory control was related to lower total expulsion risk and subscales of classroom disruption and stress in random slope models, controlling for student-teacher conflict and child gender. In conditional models, teachers' use of suppression moderated the link between inhibitory control and classroom disruption (p = .032) and reappraisal moderated the link between inhibitory control and child-related stress (p = −.016), supporting the exploration of teachers' emotion regulation as a critical aspect of expulsion prevention.

Addressing Early Education and Child Care Expulsion.

An important goal of early childhood education is teaching emotional self-regulation within the context of a safe, stable, nurturing environment. Expulsion of young children ignores underlying emotional and behavioral concerns, disproportionately affects children of color (Black or Hispanic), males, children with disabilities, and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, and has long-term consequences on educational and life success. Addressing implicit bias and providing child mental health consultation (psychologists, social workers, developmental behavioral pediatricians, child psychiatrists, and child neurologists) to child care providers can prevent expulsion. Pediatricians and other providers within the medical home play an important part in preventing expulsion. However, pediatricians need more training in early childhood mental health and in understanding how systemic racism and implicit bias lead to preschool expulsion in children of color. By identifying children at risk for expulsion because of poverty, racial discrimination, toxic stress, insecure attachment, or history of trauma, the pediatrician can connect families with community resources that may ameliorate these effects. Pediatricians can provide information on social-emotional development in early childhood, promote positive parent-child relationships, and model and discuss age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate behavior management. Pediatricians can also guide parents toward high-quality child care programs that use mental health consultation and developmentally appropriate activities, both of which lessen the chance of child expulsion. Furthermore, behavioral health providers integrated into the medical home can provide consultation to child care providers on managing patients. These recommendations are consistent with our knowledge of early child brain development and support the current tenets of the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding the pediatrician's role in building resilience and buffering toxic stress to promote optimal child development.

Who calls for help? Assessing the reach of the Ohio preschool expulsion prevention partnership

Early childhood expulsions are a systemic issue in early care and education (ECE) that have negative consequences for children, families, ECE programs, and communities. The Ohio Preschool Expulsion Prevention Partnership (OPEPP) represents one state's attempt to reduce the incidence of early childhood expulsions using infant and early mental health consultation distributed statewide in a hub-and-spoke arrangement. The study merges records from the first four years of OPEPP implementation (N = 569 expulsion prevention referrals) with child care licensing data (N = 3408 ECE programs) and data from the American Community Survey to assess OPEPP's reach in both the hub and spoke regions and identify what program and community characteristics were associated with OPEPP uptake. We found that 16.7 % of center-based ECE programs operating in Ohio between April 2016 and December 2019 participated in OPEPP, but distribution of referrals was uneven, with 36 % of ECE programs in the hub participating but just 10 % of programs outside of the hub doing so. ECE programs with higher quality ratings had greater odds of participating in OPEPP, as did ECE programs outside of the hub area that accepted publicly funded child care reimbursements. The differences in participation rates and predictors of participation between the hub and spoke regions suggest a need to explore how the hub-and-spoke arrangement of OPEPP may need to be adjusted to reach ECE programs outside of the hub region more effectively and have implications for other large-scale early childhood expulsion prevention efforts.

Essential elements of infant and early childhood mental health consultation: Inside the black box of preschool expulsion prevention

Exclusionary discipline practices differentially harm young children of color. As early childhood education systems seek to close these gaps to ensure all young children have access to high quality early learning experiences, the field requires more evidence-based approaches that can be scaled and replicated. Infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) has been associated with lower rates of preschool expulsion; but the field lacks clear guidance on the essential elements of high quality IECMHC. Without such guidance, researchers cannot build a credible evidence base for the causal link between IECMHC and exclusionary discipline. An interdisciplinary research team, with support from the national Center for Excellence in IECMHC, led a consensus-building process to identify the essential activities of IECMHC as implemented across settings. The three-stage Delphi Process resulted in a list of five essential elements and 26 activities that define IECMHC and make concrete its emphasis on relationships and equity. This greater clarity around the activities of IECMHC can help inform future research and evaluation, as well as workforce and professional development.

Preschool and Child-Care Expulsion: Is it Elevated for Autistic Children?

