Elementary teachers nationwide are seeing worsening and more severe behavior problems in young children, according to an article in The Hechinger Report. Students are more disruptive and may lash out physically at classmates and teachers. They’re more defiant.
Disruptive kids makes it harder to teach and harder for kids to learn — whether they are the ones with the behavioral challenges or the ones watching it all unfold in their classroom.
Research has shown clear, established connections between kids’ academic skills and kids’ behavioral skills,” says Brandi Simonsen, co-director of the university’s Center for Behavioral Education and Research. A child may act up in class to avoid lessons that are too hard for them or get kicked out of class because of their behavior and then miss academic time.
Understanding why students are displaying more challenging behavior and supporting classroom management training has not received sufficient attention compared to the need for better math and reading interventions. But federal data shows educators want help. The percentage of elementary schools where educators say they need more training on classroom management increased from 51 percent in May 2022 to 65 percent last year.
Experts say the pandemic disruption has had long-lasting repercussions. Researchers found that toddlers born during the pandemic had significantly lower verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared to toddlers born in the previous decade. “Pandemic babies” would now be around 6 years old and in first grade. In a 2025 survey, 76 percent of elementary school leaders said they “agree” or “strongly agree” that the pandemic has continued to negatively affect the behavioral development of students.
A study published last year showed that children whose early childhood education was highly disrupted by the pandemic suffered from more emotional problems and lower reading skills compared to students who were in more stable programs.
Other factors influencing disruptive behavior:
- Children are focused on more challenging academic tasks and getting less time for recess even though recess is proven to improve behavior and learning.
- Children are on screens more than ever, which is believed to lead to more anxiety, depression, aggression and hyperactivity.
- Staffing shortages combined with increasing student mental health indicators can make teachers feel undertrained to deal with some of those things going on, says Wendy Reinke, co-director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute. Difficulty managing student behavior is frequently cited as one of the main reasons why teachers quit.
Educators are overhauling their classroom management approaches as well as teacher preparation to cut down on misbehavior:
- Some are backing away from exclusionary discipline like suspensions and expulsions and have embraced schoolwide approaches that reward positive behavior and provide social skills practice through games and role-playing.
- Others opt for restorative practices, which emphasize group conversations where students share feelings and perspectives to build community and resolve conflict.
- Some states are emphasizing consequences and giving teachers more power to punish disruptive students. A West Virginia law passed in early 2025 gives teachers more power to exclude disruptive students from their classrooms. Young children who are violent must go through a behavioral intervention program and can be removed from the classroom if they don’t make adequate progress.
- New teachers need support, educators say. Only 27 percent of teacher preparation programs surveyed by the National Council on Teacher Quality in 2020 required aspiring teachers to practice reinforcing positive behavior before they graduate. Only 53 percent of programs mandated aspiring teachers to practice addressing serious misbehavior.
Some teacher preparation programs are trying to meet the need. Relay Graduate School of Education, a nonprofit, has added a focus on trauma-informed teaching practices and restorative practices over the past few years. They teach aspiring educators strategies like having a “calm down corner,” for students having big emotions, and a system to check in with each student daily to see how they’re doing.
One teacher who has gone through various management techniques in the past two decades now focuses on affirming positive behavior, hoping students will want to then emulate it. She says it is an immense challenge, an exhausting job that some days feels impossible to do alone. “I’m just one person,” she says. “My real purpose is to teach them content. … I’m not trained in psychology. I’m not trained in social work.”
More education on research-backed strategies is needed to support teachers and improve behavior at school, such as teaching social skills and improving school environments, so teachers are not going it alone. “We know a lot about the science of behavior,” says one expert. “It’s never talked about as much as it should be. It all starts with this.”
The Hechinger Report
