Trauma-informed behavior support begins with understanding that all behavior is communication shaped by a student’s past experiences. When teams have the skills and knowledge to view behavior in this way, they can understand how interfering behavior communicates important information about a student’s unmet needs. This allows teams to move past reactive ways of responding to student behavior, and instead foster healing, belonging, and growth for every student. The keys below can guide school staff in the mindset work needed to support student behavior learning in a trauma-informed way.

Key 1: Behavior Serves an Authentic Purpose

All learned behavior meets a valid need for the person engaging in it. A person’s patterns of usual behavior develop over time based on which behaviors are most efficient at meeting their needs. In some cases, this means that a person may unconsciously learn very efficient ways of getting important needs met with behavioral patterns that are not safe or that otherwise interfere with their learning or relationships. Regardless, the first step in supporting a student to learn prosocial alternative behaviors is for school staff to learn the need met by the student’s interfering behaviors. 

School teams may make the mistake of describing a student’s interfering behaviors as intentional, planned actions that the student is consciously using to get a desired outcome. This language should be avoided as it is not an accurate understanding of how interfering behavior is learned over time. Loaded terms like “manipulation” can create bias that hinders the student’s belonging and reconnection at school. Inaccurate beliefs about behavior can prevent staff from understanding the context, individual history, and unmet needs at the heart of a student’s interfering behavior. 

Key 2: Behavior is Shaped by Past Events and Experiences

Because behavior serves a purpose, students who have experienced challenging or traumatic events often learn unique behaviors that help them meet their needs in those specific contexts. This might mean that, for instance, a student with a history of traumatic experiences may react more quickly or strongly to events that are linked to their past experiences in some way. For many students who have experienced trauma, these behaviors may have kept them safe in unsafe situations. School staff can support students to heal from these experiences by providing an environment that is emotionally and physically safe, stable, and affirms the student’s inherent worth and belonging in the school community. This creates the conditions in which a student can feel secure to learn new and prosocial ways to navigate the healthy challenges of the school day.

Key 3: Behavior is Learned, So It Can Be Taught

As described above, each student’s past experiences shape their current behaviors. Because of this, school staff should remember that the student is also capable of learning healthier alternative behaviors. This requires staff provide teaching and compassionate support for the student to learn those new behaviors. Just like with any area of learning, students may make behavioral mistakes or may have established habits that interfere with their growth. Just like with academic skills, school staff can provide high quality instruction, feedback, and support in social, emotional, and behavioral skills to support student learning.

Key 4: Punishment Does Not Teach New Behaviors

According to behavioral science, new behaviors are only learned through practice and reinforcement. It is a common misconception that a student’s interfering behavior should be given punitive consequences – and, in the short term, occasional instances of interfering behavior can sometimes be temporarily halted through the use of punishment. However, punishment cannot teach new behavior and does not lead to positive long-term behavioral change. The more a student experiences punishment at school, the more likely it is that their interfering behavior will worsen over time. Any perceived effectiveness of punishment is temporary and does not result in learning or behavioral growth. For students to achieve lasting growth in social, emotional, and behavioral skills, those skills must be identified, taught, and positively reinforced.

Key 5: Behavior Support Requires Listening to the Whole Child 

All learned behavior is communication of some kind. Since behavior serves an authentic purpose, it is possible to understand that purpose – as well as the authentic need the behavior meets – by listening to what is communicated. This requires an understanding of the student as a whole child. 

Behavior support from a whole child perspective acknowledges and seeks to address unmet needs that contribute to a student's use of interfering behavior. For example: 

• For a student with sensory sensitivities who engages in interfering behavior when hungry, the team can support her with options for school meals that meet her sensory needs
• For a student who avoids class due to anxiety, the team can provide tools to manage anxiety, therapeutic work around building positive coping skills, and increased connection with safe adults during the school day
• For a student who feels isolated and who has difficulty making and keeping friendships, the team could provide extra support around social interaction, self-management, and opportunities for strengths-based student leadership
• For a student who feels disconnected from school due to a series of suspensions, the team works to rebuild a sense of belonging by building relationships, connecting the student to school activities and learning opportunities aligned with their strengths and interests, and preventing further disciplinary removals by proactively supporting the student in whatever need the behaviors at issue were communicating

