Page 22 - CARING and SAFE SCHOOLS in ONTARIO

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3 Understanding Student Behaviour What Do You Need to Know?3
key responsibility of schools is to recognize the particular needs of individual students, including the complex and additional challenges faced by some students with special education needs, and to find ways
of meeting those needs. An important measure of a caring and safe school is its ability to identify the range of needs of its students and determine how they influence student behaviour.
Sometimes students express their needs through challenging behaviour. The 2008 amendments to the Education Act require principals and school boards to use a progressive discipline approach in dealing with such behaviour and to take into account a variety of mitigating and other factors when determining consequences. If system and school leaders, as well as teachers, parents, and other stakeholders, are to respond appropriately and effectively to behavioural issues, they need to understand why inappropriate behaviour occurs and the messages students are communicating through their actions.
Some behaviour effectively meets the needs of the student, reflects the student’s interaction with the environment, and is understood and considered appropriate
by others. Other behaviour may be ineffective but may occur because it is a student’s best available strategy for interacting with the environment and having his or her needs met.
3. Much of this section is drawn from Effective Educational Practices for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007a), pp. 70–71.
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