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I have been a teacher for the past 15 years.  Currently, I am enrolled in the Angelo State University's Masters of Science in Professional School Counseling Program.

This legal and ethical guide is geared towards someone in or that will be in the School Counseling Profession.

The topic of this Legal and Ethical Guide will be Response to Intervention (RTI) and Behavior.

I have chosen this topic to help me understand more how our district deals with behavior issues.

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Response to intervention (RTI) with behavior issues are important because if the teacher has tried everything she knows for intervention strategies, we step in for counseling and social skills guidance, which is a TIER 1 situation. Small groups individualized to the needs of the students would be a TIER 2 situation.  Interventions are done however often you feel is needed and the consistency depends on needs (the counselor will intervene)  (L. Jimmerson, personal communication, April 5, 2021).

Best practices related to RTI behavior include:
·        Have classroom observations of the child when possible beforehand. Prior to pulling the child – set up a meeting with parents and teacher to discuss the situation and tell them about the RTI and that they will get an update in four to six weeks

·        Move the child to TIER 3 in RTI and provide extensive counseling.  Add weeks if needed.

·        Meet back with parents and administration on your campus, along with the teacher, and discuss referring the child to 504 or special education…both of which would be testing referrals.

With the current state of our world, we are experiencing more behavior issues than I think have ever been seen. Students missed three months of instruction, rules, and procedures only to then be out of instruction ways for another three months. Once they were back in the classroom, the anxieties and stressors that they were used to for the last six months played out in their behaviors.  Some students having little to no support at home have come back to routines, procedures, schedules, etc. that they have not been acclimated to (L. Jimmerson, personal communication, April 5, 2021).  The school also has students in online learning that are having issues with behaviors as well. "Student misbehavior hasn’t vanished during distance learning, but schools are finding that imposing discipline in a virtual environment is a complicated and often murky process and that current laws don’t neatly apply to online behavior" (Jones, 2020).

Once you have started the behavior intervention plan (BIP) you pass that along to the teacher where they carry it out.  There is no program in our district for guidance, so we research and recreate as needed.  Normally, the counselor is not over the RTI behavior issues, this is more of a behavior specialists job, but oftentimes, these things can be overlooked and we want something to be done to help as much as possible before we call in the specialists (L. Jimmerson, personal communication, April 5, 2021).

I sat with and interviewed my campus (Bowie Elementary) school counselor, Lamia Jimmerson. Ms. Jimmerson has been a counselor for four years in our district.

Jones, C. (2020. How school discipline - and student misbehavior - has changed during the pandemic. EdSource. https://edsource.org/2020/how-school-discipline-and-student-misbehavior-has-changed-during-the-pandemic/643758.

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www.ascd.org

Searle, M., & Swartz, M. (2020). Solving academic and behavior problems: a strengths-based guide for teachers and teams. ASCD.

This book can help teachers and other educators find help when dealing with behavior issues.  It is focused on helping to find ways to solve academic and behavior problems. It also helps to teach the reader how to promote wanted change in behaviors.

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Rappaport, N., & Minahan, J. (2020). Breaking the Behavior Code. Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/breaking-behavior-code/

·        10% of school populations are dealing with serious psychosocial stressors relating to poverty, domestic violence, abuse and neglect, trauma, or a psychiatric disorder.

·        Represent most challenging kids on campus

·        Mental health does not help in the regulation of actions or behaviors

·        Need to teach a variety of strategies (counseling and BIP)

·        Behavior can tell us a lot of things such as why or what is going on, or an outcry for help

·        Reinforce desired behavior

·        Teach skills for the replacement behavior

·        Respond to unwanted behaviors in a way that will deflect them from possibly happening again

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Chafouleas , S. M. (2021). Bringing 'behavioral vaccines' to school: 5 ways educators can support student well-being. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/bringing-behavioral-vaccines-to-school-5-ways-educators-can-support-student-well-being-157298.

·        Not an actual vaccine but steps to help parents and educators help children behave more sufficiently in school

·        Discusses that we are still in challenging times, even with being back to school and work

·        Build strong connections

·        Foster positive emotions

·        Include adults

·        Be mindful of disciplinary practices

·        Recognize different student needs

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Slide #6: Original Source of Law - Administrative Law

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Slide #6: Original Source of Law - Administrative Law

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40 TAC § 9.178
·        Behavior management techniques with heavy or pushy interventions or restriction of rights are required to be developed by a supporting contributor with input from the person

·        Legally authorized representative present

·        Program provider and involved persons

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Slide #7: Original Source of Law: Judicial Law

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Slide #7: Original Source of Law: Judicial Law

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Ingraham v. Wright, 430 US 651 (1977)

ruled (5–4) that corporal punishment in public schools did not fall within the scope of the “cruel and unusual punishments” clause of the Eighth Amendment and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of procedural due process.