To support all students socially, emotionally, and behaviorally in a trauma-informed way, educators should be aware of several key elements that shape these supports:

• A positive school climate promotes safety, connection, and a supportive environment
• Student belonging is essential for engagement and well-being
• Staff knowledge of behavior support principles helps build transformative, compassionate, and student-centered practice
• Avoiding assumptions and implicit bias is necessary for behavior support rooted in educational justice and equity

School Climate

School climate is a broad concept that describes the overall atmosphere experienced by members of a school community, including students, staff, and families. It is often grouped into categories or components, each of which should be considered when designing comprehensive systems of behavioral health support.¹⁵  In a positive school climate:

1. The community feels a sense of safety from both physical and emotional harm. Schools and classrooms promote well-being through clear rules that are equitably enforced, a secure environment, and preparation for various emergency situations. When students feel safe from bullying, harassment, and other factors, they are less likely to experience emotional crises, engage in risky behaviors,¹⁶  and to misinterpret their experiences.¹⁷
2. Relationships between members of the community are built on mutual respect, and involve supportive, caring interactions that foster positive connections. Students feel connected to peers and adults, diverse cultures and languages are represented and affirmed, and all members of the school community have ways to participate in it. When staff feel respected and supported by leadership, they are more likely to respond to a crisis effectively.^18,19  When students have trusting relationships with staff, the likelihood of behavior referrals decreases.²⁰ 
3. Both the physical and cultural elements of the school environment support student learning and well-being. Students with disabilities are included as full members of the school community. Physical surroundings are clean, comfortable, and accessible. Staff, students, and families feel valued and have feelings of belonging within the school. When classroom environments represent student interests and encourage participation, they foster responsibility and reinforce prosocial behaviors.²¹
4. Teaching practices support students’ academic learning and development as community contributors. Students see themselves represented in curriculum, educators feel confident in their lesson delivery, staff are included in lesson creation, and families feel connected to their students’ learning. When students feel engaged in their learning, the likelihood of interfering behaviors decreases.

School Climate Assessment Resources

The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments keeps an updated list of school climate surveys in their Survey Compendium, many of which are free to use. In addition, the National Center for School Safety offers a “how to” guide on Cultivating a Supportive School Climate. This resource offers a step-by-step approach to assessing and subsequently improving school climate needs through initiatives and policies.

Student Belonging 

Students feel a sense of belonging when they are present, invited, welcomed, known, accepted, involved, supported, heard, befriended, and needed at school.²²  When students experience belonging at school, their behavior, academic achievement, motivation for learning, and long-term outcomes improve across the board.²³  While many variables contribute to a student’s sense of belonging, research shows that teacher support is the largest factor.²⁴  This is particularly important for student populations who have experienced a history of segregation and exclusion, such as students with disabilities, Black students, and indigenous students. 

Student belonging is essential to cultivate for safe and effective schools. In WestEd’s resource “Reimagining School Safety: A Guide for Schools and Communities,” the authors described the importance of centering relational elements, including student belonging, in school safety work:

“[The] tendency to shape and control is deeply embedded in the design of safety and discipline policies and practices in educational settings, resulting in the creation of exclusionary forms of discipline, the placement of physical barriers around spaces of learning, and the increasing use of law enforcement on campuses to discipline and punish students….Shifting the paradigm for how everyone in school communities views, defines, and achieves safety is not so much about creating something new as much as reconnecting with fundamental principles of being human. Through this shift, the paradigm of safety is not about exclusion but about belonging—not a pushing out but a folding in.”²⁵

ABCs of Behavior

Antecedent

A behavior’s antecedent is a condition that usually occurs before an individual student begins engaging in a particular interfering behavior. An antecedent can involve:

• Something specific that happens to the student before the behavior (e.g., being teased by a peer, working in small groups, being startled by a loud sound), and/or
• Something specific that does not happen to the student before the behavior (e.g., raising their hand and not being called on, long transition times, a parent is delayed at pickup)

Behavior

Behavior can be defined as “an observable and measurable individual action.” In evidence-based positive behavior support and social emotional learning practices, the behaviors of focus are often prosocial behaviors. These are behaviors that are used in a variety of healthy skills, including navigating relationships, engaging in learning, taking on challenges, and managing emotions. 

