Section 3: Classroom Practices For Safe and Inclusive Learning

Social, emotional, and behavioral health (SEBH) learning and growth is part of typical childhood and adolescent development. Missing opportunities to learn and practice these skills can contribute to interfering behavior in the classroom. These gaps can be larger for students who have experienced restricted educational access and/or opportunity due to trauma, economic hardship, foster care placement, and/or discrimination (based on race, disability, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, and so forth). It is also likely the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on mental health, wellness, and learning of SEBH skills for many children and youth. When teachers plan their instruction and classroom practices to include teaching of SEBH skills, they can address these learning gaps and prevent most student interfering behavior.

Learning is inherently social and emotional…. Emotions and relationships can either motivate students to engage in learning, or, if unmanaged, interfere with attention, memory, and positive behaviors.⁷⁴

School staff and leaders can and should operate from the understanding that:

SEBH skills are learned, and thus can be taught – just like any other skill
All students need SEBH teaching and learning for positive postsecondary outcomes,
Some students also experience a greater need for SEBH teaching and learning compared to their peers

Section 3 describes practices for school leaders and staff to establish a culture of belonging for all at the classroom level, and strategies for educators to create organized and relational learning spaces that support all students to learn SEBH skills that make interfering behavior unnecessary.

⁷⁴ OSPI (2024). Washington SEL implementation brief: For educators (p. 1).

Creating a Classroom Culture of Belonging for Students, Families, & Staff

Strengthening student connection, deepening partnerships with families, and prioritizing staff well-being are essential strategies in creating inclusive, supportive school communities in which all members feel seen, valued, and safe. Exclusionary behavior responses, including restraint and isolation, can create disconnection from the school community for students, families, and staff, negatively impacting mental health, wellness, and engagement at school. To reduce restraint and eliminate isolation, educators and school leaders can take a proactive and holistic approach to building a culture of belonging that reaches students, families, and school staff alike.

Increasing Student Connection and Belonging

When students feel a strong sense of connection to their school and classroom community of adults and peers, they are more likely to maintain attendance and engage in learning, and less likely to engage in interfering and/or risky behaviors such as substance use.⁷⁵,⁷⁶ Exclusionary and/or punitive classroom disciplinary actions do not teach a student prosocial behavior, and can compromise a student’s feeling of connection to the school and classroom community.

To foster students’ authentic feelings of belonging in the classroom, school staff can:⁷⁷

Seek common ground and connection with each individual student
Establish and communicate high expectations for all students, and support students to reach them
Structure learning and group work to foster student cooperation and connection
Use culturally and linguistically responsive, inclusive, and anti-ableist practices to ensure marginalized students feel seen and valued in the classroom
Expect and signal to students that they will make mistakes as part of their learning
Support all students with classroom practices and instructional design that encourages students to put in effort, challenge themselves, and value each other's contributions

RREI Demonstration Site Finding: Start the Day with Regulation and Connection

Many demonstration site staff shared the benefits of starting the school day with routines that create space for students to self-regulate and connect with others. Examples include:

Greeting students at the door to the classroom or in the hallways during arrival, taking particular care to greet students who might feel more disconnected or overlooked. Note that staff should do this in a de-siloed way – students with disabilities should not be exclusively greeted by special education staff, and students without disabilities should not be exclusively greeted by general education staff.
Starting the day with a “soft landing” where students begin with low-demand activities that help them ease into the school day
Incorporating a “mindful minute” into the morning routine, including adult modeling and use of mindfulness strategies

When these routines are part of the school day, staff should ensure all students have access to them, including students with disabilities.

