In part one of my blog post, Challenging Scholar Behaviors Increasing, we considered a list of challenging scholar behaviors many educators are dealing with daily since Covid-19, how teachers are persevering with little success, and the new norms for discipline as opposed to suspensions and expulsions. In part two, we’ll look at two ways some schools are using to deal with challenging behaviors with varying degrees of success.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS)
Countless schools rely on PBIS: Positive Behavior Interventions and Support for discipline. Some educators whose school sites use PBIS to address discipline challenges are frustrated.
“Our kids are being traumatized …’ The teachers’ complaints were not with the district’s interventions, however, but with how school administrators reward or ignore bad behavior and a lack of consistency in discipline.”1 Teachers are sending students to the office for misbehavior to meet with an administrator; the students return with a prize, like a bag of chips or candy. This is an incorrect use of PBIS.
The Modesto TK article said, “The educators’ issues are with how their schools discipline children and the challenge of providing extensive care for one student while handling a class of sometimes upward of 30 students.”1
Restorative Practices (RP) an Option
In 2013, Modesto City Schools asked Youth for Christ to train school site teams in Restorative Practices to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline. Each of the first two years my colleague and I were assigned the five schools with the highest suspension rates.
Mader said, “Research has found restorative practices can improve student behavior and academic performance. Still, these schoolwide systems do not always get rolled out correctly or get all teachers to buy in, which can affect their success.”2
Angela Watson’s article, Restorative practices aren’t a strategy. They’re a way of being indicted that educators saw this as the silver bullet to magically fix the students, fix the culture. She said, “Restorative justice has gained popularity in schools—but it’s often misunderstood, misapplied, or implemented without the deep work required to make it meaningful.”3 I can attest to the endless RP myths the trainers addressed in every training. It is very challenging to implement effective restorative practices unless this is done schoolwide
The school sites we work alongside that are trying to implement Restorative Practices school-wide show greater gains than sites where Restorative Practices is implemented sporadically or one or two teachers trying to implement RP on their own.
These challenging behaviors are very disturbing to me and countless educators. This fall, scholars will be assigned to our classes. A growing number of students will arrive with challenging behaviors. So, what do educators do? What are educators doing at your school site? I certainly don’t have the answers, but I’m going to try and find out. I’d love to hear from you.
Sources
1 2025. Modesto TK-2 teachers report increased violence, disruption from students. Atmika Iyer. Updated October 24, 2025. https://www.modbee.com/news/local/education/article312620204.html#stor ylink=cpy
2. Jackie Mader, LA Times, Syndicated Content, February 17.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-17/teachers-see-increase- in-classroom-behavior-problems
3. Restorative practices aren’t a strategy. They’re a way of being.Angela Watson, November 2. https://truthforteachers.com/truth-for teachers- podcast/restorative-practices-in-the-classroom-arent-a-strategy-theyre-a- way-of-being/
Image Sources
- Center on PBIS [PBIS.org
- Gateway to Restorative Practices Logo. Dr. Marian Fritzemeier, Ed.D.
https://gatewaytorestorativepractices.com/