Viewed through a social justice lens, preschool expulsion is an educational equity issue. This study focused on prior expulsion from preschool and child-care in a longitudinal study of 203 autistic children, ages 4 to 7. By parent report, 16%—one out of six autistic children—had been expelled from a preschool or child-care setting prior to elementary school; average age when expelled was 3.3 years. Expulsion history and reasons for expulsion were determined from parent report. Previously-expelled children went on to experience more conflict and dependency in their current student-teacher relationships. They also experienced greater teacher-reported externalizing symptoms than non-expelled children; these constituted the only child characteristics that distinguished expelled and non-expelled children. Children were more likely to be expelled from private versus public programs, suggesting a particular need for policies and practices supporting inclusion in private settings. Future work that examines contextual factors exacerbating expulsion risk is warranted.

Inhibitory Control, Student-Teacher Relationships, and Expulsion Risk in Preschools: An Indirect Effects Path Analysis.

Identifying factors related to expulsion risk is of great need due to the high and disparate rates of young children routinely excluded from preschool classrooms. This study aimed to explore the pathways to expulsion risk among a sample of 88 preschool children from 22 Head Start classrooms. Data were collected on children’s inhibitory control using the Child Behavior Questionnaire, the closeness subscale of the Student–Teacher Relationship Scale, and on children’s overall expulsion risk using the Preschool Expulsion Risk Measure. Direct pathways from children’s inhibitory control and student–teacher closeness to expulsion risk were significant. Results indicated that student–teacher closeness mediated the relationship between children’s inhibitory control and expulsion risk, indicating the importance of supporting positive relationships in preschool classrooms to disrupt pathways to expulsion. Implications for practices and future research to prevent expulsion are discussed.

The role of infant and early childhood mental health consultation in reducing racial and gender relational and discipline disparities between Black and white preschoolers

AbstractThis study presents findings from an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) initiative in Arizona called Smart Support. The IECMHC used an early childhood mental health consultation model as an early childhood education intervention to address the needs of preschoolers with challenging behaviors. Disparities in teacher‐child relationships and discipline are some of the most persistent racial disparities impacting young Black children. The goal of IECMHC is to facilitate teachers' skills to respond to challenging child behavior and to shift teachers' internal representations of young children. This study is one of the first to link a statewide IECMHC intervention to the analysis of racial and gender teacher‐child relational and discipline disparities. Multilevel growth analyses examined whether child scores at baseline and growth over time differed as a function of child race and gender. At baseline, Black children, compared to white peers, and Black boys, compared to white boys, had higher teacher‐child conflict scores. These scores decreased more strongly over the course of IECMHC such that Black children's outcomes surpassed those of white peers by the end of consultation. A trend was also seen for the reduction of Black boys' preschool expulsion risk, although this trend was only marginally significant.

The Interplay among Early Childhood Teachers’ Social and Emotional Well-Being, Mental Health Consultation, and Preschool Expulsion

ABSTRACT Research Findings: The present study examines the associations between various elements of a teacher’s social-emotional well-being and context and her requests for the permanent removal of a child from her classroom. Specifically, the current study explores teachers’ perceptions of their emotional intelligence, levels of depression, classroom-level externalizing behaviors, and center climate. Using self-report survey data from teachers at community-based preschools in a large Midwestern city (N = 124), logistic regressions predicting teachers’ expulsion requests shed light on associated factors. Findings indicate that teachers with greater levels of depression are more likely to request that a child be expelled from their care but that this association is attenuated by their centers’ utilization of infant/early childhood mental health consultation services. Teacher-reported emotional intelligence, perceptions of their students’ externalizing behaviors, and center climate were not significantly associated with expulsion requests. Practice or Policy: This study contributes to our growing understanding of two pressing issues in early childhood education: teacher well-being and exclusionary discipline. Findings suggest that attending to teacher mental health and early childhood mental health consultants may be important in reducing rates of exclusionary discipline in early education settings.

Expulsion prevention: Framework for the role of infant and early childhood mental health consultation in addressing implicit biases.

