Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, Ahead of Print.
In this mixed methods study, we used a state-wide survey to explore 936 preschool through second-grade teachers’ perceptions about inclusion in their elementary school’s social emotional multitiered system of supports (MTSS). Overall, early childhood teachers reported feeling included in their school’s social emotional MTSS. Results of a one-way between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that preschool teachers working in elementary schools reported general agreement about being included, but not as strongly as kindergarten, first-, and second-grade teachers. Qualitative analyses of teachers’ open-ended responses revealed similar grade-level patterns. When early childhood teachers did not feel included, they described feeling separate from the rest of the school, using a different social emotional approach, or the school’s social emotional MTSS approach not being appropriate for their students. Inclusion in school-wide activities and implementation issues, such as consistency across teachers, an efficient behavioral MTSS process, and training opportunities, affected teachers’ feelings of inclusion in the social emotional MTSS.