Some school teams use the term “behavior” solely to refer to interfering behavior. An interfering behavior is a behavior that interferes with the student’s learning, interactions with others, or other activities. When a student engages in interfering behavior, a school team can support them by teaching new alternative behaviors. However, school staff should keep in mind that behavior is influenced by factors such as culture and disability; therefore, it is important to ensure a behavior is actually interfering before seeking to change it. For instance, an autistic student may use rocking and finger twirling as stimming behaviors that support them in paying attention and participating during class. As this behavior does not interfere with learning, it would not be appropriate for a school team to discourage this behavior.

Effective school teams are typically more focused on teaching strategies that support students in learning skills, and less focused on reducing interfering behaviors. Skills to consider teaching include, but are not limited to, those related to social interaction, communication, self-regulation, and problem-solving. In most cases, when students are taught effective ways to get their needs met, they will no longer use interfering behavior to do so. 

For more about selecting alternative skills to teach students, refer to Section 4.

Consequence

In behavioral terms, a consequence is any outcome that immediately follows a given behavior. Importantly, the term “consequence” is not limited only to corrective responses or punishment given to students by adults. A consequence can be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral for the person experiencing it. The following are common consequences that may naturally follow different behaviors in school settings:

• Delaying or avoiding a task
• Receiving a compliment or positive affirmation from an adult or peer
• Making others laugh
• Taking a break to do something relaxing
• Being reprimanded
• Being expected to engage in a particular activity

School teams can learn many things about a student’s patterns of interfering behavior by observing the behavior’s consequence(s). This can also support school teams in understanding how a student’s particular interfering behavior is being inadvertently reinforced or punished. For more, refer to “Reinforcement and Punishment” below.

Reinforcement and Punishment

Most behaviors are learned unconsciously by experiencing their consequences (outcomes) repeatedly – whether those consequences are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral for the person experiencing them. Over time, each person develops a skillset of behaviors which have efficiently met that individual’s needs for safety, connection with others, and access to enjoyable activities and things. Similarly, each person also develops a set of behaviors which have resulted in unpleasant outcomes and which they are unlikely to use. Once school teams understand a student’s individual patterns of behavior, including their experiences of reinforcement and punishment, they are better able to compassionately anticipate their needs and support positive behavior learning. 

Reinforcement

Reinforcement has happened when two things are both true about a behavior: 

1. The behavior was immediately followed by an outcome for the person, and
2. The behavior is increasing (or continuing at the same level) over time

When both of those things are true, the outcome in question is functioning as reinforcement for the behavior that preceded it. Teams must be able to identify whether the behavior is increasing/continuing over time. If a student repeatedly engages in a behavior that interferes with learning, the school team can conclude that the behavior is being reinforced. However, it may take careful observation to determine the reinforcer. 

A misconception about reinforcement is that it is synonymous with the term “reward.” Most forms of reinforcement occur naturally as part of instruction and/or social interactions at school. When an interfering problem behavior is increasing or continuing to occur, it is always connected to some form of reinforcement that follows it, even if that reinforcement was not planned.

Punishment

Punishment has happened when two things are both true about a situation: 

1. The behavior was immediately followed by an outcome for the person, and
2. The behavior is decreasing over time

In other words, if a student has stopped engaging in a particular behavior over time (e.g., the student has stopped attending classes), the school team can conclude that the behavior is being punished. As with reinforcement, punishment can occur inadvertently, so staff should look closely at the student’s pattern of behavior over time to determine what might be acting as a punisher. 