Young children of color-especially boys-are at disproportionate risk for suspension and expulsion from early care and education settings. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) is an approach associated with lower than expected expulsion rates, but the mechanisms through which it may influence preschool expulsion are unknown. This paper reflects on the parallels between IECMHC and interventions created to reduce implicit bias. Based on interviews with leaders in IECMHC practice, implementation, and evaluation, a theoretical framework was created to articulate how IECMHC is hypothesized to affect expulsion by first reducing the influence of implicit bias on disciplinary decisions. Implications for practice and research are provided.

A Consultation Approach to Target Exclusionary Discipline of Students of Color in Early Childhood Education

Black students comprise approximately 19% of the preschool population, yet they represent 47% of school suspensions (U.S. Department of Education 2016). Although it is posited that most teachers seek to serve all children to the best of their abilities, research indicates that many school personnel engage in implicit biases that influence their perceptions, behaviors, and interactions with students (Boser et al. 2014). Studies have also found that racial ethnic minority status influences the quality of individual education and level of access to fair and appropriate accommodations a student receives (Farkas Teachers College Record 105:1119–1146, 2003; Magnuson and Waldfogel 2008). Thus, white privilege exerts itself at the start of schooling among our youngest and most vulnerable students and can contribute to increasing racial injustice as these children develop throughout the lifespan. In the current article, we present a multifaceted consultation approach intended to target factors that underlie disproportionate rates of preschool expulsion among black and other children of color. This approach incorporates (a) a systems and contextual perspective to collaborate with preschool programs in promoting effective equity and discipline practices; (b) data-based assessment and decision-making to obtain specific information about programs’ discipline practice and to advance the use of positive behavioral strategies; and (c) interventions to reduce implicit bias and address vulnerable decision points in discipline, with an emphasis on prevention and cultural competence.

School Readiness.

School readiness includes the readiness of the individual child, the school's readiness for children, and the ability of the family and community to support optimal early child development. It is the responsibility of schools to meet the needs of all children at all levels of readiness. Children's readiness for kindergarten should become an outcome measure for a coordinated system of community-based programs and supports for the healthy development of young children. Our rapidly expanding insights into early brain and child development have revealed that modifiable factors in a child's early experience can greatly affect that child's health and learning trajectories. Many children in the United States enter kindergarten with limitations in their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development that might have been significantly diminished or eliminated through early identification and attention to child and family needs. A strong correlation between social-emotional development and school and life success, combined with alarming rates of preschool expulsion, point toward the urgency of leveraging opportunities to support social-emotional development and address behavioral concerns early. Pediatric primary care providers have access to the youngest children and their families. Pediatricians can promote and use community supports, such as home visiting programs, quality early care and education programs, family support programs and resources, early intervention services, children's museums, and libraries, which are important for addressing school readiness and are too often underused by populations who can benefit most from them. When these are not available, pediatricians can support the development of such resources. The American Academy of Pediatrics affords pediatricians many opportunities to improve the physical, social-emotional, and educational health of young children, in conjunction with other advocacy groups. This technical report provides an updated version of the previous iteration from the American Academy of Pediatrics published in 2008.

Forestalling Preschool Expulsion: A Mixed-Method Exploration of the Potential Protective Role of Teachers’ Perceptions of Parents

Preschoolers are being expelled at an alarming rate and little is known about protective factors. One factor may be the relationship between parents and teachers. Using surveys and interviews, the present study explores teachers’ perceptions of parents and center support as they relate to teachers’ requests to have a child removed from their classroom, an action related to expulsion. Teachers who have more negative perceptions of parents and perceive less center support working with parents were more likely to have requested a removal of a child in the past year. Qualitative comparisons yield differential themes around attribution of child behavior to parents and styles of engagement with parents between teachers who have requested a removal and those who have not.

