Behavior Management Training for Teachers: What to Ask For

Q: What did the Sixth Circuit actually decide in the case described here?

In its August 28, 2020 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and allowed the parent's claims to proceed against the school district and several faculty members and administrators, including the superintendent. The appellate ruling addressed whether the lawsuit could move forward; it was not a finding that the defendants were ultimately liable. The accompanying essay was written while further proceedings were still pending, and this page does not track the case's final disposition.

Q: Is restraint or seclusion ever permitted in a classroom?

Rules governing restraint and seclusion vary substantially by state and district, and federal disability and civil-rights protections may also apply. Some states restrict particular practices to emergency situations involving an imminent risk of serious physical harm and impose requirements concerning staff training, documentation, parental notification, or review. Definitions and restrictions differ by jurisdiction, and some practices may be prohibited entirely. School employees should follow applicable state law, district policy, student-specific plans, and required safety procedures.

Q: What behavior management training should my district be providing?

There is no single nationwide behavior-management training requirement that applies identically to every educator. Training obligations can depend on state law, district policy, an employee's role, the practices staff are authorized to use, and the needs or plans of particular students. Relevant training may address prevention and de-escalation, positive behavioral supports, crisis response, disability-related requirements, and any state-authorized emergency procedures. Educators who are expected to support students with intensive behavioral needs but have not received appropriate training should raise the specific concern with their administrator or other designated district personnel.

Q: What's the difference between an FBA and a BIP?

A functional behavioral assessment, or FBA, is a process for gathering and analyzing information about a student's behavior and the circumstances associated with it in order to understand its function. A behavior intervention plan, or BIP, uses information about the behavior and its function to identify prevention strategies, supports, replacement behaviors, and responses. Under IDEA, requirements involving FBAs and BIPs arise in particular circumstances, including certain disciplinary situations, rather than automatically for every instance of challenging behavior. State and district requirements may go further, and decisions for an individual student are made through the applicable educational planning process.

By Mary McLaughlin, Last Updated: September 4, 2026

Young child clenching fists and crying during an outburst while standing beside an adult in a backyard

Behavior management training for teachers varies by teacher-preparation program, by state requirements, and by the professional development an employer provides. It tends to arrive in a few recognizable forms: PBIS framework training, crisis prevention and de-escalation training, classroom management programs, and functional behavioral assessment work. What you get depends on where you trained and who you work for.

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The Actions of One Do Not Reflect the Actions of Many

It's really easy to judge people who are alleged abusers. Yes, it's wrong. Yes, it's awful. No one deserves treatment as noted in the lawsuit. I mean, after all, we're an "advanced" society, right?

My mind is blown that anyone wants to harm a child. It is just as incomprehensible that a teacher would ever think to tie a student to a chair and even more unthinkable that a district would be complicit in the continuation of such events.

Yes, I'm still judging. But then I realize that for the majority of teachers and administrators in America, the difficulties presented by students whose behaviors are difficult to manage have been met with training, not by condoning physical abuse or restraint. Yes, the word "condoning" was, essentially, my opinion. I'll leave it at that. Yes, I'm still judging.

Working With Your IEP Team on Behavior Support Can Reduce a Lot of Stress

Wooden judge's gavel on a desk with brass scales of justice blurred in the background

School districts have provided their teachers with a variety of online and in-person training opportunities. Intended to teach teachers how to help kids safely come down from outbursts of anger and rage, let's be honest, there are kids whose behavioral needs are mighty.

As such, we need to remember that we are not alone. The IEP team is a rallying point and source of support. Whether a functional behavioral assessment or a behavior intervention plan is required or appropriate depends on the student's circumstances, IDEA requirements, state rules, and what the IEP team decides. When the team does go that route, it works through it together.

Before your team meets, be ready with this information:

What structures and systems does the classroom teacher already have in place?
Are students actively engaged or is there too much downtime?
Do the teacher's lesson plans take individual learning needs, accessibility needs, and instructional supports into consideration?
Is there a routine that is known to the child, or would a simple picture schedule help keep the student on track? My high school self-contained students look at their picture schedules throughout the day and can often be heard to say, "It's almost lunchtime!"
What happens when the student loses their composure? What's happening right before, during, then after? Have the antecedent-behavior-consequences data already prepared to share with the team.
Connect with any professionals who interact with the student. Ask them for input about the student. Include it in the presentation to the IEP team.
Sometimes it's hard to understand that there is always a reason (function) for a student's behavior, and it can be tricky to drill down and find it. Gather objective, observable information: what the student is doing, when it starts and stops, what happens immediately before and after, and how the pattern shifts across the day or across settings. Add anything the student, the family, or the support team has shared with you directly through the appropriate channels.