Functions of Behavior

The behavior’s function is the type of underlying need that it meets for the individual. There are four functions (i.e., needs) of learned behavior:

• Escape: The behavior allows the person to delay or avoid doing something they find unpleasant or difficult
• Attention: The behavior gets an immediate social response from others
• Tangible: The behavior allows the person to access a specific desired item or activity
• Sensory/automatic: The behavior helps the person meet a basic physical need

All behavior serves a function, including student behavior that interferes with learning and/or interactions with others. School teams can support students to learn new behaviors that meet the same needs expressed by interfering behavior in ways that support learning and social connection. 

Avoiding Assumptions and Implicit Bias When Describing Behavior

To facilitate effective and equitable behavior support, descriptions of a student’s behavior (including interfering behavior) should be measurable, observable, clearly understandable to an unfamiliar person, free from bias and subjectivity, and culturally and linguistically responsive. The language school staff use about student behavior can directly shape inequitable beliefs and practices. Staff should not use criminalizing language against students, which includes referring to a student as an “offender” or “perpetrator” and describing a student’s behavior support needs using terms for criminal acts (e.g., the student “assaults” others or must be “bribed” to do things). Likewise, it is important for staff to reflect on their behavioral language to determine if and how implicit bias–based on a student’s race, ethnicity, language, gender, disability, or other individual characteristic–is influencing their perceptions of a student’s behavior or motivation.

The table below presents nonexamples of the most common practice errors school staff make in describing individual student behavior in ways that suggest bias and/or create barriers to understanding. It also presents positive examples of how staff can describe the same behaviors in ways that facilitate effective teaming and student support.

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¹⁵ National School Climate Center (NSCC; n.d.). What is school climate and why is it important?

¹⁶ National Center for Safe Supportive Learning (NCSSLE; n.d.). Physical safety.

¹⁷ NCSSLE (n.d.). Emotional safety.

¹⁸ Paterson, B., Young, J., & Taylor, J. (2019). Compassion fatigue in teachers working with children whose distress may present as behaviour that challenges.

¹⁹ Rozmiarek, D., & Crepeau-Hobson. F. (2022). A qualitative examination of compassion fatigue in school psychologists. Contemporary School Psychology, 28, 30-42.

²⁰ NSCC (n.d.). What is school climate and why is it important?  

²¹ National Center for School Safety (2024). Cultivating a supportive school climate: A “how to” guide.

²² Carter, E. W., & Biggs, E. E. (2021). Creating communities of belonging for students with significant cognitive disabilities (Belonging Series). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, TIES Center. 

²³ Kuttner, P. J. (2023). The right to belong in school: A critical, transdisciplinary conceptualization of school belonging. AERA Open, 9. 

²⁴ Allen, K., Kern, M.., Vella-Brodrick, D., Hattie, J., & Waters, L. (2018). What schools need to know about fostering school belonging: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30, 1–34.

²⁵ WestEd (2022). Reimagining school safety: A guide for schools and communities.

School climate and a sense of belonging are closely linked to academic achievement, yet many schools face gaps in both areas – particularly for students from marginalized groups.²⁶  To support all students effectively, efforts to address social, emotional, and behavioral needs must be grounded in educational equity, justice, and inclusionary practices. When this is not in place, students from marginalized groups may experience unnecessary barriers, leading to unmet student needs, interfering behaviors, and/or staff misinterpretation and discipline of behaviors that do not actually disrupt learning. Educators must be aware of these dynamics and proactively address them to prevent inappropriate or disproportionate referrals for behavioral services.

Example 1: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

Students who are culturally or linguistically diverse are disproportionately referred for behavior support by educators who do not share their cultural or linguistic background. School staff should be mindful that a student's cultural traditions and social, emotional, and behavioral norms may differ from those of the educators who shape the dominant school or classroom culture. For example, cultural norms can guide communication and body language (such as respectful types of eye contact or language when speaking to an elder or authority figure) which may create differences in how students address and interact with teachers. Cultural differences are different from interfering behavior, and students should not be referred for behavior support for behavior that is part of their cultural heritage. 

