·        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. 

·        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

·        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

·        Legally authorized representative present

·        Program provider and involved persons

TX. Educ. Code § 37.0012 (2015)

TX. Educ. Code § 37.0013 (2017)

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. 

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.