Partnerships with Families for Inclusive, Welcoming Classrooms

To create safe classrooms for all students to learn and belong, school staff should prioritize partnerships with the families of all students. However, these partnerships can be complex and challenging for families of students who engage in interfering behavior and the school staff who serve them. Many families encounter barriers to participating in family engagement opportunities, are reluctant to participate due to experiences or expectation that they will be judged by school staff, and report that their input and opinions are not valued at school.⁷⁸ Research suggests that teachers are more likely to hold negative perceptions of the parents of these students who engage in interfering behavior, which may hinder teacher-family partnerships and discourage collaborative efforts to support the student.⁷⁹ It is important that this dynamic is disrupted, as student behavior improves when schools and classrooms provide family-centered engagement opportunities and a sense of community.⁸⁰

Educators may consider the following actions to build classroom spaces that engage all families and students in ways that are culturally relevant, affirm the belonging of each and every student, and lead to positive student outcomes:

Anticipate and welcome student families inclusive of a variety of configurations, including extended family members, blended families, LGBTQIA+ parents, foster parents, co-parents, disabled parents, and single parents
Establish two-way communication with family members using translation when needed, refraining from jargon and in consideration of cultural factors for communication etiquette
Provide and connect families with opportunities to participate in the classroom and school, including leadership opportunities, and proactively address possible barriers to participation
In parent-teacher conferences and other collaborative discussions, ask family members about their students’ strengths, preferences, interests, and needs, and make efforts to incorporate that information into teaching and learning activities
Using reflective practice, notice which families participate in classroom events, volunteer opportunities, and two-way communication; when families do not participate, make adjustments to address barriers and ensure opportunities are designed equitably with student and family belonging in mind
Avoid waiting to communicate with families until there is a concern about a student’s behavior; instead, start the school year with a strong foundation for collaboration and mutual trust using the strategies above

Staff Well-Being for Student Well-Being

Teachers’ perceptions of their own effectiveness contribute to their sense of well-being in their classrooms and schools. Supporting a student who engages in interfering behavior – especially when those behaviors impact others’ safety and learning in the classroom – can put strain on a teacher’s belief that they are effective. This often contributes to significant stress for the teacher and can result in overreliance on ineffective responses to student interfering behavior (e.g., reprimands, frustration, punitive consequences, and unnecessary use of restraint and isolation). School and district leaders are strongly advised to view teacher and staff well-being, including supports needed for staff to feel capable and comfortable engaging in positive behavior support and SEBH skill development, as a necessary ingredient for student well-being in the classroom.

RREI Demonstration Site Finding: Leadership Support for Behavior Support and Teacher Well-Being

RREI demonstration sites have shared the importance of building leaders supporting classroom staff who serve students with interfering behavior. They recommend that administrators:

Demonstrate strong leadership during an emotional/behavioral crisis by actively supporting the student in crisis and their classroom team. This includes:
- Being physically present, engaged, and familiar with the student’s individual needs during a crisis
- Using trained de-escalation strategies and modeling those strategies for staff
- If a restraint is needed, conducting it (with the training to do so)
- Debriefing with staff
Become trained in psychological first aid to support staff after crisis situations
Check in with staff after behavioral incidents and crises to see what support they need, both practically and emotionally
Become familiar enough with a student’s behavioral supports to be able to implement them, allowing staff to step away for a few minutes if needed

There are many benefits when school leaders provide support to classroom staff, including increased well-being, greater professional skills and sense of mastery in trauma-informed behavior support, and a sense of support from their leadership and school community. RREI demonstration site staff who engage in this work report overwhelmingly positive effects, both in terms of teacher satisfaction and more effective support for interfering behavior. Compassion fatigue can be contagious, so leaders should build a climate of shared community for all staff (including special education staff) that provides a sense of belonging and connection to the joy and inherent meaning in teaching.

Practical strategies for teachers who support students with behavioral needs include:⁸¹

Checking in to ground oneself and other adults on the team at the beginning of the school day, before going home, and during other natural transitions in the school day
Learning techniques for mindful breathing and/or muscle relaxation, and using those techniques during challenging moments with students
After an incident of interfering behavior, cultivating compassion for the student by reflecting on possible reasons for the student’s behavior and strategies to support their learning and belonging, rather than cultivating negative emotional reactions to the student
Engaging in problem-solving and reflective conversations with team members and school leaders
Developing routines with a balance of compassion, satisfaction, relaxation, connection with others, and personal meaning

Selected Resources

⁷⁵ OSPI (2023). Washington state social emotional learning implementation guide.