Additionally, students who are English learners who are not adequately supported in their language learning may engage in interfering behavior, particularly behaviors related to difficulty understanding instructions, meeting classroom expectations, and completing schoolwork.²⁷  School staff should take care to ensure all students have the universal supports needed to access instruction (both academic and social/emotional/behavioral) with additional support layered in for students with additional language and communication needs.

Example 2: Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities may encounter barriers in various aspects of the school environment, such as instruction, communication, or social interactions, that school staff can address to ensure the environment is universally designed for all learners. It is important for school staff to remember that barriers to learning social/emotional/behavior skills are in the environment, and are not inherent to students with disabilities. Interfering behavior often indicates that existing supports, including the universal supports that should be available to each and every learner as well as the supports included in the student's IEP, are not adequate. This is especially the case if the student has not been included or provided with the support needed to find belonging in general education settings, or if the school's MTSS system is not designed with the needs of all learners in mind. 

Example 3: Students in Foster Care

Students in foster care face unique barriers to a positive educational experience. They may have an inconsistent team of people involved in helping make decisions about their education, and so may experience a sense of powerlessness, stigma, and reluctance to interact or form relationships with adults.²⁸ They are far more likely to change schools during their academic career,²⁹  are at higher risk of absence and truancy, and are more likely to experience emotional dysregulation and behavioral health concerns.³⁰ And because federal law requires state agencies to keep foster care students in their school of origin if in their best interest,³¹  they may commute a significant distance from home each day. School and classroom environments must be safe, supportive, and sensitive to the experiences of these students. Staff can help create safe environments by maintaining confidentiality, taking time to establish trusting relationships, and ensuring that students are able to make up coursework following absences due to court dates and other appointments. Districts must also designate a Foster Care Liaison, and each K–12 public school must designate a Building Point of Contact. For more information, visit OSPI's Foster Care webpage.

Example 4: Students with Mental Health Support Needs 

For students with support needs related to mental health, daily activities and responsibilities can sometimes feel overwhelming. The costs of health care and associated mental health services can present additional barriers for families and students in accessing treatment. When students with mental health needs do not receive the support they need, they may experience a variety of symptoms that can lead to behavioral changes. Teams that focus their efforts solely on responding to these behaviors may be overlooking more critical underlying distress. This is especially likely for students who have disabilities, as some school staff may mistakenly believe that students with disabilities may not experience the same mental health needs as students without disabilities.

Example 5: LGBTQIA+ Students

Students who are LGBTQIA+ often experience interactions and school discipline targeting their identity, contributing to a school climate in which these students may not feel safe. Nationally, 73% of LGBTQIA+ students indicated that, when they reported being harassed, intimidated, or bullied (HIB) by other students, that school staff did not respond effectively. In Washington’s 2024 Healthy Youth Survey,³²  65% of LGBTQIA+ respondents reported that school staff did not try to stop their experiences of bullying. Further, both national³³  and state data show that staff were more likely to tell the LGBTQIA+ student to change their own behavior (e.g., adopt different mannerisms or dress differently) than they were to discipline the student engaging in HIB behaviors. Many LGBTQIA+ students also report discriminatory school discipline practices, such as being disciplined for wearing clothing that aligns with the student’s gender identity. When these students feel unsafe at school, they may miss more school than their peers, resulting in lost instructional time and possible disciplinary consequences. For school teams to support this population, they can examine school climate and disciplinary practices to eliminate discrimination and ensure school is a welcoming place that offers safety and belonging for these students.

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²⁶ WestEd, Region IX Equity Assistance Center (2013). The racial school-climate gap.

²⁷ U.S. Department of Education (2017). English learner tool kit for state and local education agencies.

²⁸ Treehouse (2018). Guide to supporting students in foster care.

²⁹ Education Research & Data Center (2021). Education outcomes of Washington students in foster care.

³⁰ National Health Care for the Homeless Council (2019). Homelessness & adverse childhood experiences.

³¹ OSPI (2023). Foster care education in Washington state.

³² Washington State Healthy Youth Survey Data Dashboard.

³³ GLSEN (2022). The 2021 National School Climate Survey: The experiences of LGBTQ+ youth in our nation’s schools.