One State’s Systems Change Efforts to Reduce Child Care Expulsion

Abstract

This article describes the efforts funded by the state of Colorado to address unacceptably high rates of expulsion from child care. Based on the results of a 2006 survey, the state of Colorado launched two complementary policy initiatives in 2009 to impact expulsion rates and to improve the use of evidence-based practices related to challenging behavior. The primary policy initiative involved the funding of a center to develop model sites, a state-level planning team, ongoing practitioner training, and certification of coaches and trainers all built around the Pyramid Model. The secondary initiative involved expanding the number of early childhood mental health consultants and modifying their reimbursement/payment formula such that direct preventative work with adult providers, consistent with the Pyramid Model, was reimbursable. A follow-up survey in 2011 showed a dramatic reduction in expulsion rates and a corollary increase in providers’ teaching of prosocial skills to children with challenging behavior.

Preschool Suspension and Expulsion for Young Children With Disabilities

“…For example, students with disabilities represent 11% of the student population, but they accounted for 20% of all suspensions at the K–12 settings (Vincent & Tobin, 2012). Our findings extend the literature in that exclusionary practices may start in preschool for young children with disabilities and suggest that strategies to prevent challenging behaviors should be implemented in an effort to reduce the prevalence of suspension and expulsion in preschool settings (e.g., Vinh et al, 2016).…”

A Review of the Use of Group Contingencies in Preschool Settings

“…In recent years, there has been an increased awareness of the importance of addressing social competence and challenging behaviors during preschool, before children start kindergarten (Dunlap et al, 2006; Hemmeter, Ostrosky, & Fox, 2006). Preschool teachers reported that the most demanding aspect of their job was addressing challenging behavior (Lambert, O’Donnell, Kusherman, & McCarthy, 2006) and were unlikely to use effective strategies to address or prevent the challenging behaviors (Hoover, Kubicek, Rosenberg, Zundel, & Rosenberg, 2012; Vinh, Strain, Davidon, & Smith, 2016). Furthermore, Gilliam (2005) found that preschool children who demonstrated challenging behavior were expelled from their preschool programs at alarming rates.…”

Component Analysis of Training and Goal Setting, Self-Monitoring, and Tactile Prompting on Early Childhood Educators’ Behavior-Specific Praise

“…When children are exposed to quality preschool programs with positive teacher-child interactions, children demonstrate academic and social skills growth. Despite this understanding, many teachers in preschool programs do not engage in positive teacher-child interactions and rely on punitive, reactive classroom management methods leading to loss of instructional time and learning (Vinh et al, 2016).…”