⁷⁶ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2009). School connectedness: Strategies for increasing protective factors among youth.

⁷⁷ Regional Education Laboratory Northwest (2018). Shifting the current school climate: Sense of belonging and social and emotional learning.

⁷⁸ Kelty, N. E., & Wakabayashi, T. (2020). Family engagement in schools: Parent, educator, and community perspectives. SAGE Open, 10(4).

⁷⁹ Stormont, M., Herman, K., Reinke, W., David, K., & Goel, N. (2013). Latent profile analysis of teacher perceptions of parent contact and comfort. School Psychology Quarterly, 28(3), 195–209.

⁸⁰ Wood, L. & Bauman, E. (2017). How family, school, and community engagement can improve student achievement. American Institutes for Research (AIR) and the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

⁸¹ Paterson, B., Taylor, J., Young, J., & Walker, L. (2019). Compassion fatigue in teachers working with children whose distress may present as behaviour that challenges.

Classroom Strategies for Prevention, Teaching, & Response to Student Interfering Behavior

SEBH skills are part of universal teaching and learning in effective classrooms. These skills directly influence students’ academic success and post-school outcomes. They are necessary for students to set goals, work with others, communicate effectively, and handle stress – important for academic learning, social connection, and access to higher education and employment opportunities.

Educators and school staff can support student development of SEBH skills by creating learning spaces in which they intentionally embed teaching of those skills, instead of merely reacting to undesired behaviors as they occur. Many interfering behaviors can be prevented when school staff cultivate an organized, clear, inclusive, and engaging learning space. The following practices, adapted in part from the recommendations of the Center on PBIS, support student SEBH skill growth and can help prevent the use of restraint and isolation.

Welcoming and Organized Space

The design of a classroom often sets the stage for how students and adults will interact there. Well-designed classrooms are safe and inviting spaces intentionally designed to include and represent students, promote focus and participation in learning, facilitate smooth transitions between activities and movement through the space, and build a sense of community in the classroom.

Key Features of a Welcoming and Organized Space

Classroom areas are arranged so that all staff and students (including anyone with mobility devices, service dogs, and other accommodations) can easily move around the space and access learning areas and materials
Classroom areas are planned and defined, including space for a break and/or quiet work available for any student who needs it
Clutter and distraction are minimized in all areas of the classroom, and both students and staff have a regular place to store belongings and materials when not in use
Classroom bulletin boards and other visual elements are easy for students to see, and reflect student contributions, interests, communities, and cultures
Unstructured and independent time, including transitions between activities and free time, is intentionally designed for student learning and practice of SEBH skills
Transitions between activities and/or locations are practiced and efficient

Clear Expectations, Routines, and Procedures

Defined schoolwide expectations, classroom expectations, routines, and procedures set the stage for learning and SEBH skill development. Just like adults value clear expectations and understanding of usual routines and procedures in the workplace, students benefit from the same clarity as learners in in the classroom. Expectations, routines, and procedures create a cohesive environment in which students can feel safe and secure to engage in learning, challenge themselves, and make mistakes with support to learn from them.

Schoolwide expectations describe social, emotional, and behavioral skills for students and staff to collectively create a safe and supportive school community. Schoolwide expectations are usually phrased as character traits or concepts, such as “responsibility” or “safety,” and are often established through a school’s multitiered system of supports (MTSS) program. For further information and resources on MTSS, see Section 2.
Classroom expectations connect schoolwide expectations to specific social, emotional, and behavioral expectations relevant to the classroom setting. Teams can create other sets of expectations for a variety of school settings, including the bus, cafeteria, and hallway. This can be helpful in teaching context-dependent skills, like hand-raising, that are expected in some settings but not others.
Routines and procedures connect common classroom routines for students – like turning in work, transitioning between locations, and meeting personal needs – with the teacher’s preferred procedures for how students complete those routines. Identifying common routines and then teaching the procedures for each can help the classroom run smoothly.

