Improving inclusive practices for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), who are disproportionately educated in separate settings despite research showing better academic, graduation, and employment outcomes for students with disabilities in general education classrooms; it grounds this in IDEIA 2004's least restrictive environment (LRE) requirement, which obligates schools to try supports in general education and document interventions before moving to more restrictive placements, and then presents evidence-based strategies teachers can use to support inclusion, including PBIS, functional behavioral assessments and individualized behavior plans, behavior-specific praise, self-management/self-monitoring tools, peer-mediated supports, structured routines and pre-correction, Check-In/Check-Out, and collaborative problem-solving, with an emphasis on consistent implementation and data monitoring to determine when supports need to be intensified.
