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Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities

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Connections Over Compliance: Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline

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Connections Over Compliance: Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline [Desautels, Lori L] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Connections Over Compliance: Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline

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✅ ANSWERED: 18 Intervention Ideas to Reduce School Elopement Behavior in Kids (Age: 5 Years Old)

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Learn interventions for reducing school truancy behavior in kids…

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Pathfinders for Autism: Wandering and Elopement

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Pathfinders for Autism: Wandering and Elopement

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Wandering & Elopement – Pathfinders for Autism

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National Autism Association - Providing real help and hope for the autism community since 2003.

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Wandering Quick Tips - National Autism Association

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Providing real help and hope for the autism community since 2003.

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Great safety section!

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National Autism Association | Providing real help and hope for the autism community since 2003.

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All of NAA's programs are designed to provide tangible, effective resources at no charge to families, individuals, caregivers, educators, clinicians and first responders. NAA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2003. If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to these programs, please click the button below. Thank you!

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What to do about School Elopement and Bolting

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Higher functioning kiddos.

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Counselor Chelsey | Simple School Counseling Ideas

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Elopement strategies for students who leave the classroom without permission

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If you have students who leave the classroom without permission, try these strategies that will help you prevent, handle and process student elopement.

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“We’ve Got a Runner…”: Best Practice Strategies for Preventing and Reducing Elopement Behavior

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“We’ve Got a Runner…”: Best Practice Strategies for Preventing and Reducing Elopement Behavior

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Laura Bertini-Colón, LCSW, CSSW & Jacquelyn O'Connor, PsyD, NCSP

Given the high risk nature of elopement behavior (fleeing supervision), it's no surprise that educators want quick answers about how to prevent and reduce it. Some best practice, classwide preventative approaches are "one-size-fits-all" and represent an essential foundation for fostering prosocial skill development leading to well-engaged students.

When addressing elopement behaviors, preventative and intervention strategies must be student-specific. These strategies will be doomed to fail if teams apply them haphazardly, without first considering WHY the pattern of elopement is happening. In other words, it is critical that we choose interventions which address the function of the elopement behavior if we are to have a chance to reduce and eventually eliminate the behavior.

DETERMINING "THE WHY": WHY IS ELOPEMENT HAPPENING, ANYWAY?
IF WE KNOW, WE MIGHT SUCCESSFULLY PREVENT IT.

When dealing with elopement, identifying the "why" that helps explain the behavior is paramount (Pennington, et al., 2012). We need to know what function the behavior serves in order to help eliminate it. However, instead of trying to understand "the why," oftentimes, adults and peers label children with challenging behaviors as "bad," seeing the behavior as an intentional attempt to provoke the supervising adults. When viewed through this lens, it is difficult to find student strengths that will lead to identifying solutions to the behavior. Worse, given the message that he or she is a bad child, over time, the student exhibiting the behavior will begin to internalize that he or she is "bad," leaving him or her believing that there is not a lot that they can do to change their behavior.

In contrast, when challenging behavior is interpreted as communication, we can then begin to understand the function that it serves for the student and, taken in consideration with identified lagging skills and unmet needs, we can begin to develop a plan that will help the student effectively reduce and eliminate the problem behavior.

​

There are four reasons, or functions, that fuel behaviors (Riffel, 2013; Sugai & Horner, n.d.). You can use the acronym SEAT to help you remember them: Sensory, Escape, Attention, and Tangible, and here's what they mean:

Now that we know how each function helps students meet their needs, let's consider some more specific examples of each. For example, if a sensory function provides students with preferred sensory experiences and behavior that feels good, what types of sensory experiences could the student be seeking or avoiding, specifically? Following is a brief description by function:

​

WE THINK WE KNOW THE FUNCTION,
SO WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THE ELOPEMENT?

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, so if a student has a history of running from supervision, there's a good chance that it could happen again. What environmental modifications and structures may increase safety? What strategies may buy you some time to be able to effectively redirect the student? Here are a few for you and your team to consider:

Preventative and Intervention Strategies

Preventative strategies are considered preventative because they represent approaches or environmental modifications that can be put in place before students enter your classroom. Preventative strategies reduce the likelihood that elopement (or other challenging behaviors) will occur in the first place.

What makes a strategy an intervention strategy ? The intention of an intervention strategy is to teach. Just as academic teaching strategies help build competence and applied problem-solving strategies, behavioral intervention strategies help build a student's lagging social-emotional skills and improve their problem-solving skills when it comes to regulating their feelings and behavior (Greene, 2017). When educators identify a replacement behavior that addresses the suspected function of elopement behavior and is realistic (i.e., within reach, given the student's current skillset), they can teach the student about how and when to use it, and how to expect that adults will respond. In a nutshell, intervention strategies aim to:

Consider the following preventative and intervention strategies with your student, and the suspected function of their behavior, in mind. Which of these strategies may be beneficial for your entire class, not just the student who struggles with elopement? Which of these strategies might you frame as a realistic replacement behavior for the student to do instead of leaving supervision without permission? Which ideas represent ways in which you'd like all supporting adults to respond to this student after they've eloped?