Educators who teach expectations, routines, and procedures in their classrooms are equipping their students with the SEBH skills to navigate each school day with greater confidence. Settings in which these are not taught can be frustrating for students and staff, with frequent staff reprimands, raised voices, and lost instructional time. When designed well, expectations, routines, and procedures proactively name the specific SEBH skills students and staff will engage in for learning and community. Educators and students can also work together to co-create expectations, routines, and procedures. This can cultivate a sense of shared responsibility and ownership between students and staff for a positive classroom climate.

To achieve these positive results, expectations, rules, and procedures must be taught and re-taught throughout the year. Strategies for selecting and teaching classroom rules and expectations are outlined below.

Key Features of Clear Classroom Expectations, Routines, and Procedures

Describe expected social, emotional, and behavioral skills:
- That build student skills and contribute to learning
- With clear and grade-appropriate language
- Describing observable student actions, not feelings or attitudes
- In terms of what students are expected to do, rather than what they should not do
Align classroom expectations with schoolwide expectations whenever possible
Ensure students can recall each classroom expectation by not exceeding 3–5 overall
Teach and refer to classroom expectations and routines regularly and frequently
Post information about expectations, routines, and procedures at student level, ensuring they are accessible for all students (e.g., including visual aids, translated text, and/or braille)
Seek feedback from all families and students to ensure that expectations, routines, and procedures are culturally sustaining and inclusive of all students, including students with disabilities
Avoid expectations, routines, or procedures that are arbitrary or for adult convenience only

Identifying and Intentionally Teaching SEBH Skills

To address student behavioral needs in the classroom, educators should identify the SEBH skills their students need and instructional strategies to teach those skills. Staff who take a preventative and skills-focused approach are more effective at creating safe and supportive classrooms than those who manage interfering behavior solely by reacting to it afterwards. For a student who has been restrained and/or isolated, it is even more important that educators identify and teach the student needed SEBH skills so they can learn, engage with others, and meet their needs in healthy ways.

RREI Demonstration Site Finding: Preventing Interfering Behavior Requires Teaching SEBH Skills

Tier 1 instruction in SEBH skills for all students is a highly effective practice for preventing interfering behavior. In one demonstration district, leaders have developed behavior matrices that allow staff to identify and teach SEBH skills by grade level. In these classrooms, all students benefit from planned instruction that supports both SEBH learning and increased academic engagement.

Positive development of SEBH skills should be intentionally incorporated into teaching plans and instructional design of learning spaces. Planned and embedded teaching to support student development of SEBH skills leads quickly to improved classroom behavior and wellbeing for both students and staff.

Washington State’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Standards and Benchmarks

Washington state supports teaching many of these critical skills through the SEL Standards and Benchmarks, developed and adopted in January 2020. They follow four guiding principles that practices be equitable, universally designed, culturally-sustaining, and trauma-informed⁸². The six standards represent areas of social emotional competence that a student develops by learning, practicing, and demonstrating skills in prosocial behaviors. Each standard is listed below, along with an example of a related skill that supports reduction of interfering behaviors.

SEL Standard and Prevention of Interfering Behavior

Self-Awareness: Student is aware of their emotions, allowing them to understand their experiences of agitation or escalation.
Self-Management: Student has learned strategies for managing stress, allowing them to regulate themself while agitated or escalated.
Self-Efficacy: Student is able to self-advocate, allowing them to explain what is causing ongoing distress that previously led to a crisis situation.
Social Awareness: Student is aware that their classmates have many different opinions, cultures, and values, allowing them to better understand disagreements that might cause escalation.
Social Management: Student is able to resolve conflicts with peers, allowing them to avoid escalating to crisis during challenging social interactions.
Social Engagement: Student is aware that their actions affect others, allowing them to understand how they can help build a positive school community.

