Emotional & Behavioral Needs

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Why it works

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders or significant behavioral needs are among the most challenging to support and the most likely to be excluded, yet punitive responses alone rarely help and often escalate. Research points to understanding the function and the unmet needs behind behavior, building strong relationships, providing structure and predictability, teaching emotional and behavioral skills, and collaborating with counselors, special educators, and families. Behavior is communication, and support works better than exclusion.

The research: Research on supporting students with emotional and behavioral needs.

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

The core activity: plan support for emotional and behavioral needs

Teachers leave with relationship, structure, and collaboration planned for one student.

Pick a student, or profile, with emotional or behavioral needs.
Consider the needs and functions behind the behavior.
Plan relationship, structure, and skill-teaching that support them.
Plan collaboration with counselors, specialists, and family, and follow any plan.

Support the need, not just the behaviorBehavior is communication. Build relationship and structure, teach skills, understand the need, and collaborate, it works far better than discipline alone.

Facilitator notes

Understand the need behind behavior.
Build relationship and structure, and teach skills.
Collaborate with the team, and keep expectations high.

Discipline alone escalatesPunitive responses alone rarely help students with emotional and behavioral needs and often make things worse. Understand the need, support, and collaborate.

Adapt it

Elementary: relationship, structure, skills, co-regulation.
Secondary: relationship, structure, skills, dignity.
All settings: understand, support, collaborate.

Participant handout

One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

K12 Academics · Professional Learning

Emotional & Behavioral Needs: support the need

Behavior is communication: relationship, structure, skill-teaching, and team collaboration, with high expectations.

The student or profile:
The needs and functions behind the behavior:
The relationship, structure, and skills I will provide:
My collaboration with counselors, specialists, and family:
The plan I follow:

Make it stick

Support and collaborate:

Support the need.
Build relationship and structure.
Bring a student you supported well to the team.

Common questions

Isn't this just a discipline problem?

Discipline alone rarely helps students with emotional and behavioral needs and often escalates. Understanding the need behind the behavior, building relationship and structure, and teaching skills works better.

How do I support without lowering expectations?

Keep expectations high and provide the support, relationship, structure, skill-teaching, that helps the student meet them. Support and high expectations go together.

Who helps me?

Counselors, special educators, behavior specialists, and families. These students need a team; collaborate, follow any behavior plan, and do not carry it alone.