Once the team is gathered and has studied the information:

A thorough review will be done (a functional behavioral assessment, or FBA) by the team.
A behavior intervention plan (BIP) is drafted. A BIP is individualized and function-based. Depending on the student, it can set out prevention strategies that change what happens before the behavior, instruction in replacement behaviors and skills, the supports staff will put in place, how adults will respond when the behavior occurs, and how the team will monitor progress and adjust. It is real work, and it takes time, and I'd never oversell it, because we're already working our guts out in the classroom.
Get a handle on the basic tenets of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) if you're not already apprised. ABA uses systematic assessment and behavior-change procedures selected for an individual student's needs and adjusted based on data, and it covers considerably more ground than offering a reward for a desired behavior.
Have an emergency plan in place in case things escalate. Which training staff need, and which providers count, is set by your state and your district. A commercial crisis-management course such as PCM is one example of a program a district might adopt, and completing one does not by itself make a given restraint lawful. Staff has to follow applicable state law, district policy, the student's own plan, and whatever training requirements apply where they work. Are all district stakeholders well-versed in the district's policy about crisis management?

What To Do When You Want To Provide the Best Behavioral Support But You Feel Overwhelmed

Woman speaking and gesturing while seated in a circle of colleagues during a group discussion

Dig more. Read more. Ask more. No, you really haven't tried EVERYTHING, but it definitely might feel as though you have. Don't be discouraged!
It's nothing personal...but it surely can feel like it is!
Spend time with the student. If you engage in conversation about something you find mutually enjoyable (dogs, cats, cheesecake, sewing, music, etc.) even for a minute or two, a connection can be made. Take a day and go to the cafeteria to eat lunch with your class. Don't talk about classroom stuff. Talk about kid stuff. Share appropriate parts of your life--that you enjoy traveling, reading, etc.
While you may be a goddess and you may be a wonderful teacher, you may need to find another goddess of teaching to come alongside you. There is strength in the wisdom (and wit) of others. Finding a friend with whom you can debrief may provide great professional conversation and ideas.
Study up on trauma-informed instruction. Trauma-informed practices are about building a classroom that works without needing to know what any individual student has been through.
There are heaps of professional organizations committed to the success of students AND teachers. A quick search online will provide numerous groups, articles, and chat rooms for pretty much every topic.
Listen to your gut. You've trained for this career. You're experienced (a little or a lot). You're smart. Believe in yourself.

Quitters Never Win

Illustration of a row of matchsticks shaped like human heads, with one burning and giving off smoke

Early in my career, I worked with a teacher who had been in "the business" (her words, not mine) for forty years. Maybe early in her career she had a zest and fervor for teaching, but when we spoke, it was clear that the years had depleted her passion for our shared career. Her colleagues all took note of her cranky and abrupt interactions with students. She could be heard yelling at students from her classroom frequently throughout the day. All I could think was, "Those poor babies." Yeah, judging again...

She had never missed a day's work (thanks for sharing the flu, Karen) during her career. The teacher had banked all of her sick days for all 40 years. When it was clear that her passion for teaching had "died" (again, her words), she made use of those banked days and was off for nearly one school year. At the end of that year, she announced her retirement and rode off into the sunset.

Here's the moral to the story: every year we have students who need us. Some need us more than others. A few need us very differently than others. Behavior support is about understanding what a student needs, teaching skills, changing the supports around them, and building interventions for that individual. Many schools and districts have teams that help with this work. You are not alone.

While we wait to see the decision rendered by the courts on the case discussed earlier, more pressing is our profession's need to unify. We need to make as much noise as necessary to keep our students safe--and by "our," I mean every single student within the walls of our buildings.

What Behavior Management Training for Teachers Actually Looks Like

How much behavior training a teacher starts with varies by preparation program and by state. One randomized controlled trial published in Psychology in the Schools, looking at teachers in their first three years, found that participants described limited behavior management preparation from their coursework and their cooperating teachers, and turned instead to school psychologists and special education staff for advice. That's a single study of early-career teachers rather than a picture of the whole profession, but it names something a lot of teachers recognize.

Beyond preparation, training comes from the employer, and it arrives in a handful of recognizable forms. Knowing the names matters, because it lets you ask for something specific instead of asking for help in general.