Key Features of Intentionally Teaching SEBH Skills

Plan and provide instruction on SEBH skills, with examples and non-examples of each skill when appropriate based on student grade level and learning context (e.g., demonstrating how to request a hall pass, use and clean up materials for an activity, or follow expectations in the locker room)
Help students understand SEBH skills in relation to context, including the use of different skills for different settings and activities
Model SEBH skills for students (e.g., demonstrating taking a deep breath to calm oneself)
Monitor students’ use of SEBH skills using proximity to support skill use (e.g., reduce the distance between the teacher and student when providing directions and/or when interfering behavior may occur)
Teach students how to monitor their own use of SEBH skills
Allow and create opportunities for students to practice SEBH skills in natural contexts, planning ahead to provide positive acknowledgment or effective feedback when needed
Use attention signals and/or scripts to help students know when to use a certain skill (e.g., using a clapping signal that students echo as a signal that it is time for quiet voices)
Give directions to students that are phrased as directives that describe the expected behavior, rather than asking students to stop a certain behavior
Remind students of expected SEBH skills at the beginning of the day and prior to routine transitions throughout the day

Engaging and Relevant Instruction

Well-designed instruction is a necessary component of effective classroom management. Students who are deeply engaged in learning are less likely to engage in interfering behavior and more likely to learn SEB skills (such as collaboration and problem-solving) that support learning. This sort of instruction is relevant, challenging, contextualized, and designed for students’ individual needs, strengths, and interests.

Educators who deliver engaging and relevant instruction:

Maintain and signal appropriately high expectations of all students
Understand and expect individual learner differences
Intentionally establishing supports to helping students meet those high expectations
Provide universally designed and culturally sustaining learning experiences that allow for student voice and multiple means of engagement, representation, action, and expression⁸³

Key Features of Engaging and Relevant Instruction

Recognize that there is no perfect “one size fits all” strategy that will effectively engage all students. Relevant instruction uses diverse practices
Communicate instruction using multiple representations of the content, such as graphics, media, and/or text
When using imagery and other visual materials, ensure that they represent the school community, and do not promote stereotypical depictions
Prompt students to make connections to previously-learned concepts, including their own experiences
Relate content to real-life applications that might be encountered by students, such as current news, school events, or future interests
Invite students to engage with materials in different ways, such as through writing, drawing, or verbal discussion
Provide opportunities for students to become involved in lesson creation or topic selection
Provide opportunities for students to collaborate with peers in co-creating a shared understanding of a text or topic
Consider student demographics to identify any specific materials that should be included, or that should be excluded, from instructional use

Authentic and Supportive Feedback

As students learn and refine their SEB skills, school staff can support these skills with thoughtful encouragement and feedback. Specific praise, when delivered authentically, is an evidence-based teaching practice to support SEB skill development.⁸⁴ Just like any area of learning, when students make mistakes in their use of SEB skills, school staff can provide timely and teaching-focused corrective feedback to help students self-correct and learn from each mistake. Through both specific praise and corrective feedback, school staff can enhance teaching and learning of SEB skills in a growth-focused way.

Key Features of Authentic and Supportive Feedback

Use specific praise to reinforce students for using SEB skills by naming the skill or behavior and providing sincere positive feedback
- “Thanks for helping your partner brainstorm – I noticed you really listening to their ideas before jumping in with your own”
- “Hey, thanks for welcoming [new student] to class today. I bet that made them feel more comfortable.”
- “Thanks for keeping your hand up and waiting for me to call on you – I appreciate the patience!”
Cultivate opportunities for students to provide gratitude and appreciation to one another
Provide corrective feedback in a calm, matter-of-fact voice to redirect students to use SEB skills (e.g., “Remember to walk when you’re headed out to recess”)
When a student makes a mistake in their use of SEB skills, focus on supporting/reteaching the intended skill instead of focusing on the mistake
Provide corrective feedback on an SEB mistake quietly and away from other students
Aim to provide five specific praise statements for every one corrective feedback statement
Give all feedback as soon as possible to maximize student learning
Learn how students prefer to receive feedback (e.g., public, private, written, verbal) and provide feedback in that manner whenever possible

⁸² OSPI (2025). Social emotional learning (SEL).

⁸³ CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning guidelines version 3.0.

⁸⁴ IRIS Center (n.d.). Behavior-specific praise.