School counselors would rather work on behavior interventions with the teacher, students, and families before this happens.

My district does not provide corporal punishment.

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Slide #8: Original Source of Law: Statutory Law

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Slide #8: Original Source of Law: Statutory Law

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TX. Educ. Code § 37.001 (2003)

Student Code of Conduct

TX. Educ. Code § 37.0012 (2015)

Designation of Campus Behavior Coordinator

TX. Educ. Code § 37.0013 (2017)

Positive Behavior Program

Should the code of conduct be broken, and the positive behavior program not be sufficiently followed, the campus behavior coordinator can step in.  This would also be where an intervention plan would begin before automatic suspension (whether in school or out of school).  Response to intervention for behavior supports would begin and carry out as usual.

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Slide #9: Original Source of Law: Constitutional Law

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Slide #9: Original Source of Law: Constitutional Law

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U.S. Const. Amend. XIV
The 14th Amendment (Constitutional Law) creates the foundation for educational equity. "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".

Students acting out in the classroom can have an effect on other students that are learning and working.

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Discipline Management Techniques
"Discipline shall be designed to improve conduct and to encourage students to adhere to their responsibilities as members of the school community. Disciplinary action shall draw on the professional judgment of teachers and administrators and on a range of discipline management techniques, including restorative practices. Discipline shall be based on the seriousness of the offense, the student’s age and grade level, the frequency of misbehavior, the student’s attitude, the effect of the misconduct on the school environment, and statutory requirements" (Greenville ISD, 2020).

https://www.greenvilleisd.com/cms/lib/TX01001755/Centricity/Domain/643/2020-2021%20GISD%20SCOC.pdf

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American School Counselors Association. (2016). ASCA Ethical standards for school counselors. Alexandria, VA: Author. Retrieved from https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors (2016) section A.1.e states that school counselors are concerned with students' academic, career, and social/emotional needs and encourage each student's maximum development.

The school counselor helps the students to be the best they can be for academic and social-emotional learning. Responding to difficult behaviors with system support and individualized planning will be a benefit to all.

"The better and more effective path to encouraging good behavior is through the use of student counseling, positive modeling, and reinforcement. Effective positive behavior support requires clarity of expectations and consistency in policy and treatment. Importantly, the earlier student counseling is implemented, the earlier expectations and pathways to good behavior are established and long-term results improve" (Scholarchip, 2019).

Scholarchip. (2020). How to promote good behavior through effective student counseling. ScholarChip. https://www.scholarchip.com/student-counseling/.

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Slide #12: Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards

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Slide #12: Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards

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As a student in the school counseling program, I have found it very beneficial to stay on top of what is needed to know for legal safety and ethical purposes. As a school counselor intern, I have had to put some of these items into practice. Following ethical guidelines as well as the sources of law, it is important to make sure that rules and laws are followed to have the most beneficial impact on my campus and my students. The school counselor, my site supervisor mentioned that there is to be a behavioral specialist, but it seems that with so much going on in the district, they are few and far between to get them to our campus...so she steps in when needed and the specialist is called as a last resort. Here is where making sure that ethics and the law is followed is important. Working through behavioral response to interventions is reflective on the student, teacher, staff, and counselor in this instance.

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Slide #13: Recommendations/Best Practices for Compliance

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Slide #13: Recommendations/Best Practices for Compliance

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Establish routines and procedures

The Texas Behavior Support Initiative is a resource designed to build capacity in Texas schools for them to provide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) to all students (Texas Education Agency, 2019).

Set clear expectations

Make sure to follow sources of law: administrative, judicial, constitutional, and statutory

Work with system support and on individualized planning to find best skills to work on students skillsets to bring response to intervention to a head and find the best solution for the student

When response to intervention no longer works or no progress is seen, move on to the next step of calling for a 504 committee meeting or the special education department for testing

Texas Education Agency. (2019). Response to intervention. Texas Education Agency. https://tea.texas.gov/academics/special-student-populations/special-education/programs-and-services/response-to-intervention#Behavior_and_RtI.