About this session

Thursday, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Inclusion in Illinois: One State’s Approach to Promoting Inclusive Classrooms

Preschoolers are excluded from early childhood education settings at an alarming rate, for emotional reactions and behaviors that are largely developmentally typical. And boys, Black children, and children with disabilities are being excluded disproportionately more than their peers. Despite federal and state efforts to limit formal expulsion; exclusionary discipline continues, and disparities persist. This symposium presents research on the need for trauma-informed, inclusive classrooms, as well as three promising interventions to promote inclusion in one state, Illinois, where a legislative ban had little impact on expulsion rates. The symposium starts with a qualitative study of how exclusion contributes to the (re)traumatization of children and their caregivers and highlights the need for additional intervention on creating trauma-informed classrooms. The next three studies examine interventions for expulsion at three different stages of teacher development. The first study evaluates a semester-long course on inclusive teaching practices in an alternative licensure program and describes changes in teachers’ knowledge, confidence, and attitudes about working with children with diverse needs. The second paper examines the efficacy, likeability, and utility of a teacher continuing education training aimed to increase knowledge about preschool expulsion and provide teachers with concrete skills to regulate their own emotional responses to children’s behaviors. The last paper evaluates the Illinois Model of Infant and early childhood mental health consultation (IECMHC) to establish whether consultation improves teacher reflective capacity, thus improving teacher well-being and creating more inclusive classrooms.

Paper #1
Title	Examining Early Childhood Expulsion Through a Trauma-Informed Lens
Presenting author	Mia Chudzik, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, United States

Paper #2
Title	The Role of Inclusion-Focused Teacher Training in Promoting Inclusive Classroom Practices.
Presenting author	John Borrero, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, United States

Paper #3
Title	Preventing Expulsion in Preschool: A Strengths-Based, Cognitive Behavioral Training to Reduce Early Childhood Exclusion
Presenting author	Elyse Shenberger, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States

Paper #4
Title	Strengthening Reflective Capacity and Shifting Perceptions of Child Behavior to Increase Inclusion
Presenting author	Tiffany Burkhardt, Ph.D., University of Chicago, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Elyse Shenberger, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States

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