Table of Contents
Introduction
When asked about experiences with expulsion, a veteran pre-K teacher at a private child care center in Chicago recalls a former student. Elijah1 often exhibited disruptive behavior, making it hard for his teachers to effectively manage the classroom and serve the other students. The teacher recalls, “the owners of the center did not do anything until this child was physically hurting other children on a daily basis. They asked the parents to keep him home for a couple of days.” But this was only a temporary and ineffective solution. “Once he returned to school, it started up again,” she said. “After about two weeks the owners told the mom he wasn’t a good fit and that the teachers could not calm him down.”
While the term “expulsion” was likely never used in the scenario, that is essentially what occurred. A four-year-old was permanently removed from a pre-K program because of his behavior. We do not know what Elijah was going through outside of the classroom or in his development that may have caused his behavior, but it is easy to see how this was likely a stressful situation for him, his family, and the pre-K program staff.
Elijah’s experience is far too common. Early childhood education (ECE) programs often resort to exclusion because they are not equipped with the resources, supports, or knowledge to handle challenging behaviors.2 Despite working for more than five years in her early learning program, the aforementioned teacher did not recall receiving any professional development on how to support children’s social-emotional growth or handle behavioral challenges.
Over the last several years, an increasing number of states have been working to ensure that children like Elijah, who benefit from access to high-quality ECE, are not removed from programs. In this paper, we provide an overview of exclusionary discipline practices and explore how two states, Colorado and Illinois, are taking steps to limit the use of such practices and provide appropriate supports to educators that allow them to better serve children. We explore how these recent policy changes are impacting educators, administrators, and other early childhood professionals, and offer lessons for other states. While these issues have long plagued ECE classrooms, they have been made more urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as mental health and well-being for children and adults have suffered.
Citations
- We chose the name Elijah; the educator did not disclose the child’s name when recounting the story.
- In this paper we use “challenging behaviors” to describe classroom actions that might include disruption, like a child consistently not following instructions and refusing to participate in activities, or aggressive or potentially dangerous behaviors, like a child hitting or throwing things. As discussed later in the paper, what educators find to be challenging behaviors varies for multiple reasons.