Date of Award

Spring 2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Kristina Benson

Abstract

Students with disabilities are 200% more likely to be restrained by school personnel compared to nondisabled peers (Katsiyannis et al., 2020). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Nonviolent Crisis Intervention (NVCI) in de-escalating the risk behavior of children with disabilities from exceptional children (EC) teacher perspectives. This study was a mixed method program evaluation of the Crisis Prevention Institute NVCI program using Daniel Stufflebeam’s (1968) Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) evaluation framework. The setting for this study was a large suburban school district in the piedmont region of North Carolina. The sample included 15 NVCI- certified EC teachers from elementary, middle, and high school settings. Data were collected through an anonymous survey and structured interviews. The survey consisted of two multiple-choice questions, one yes/no question, and five Likert scale questions. All 15 participants completed the survey, and 10 completed the structured interview. Seven interview questions were asked in the same order with the same wording for each participant. This study was grounded in the assault cycle theory (Kaplan & Wheeler, 1983) and the information processing theory (ETSU Center for Teaching Excellence, 2022). Data were synthesized and analyzed to identify common themes. Overall, the EC teachers view NVCI as effective, but improvements could be made during the input phase. Recommendations included more frequent training, adding additional content specifically focusing on communication methods for children with cognitive delays, prioritizing the debriefing process, and increasing the number of certified staff.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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