Type of Training	What It Covers	Who Usually Delivers It
PBIS framework training	School-wide behavior expectations and the three-tier structure for escalating support to targeted and individual levels	District or intermediate school district staff, drawing on the federally funded Center on PBIS
Crisis prevention/de-escalation training	De-escalation sequences, and what your district's policy does and does not permit if a situation becomes physical	Varies by state and district, including which providers are approved. Commercial programs such as the Crisis Prevention Institute or Professional Crisis Management are examples a district might adopt
Classroom management programs	Routines, transitions, and stated expectations, structured by grade band	Publisher-led professional development or a trained district coach
FBA and BIP writing	Collecting antecedent-behavior-consequence data, hypothesizing the function of a behavior, then drafting and monitoring the plan	Varies by state, district, student, and team structure. A school psychologist, behavior specialist, or Board Certified Behavior Analyst may take part
Applied behavior analysis coursework	Reinforcement, prompting, and data-based decision-making. Coursework alone does not confer certification	University graduate programs and post-baccalaureate certificates. BCBA is a Behavior Analyst Certification Board credential with its own current degree, coursework, supervised fieldwork, examination, and application requirements, and state behavior-analyst licensure is separate where it applies

Where Restraint and Seclusion Rules Come From

There's no single federal statute governing restraint and seclusion in schools, and requirements differ a great deal from one state to the next. What binds you can come from several directions at once: state statute, state regulations or agency requirements, your district's own policy, and federal disability and civil-rights law. Michigan, where this essay's author teaches, restricts emergency seclusion and emergency physical restraint in public schools through its Revised School Code, and requires notification and documentation when either is used.

The federal angle is a civil rights one. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has taken the position that the misuse of restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities can implicate Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it collects restraint and seclusion counts from districts through the Civil Rights Data Collection. Find your district's written policy and read it before you need it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did the Sixth Circuit actually decide in the case described here?

The August 28, 2020 decision reversed the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and allowed the parent's claims to proceed against the school district and several faculty and administrators, including the superintendent. That's a ruling on whether the lawsuit could go forward, not a finding that anyone was liable. The essay above was written while further proceedings were still pending, and this page doesn't track the case's final disposition.

Is restraint or seclusion ever permitted in a classroom?

Requirements vary substantially by state and by district, and federal disability and civil-rights protections may also apply. Some states restrict emergency use to situations involving imminent risk of serious physical harm, require specific training for any staff member who might be involved, and set notification and documentation requirements. Others regulate it far more loosely. The reliable answer is your own district's written policy read alongside your state's rules.

What behavior management training should my district be providing?

There's no universal requirement, so this varies by state and by district, and in some cases by the student's own plan. The categories in the table above are the ones you're most likely to encounter, though which of them your employer offers, and to whom, differs from place to place. If you're supporting a student with intensive behavioral needs and haven't been trained for it, that's a reasonable and specific thing to raise with your administrator.

What's the difference between an FBA and a BIP?

A functional behavioral assessment is the investigation. It gathers data to work out what a behavior accomplishes for the student, whether that's escape, attention, access to something, or sensory input. A behavior intervention plan is what the team builds from it, naming the behavior, stating the theory about its function, and laying out what will be done differently. Under IDEA, FBA and BIP requirements arise in particular circumstances rather than for every behavior, and state or district rules may go further. Your team decides what a given student's situation calls for.

Preparation varies, and one study documents a gap - in a randomized trial of teachers in their first three years, participants reported limited behavior management preparation from their coursework and turned to specialist colleagues instead.
Name the training you need - PBIS framework work, crisis prevention and de-escalation training, classroom management programs, and FBA or BIP training are distinct things, and asking for the right one gets a better answer.
The IEP team decides the pathway - for some students, the IEP team may determine that an FBA and/or BIP is appropriate or required, which is how a difficult behavior becomes a shared responsibility instead of one teacher's problem.
Restraint and seclusion rules come from several directions - state statute, state regulations, district policy, and federal disability and civil-rights law can all apply, so read your own district's written policy before a situation makes you need it.
Arrive at the meeting with data - antecedent-behavior-consequence records, input from every adult who works with the student, and notes on what the classroom already has in place.

Programs in special education and applied behavior analysis cover the assessment and planning work this article describes, and many run online or part-time for teachers already carrying a full caseload. Special education certification/endorsement requirements vary by state. BCBA certification has separate BACB eligibility requirements, and behavior-analyst licensure requirements vary by state. Verify that a program meets the credential requirements you intend to pursue.

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