Teacher Decision Factors That Lead to Preschool Expulsion

Preschool expulsion is a trending social problem. To date, this is the first study that examines the teacher decision factors behind preschool expulsions. This article presents results of the development and validation of the Preschool Expulsion Risk Measure (PERM). In a 2-phase analysis of the study, we provide evidence for the PERM's reliability and validity in a sample of 352 preschoolers from 88 sites in a New England state. The PERM yielded 4 factors (classroom disruption, fear of accountability, hopelessness, and teacher stress) and demonstrated good internal consistency. The PERM correlated with standardized assessments of children's behavior problems and predicted intervention status (target child vs. random peer) and the probability of expulsion (child considered for expulsion vs. child never considered for expulsion). Classroom disruption predicted intervention status whereas accountability predicted consideration for expulsion. Results support the PERM as a viable tool for assessing the propensity to be expelled. Findings shed light into the decision factors that propel teachers to consider expulsion of a child, which can inform early education programs and policies to address this issue.

Utilizing social-emotional learning supports to address teacher stress and preschool expulsion

Across the United States, rates of preschool expulsion exceed those in K-12 and relatively little is known of the antecedents and consequences of such disciplinary decisions for both teachers and children. Interventions to reduce expulsion from public preschool additionally benefit teachers' workplace experiences, including reducing stress. The present study explores associations among supports and resources which promote children's social and emotional learning (SEL), teacher stress, and requests for expulsions in community-based preschool classrooms. Surveys and interviews of Chicago area preschool teachers provide rich detail of teachers' experiences accessing and using supports in ways that impact their classroom emotions and disciplinary decisions. Although teachers who utilize SEL supports request fewer expulsions, the association is fully mediated by teachers' stress. Furthermore, qualitative matrix comparisons demonstrate distinct differences in how teachers who request expulsions experience and utilize supports and manage their stress as compared to those who do not make such requests.

Teachers’ Perceptions of Childcare and Preschool Expulsion

Previous research outlines the correlates of childcare expulsion in the USA, yet researchers know little about how these correlates produce expulsion. This in‐depth qualitative analysis of 30 childcare providers’ accounts of expulsion finds a patterned process to expulsion: Teachers search for causes and solutions to challenging behaviours. When interventions fail, overwhelmed teachers shift their focus from ‘struggling’ children to ‘bad families’. Once the explanation of behaviour changes from within to outside of the child, expulsion is imminent. Interventions in teachers’ understandings, not only in children's behaviours, are discussed as a possible way to reduce expulsion.

Using the Teaching and Guidance Policy Essentials Checklist to Build and Support Effective Early Childhood Systems

The prevalence of preschool expulsion, coupled with racial disparities in expulsion rates and the potential long term negative effects of challenging behaviors in the early years, has created an urgent need to build early childhood systems to address these issues. The teaching and guidance policy essentials checklist (TAG-PEC) has been developed to assess nine essential features of high quality early childhood discipline policies and can be used by early childhood programs in a variety of settings to evaluate, refine, and revise existing policies or guide in the development of new policies. Using data from 282 guidance policies assessed using the TAG-PEC, the authors use a framework for systems building developed by Coffman (A framework for evaluating systems initiatives, 2007) to position the TAG-PEC as a powerful tool that can be used to help build and support an effective and cohesive early childhood system. Findings indicate that, overall, discipline policies were not high quality and there was a great deal of variability in the TAG-PEC scores. By bringing evidence based practices to the field via a simple to use checklist, the authors hope to help contribute to the development of a comprehensive early childhood system and that supports programs in the provision of high quality services to children and families.

Reducing the Risk for Preschool Expulsion: Mental Health Consultation for Young Children with Challenging Behaviors

Increasing numbers of young children are being expelled from child care settings because of their problem behavior. Access to mental health consul- tation is related to lower rates of expulsion, but additional data are needed to document the pathways through which mental health consultation reduces the risk of expulsion. We report on outcomes from a 4-year project designed to reduce the number of children expelled for problem behavior in a large suburban county in Maryland. Two master's-level professionals provided behavioral consultation to child care providers who identified nearly 200 children at imminent risk for expulsion. Child care providers rated children's social skills and problem behaviors at referral and discharge using the Preschool Kindergarten Behavior Scales and the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Statistically significant increases in social skills and reductions in problem behaviors were seen for children who received individualized consultation. More than three-quarters of the children who were at risk for expulsion were able to be maintained in their current child care placement; of those that changed placements, only half (n = 13) were removed involuntarily. These findings provide additional support for mental health consul- tation as a promising strategy to reduce the risk for expulsion for young children with problem behaviors.