Changing What Schools Do: The Promise and Complexities of Transforming Social Systems for Students with EDs

• In Event: Reimagining Policy and Practice in Special Education: Practices, Systems, and Equity

Abstract

Students with emotional disabilities (EDs), who are disproportionately Black, male, and from low-income families (OSEP, 2020), are often pushed into exclusionary educational pathways (e.g., disciplinary action, highly restrictive settings), leading to inequitable academic, social, and behavioral outcomes. Disrupting the systemic marginalization reinforced by these patterns requires intervention at structural, institutional, and classroom levels. In this paper, we use a mixed-methods design to explore the implementation of one multi-level intervention, the Path Program, from the perspectives of school staff (n = 57) in a large urban district serving students with EDs. While preliminary results indicate the intervention’s potential to shift outcomes for students with EDs, they also highlight the challenges of transforming existent social norms embedded within educational structures.

Authors

• Christine Park, New York University

• Natalie May, New York University

• Elizabeth Blair Cox, New York University

• Elise Cappella, New York University

• Michelle Flemen-Tung, New York University