Examples of Preventative and Intervention Strategies for Elopement Behavior, by Function:

​Sensory:
First determine if a student requires more or less sensory input, then consider the following strategies:

Increase Sensory Input

Decrease Sensory Input

Escape:

Attention:

Tangible:

IT'S ON! STRATEGIES FOR INTERVENING DURING AND AFTER ELOPEMENT The most comprehensive (and effective) behavior plans utilize preventative, intervention, and de-escalation strategies. Some helpful and unhelpful thoughts and actions for educators to keep in mind when attempting to de-escalate students are summarized
here . Following are some basic Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) guidelines on how to de-escalate students (Holden et al., 2013). We encourage all educators to participate in the TCIS trainings the district offers (especially the verbal de-escalation portion of the training) as they offer some effective, trauma-informed methods for de-escalating students and returning them to a calm, collected state. When trying to de-escalate students approach the situation calmly with a neutral tone of voice and with as little an audience as possible. Try the following:

Use TCI behavior support techniques:

Use a caring gesture and positive relationship skills to convey to the student that he or she is wanted in class and teacher wants student to be safe

Use directive statements (e.g., come back inside the classroom, close the door)

Increase adult supervision to maintain student safety

Use proximity/ Manage the environment (e.g., have adults stand near exit doors)

Use TCI co-regulation techniques/ emotional first aid:

Drain off emotions: use active listening skills and reassuring messages

Clarify the events that led up to the student's behavior

Maintain the relationship and lines of communication

Remind the student of the expectations and mediate the situation if necessary

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RE-INTEGRATING STUDENTS INTO THE CLASSROOM

Once the student is calm, it will be important to have a conversation with him or her that will help him explore and understand triggers and identify coping strategies and appropriate alternatives to elopement behavior in the future. Further, it's important to give the student time and space to recoup, perhaps allowing him or her to wash their face and hands, straighten up clothing, and get a drink of water. Especially in instances of elopement that have escalated to unsafe situations, supporting adults should incorporate miniature re-entry conversations with students before returning them to class.

Use TCI Life Space Interview techniques:

It is important for the student's teacher to be included in planning conversations that provide specificity about how the student will be reintegrated into the room. For example, should the teacher bring up the incident at all? If so, when, and with any particular adult present for the conversation? Re-entry into the classroom should never include shaming or reprimands by any supporting adult. In many cases, it may be helpful for the teacher to avoid any mention of elopement in the moment, and simply welcome the student back to class and include them into regular programming and routines. If elopement behaviors are recurring, the teacher and support staff should come up with an Individual Crisis Management Plan (ICMP) that will help to address planned adult responses to the student's crisis. They also may wish to set up informal, private planning discussions with the student to encourage use of the alternative behaviors included in the student's function-based behavior plan.

REVIEW OF GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING INTERVENTIONS FOR ELOPEMENT

​In summary, to effectively reduce elopement behaviors, teams may wish to take the following steps (Pennington, et al., 2012), as summarized in this linked PDF flowchart:

1. Work with your team to identify triggers as early as possible and use preventative strategies in response to situations that are known to be triggering.

2. Try to establish the function of the behavior. Is the student fleeing supervision because of a sensory need, because he needs to escape the situation, because he's looking for attention, or because he's interested in a tangible item or activity?

3. Consider safety issues when designing and testing interventions.

4. Consider lagging skills to address through explicit instruction.

5. Consider ways to address unmet needs (e.g., how can we support the family if there is food instability, homelessness, lack of transportation, etc.?)

6. Implement strategies that teach students appropriate ways to access reinforcement first.

7. Reflect on the intervention often by collecting and reviewing continuous data, as needed.

Greene, Ross W. (2017). Collaborative & Proactive Solutions Model: Research. (Retrieved 1/12/17 from http://cpsconnection.com/interview-dr-ross-greene ).

Holden, M.J., Holden J.C., Mineroff, M., Laddin, B., Stanton-Greenwood, A., Turnbull, A... Butcher, S. (2013). Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Schools, (ed. 1). Residential Child Care Project, Cornell University.

Pennington, R., Strange, C., Stenhoff, D., Delano, M., Ferguson, M. (2012). Leave the running shoes at home: Addressing elopement in the classroom. Beyond Behavior, Spring 2012, 3-7.

Riffel, L. A. (2013). Writing a behavioral intervention plan based on a functional behavior assessment, fifth edition. Behavior Doctor Seminars, 2013-2014.

​Sugai, G. & Horner, R. (n.d.). Behavior function: Staying close to what we know. PBIS Newsletter , 1(1).

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"We've Got a Runner...": Best Practice Strategies for Preventing and Reducing Elopement Behavior

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Laura Bertini-Colón, LCSW, CSSW & Jacquelyn O'Connor, PsyD, NCSP Given the high risk nature of elopement behavior (fleeing supervision), it's no surprise that educators want quick answers about how to prevent and reduce it. Some best practice, classwide preventative approaches are "one-size-fits-all" and represent an essential foundation for fostering prosocial skill development leading to well-engaged students.

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How to: Implement Strategies for Elopement

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Social and Emotional Learning - Tips to Prevent Elopement 🏃‍♂️

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Download and complete for the student.

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The BEST Website for Behavior Strategies (Tier 1 - 3) 

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The BEST Website for Behavior Strategies (Tier 1 - 3) 

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PBIS World | A Complete Tier 1 Through Tier 3 Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports System

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PBIS World is in no way affiliated, associated, or connected with any other website, entity, organization, or federal, state, local, or other government agency, department, program, policy, organization, or initiative.

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Blog with three strategies to prevent elopement in early education, but can be used in all elementary grades!

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Blog with three strategies to prevent elopement in early education, but can be used in all elementary grades!

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Three Strategies to Reduce Challenging Behavior: Leaving the Supervised Area (Elopement)

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What to do when a toddler is trying to leave the supervised area? In this blog article, we explore elopement prevention strategies and a behavior plan for running out of the classroom.