Some U.S. states have begun to implement policies and supports to prevent expulsion in early care and education (ECE) settings. Little is known about the implementation of these policies and supports within the complex landscape of state ECE systems. In this study, we investigate ECE program leaders’ and teachers’ understanding of one state's expulsion prevention policy, use of suspension and expulsion, and participation in professional development (PD) and other supports to meet the needs of children with challenging behaviors. Additionally, we conduct exploratory analyses to examine factors that are associated with teachers’ uptake of social-emotional PD and support from the state's expulsion prevention system. ECE program leaders and teachers from a random sample of licensed Arkansas ECE programs completed surveys during the 2021–2022 academic year. Findings indicate that program leaders and teachers from publicly funded programs (who are subject to state policy) demonstrated higher awareness and knowledge of the expulsion policy than leaders and teachers from non-publicly funded programs. Although teachers in publicly funded programs reported more frequent challenging behaviors related to safety, they were not more likely to report use of expulsion than their counterparts in non-publicly funded programs. We found some indications that among teachers who reported using exclusionary discipline, the more strongly a teacher attributed children's behaviors to family-related reasons, the less likely the teacher was to seek assistance from the state's expulsion prevention system before suspending or expelling a child. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications and future research directions.

中文翻译：

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实施全面的州努力，减少早期保育和教育环境中的排斥性纪律：阿肯色州的政策

美国一些州已开始实施政策和支持，以防止早期保育和教育 (ECE) 机构中的驱逐。人们对这些政策和支持在国家儿童早教系统复杂环境中的实施情况知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们调查了 ECE 项目领导和教师对一个州的驱逐预防政策、停学和开除的使用、参与专业发展 (PD) 和其他支持以满足具有挑战性行为的儿童的需求的理解。此外，我们还进行了探索性分析，以考察与教师接受社会情感 PD 以及获得国家开除预防系统支持相关的因素。来自阿肯色州许可的 ECE 项目随机样本的 ECE 项目负责人和教师在 2021-2022 学年完成了调查。调查结果表明，公费项目（受国家政策约束）的项目领导和教师比非公费项目的项目领导和教师对开除政策的认识和了解更高。尽管公共资助项目的教师报告更频繁地出现与安全相关的挑战性行为，但与非公共资助项目的教师相比，他们报告使用开除的可能性并不高。我们发现一些迹象表明，在报告使用排斥性纪律的教师中，教师越强烈地将儿童的行为归因于家庭相关原因，教师在停学或开除学生之前寻求州开除预防系统帮助的可能性就越小。本文最后讨论了政策影响和未来研究方向。