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Teacher turnover continues to perpetuate shortages in U.S. schools, particularly within settings that serve students with disabilities, economic disadvantages, or other obstacles to their education. Recent studies suggest high teacher turnover in high-need settings is not reflective of problems associated with the needs of their students, but instead is a result of high stress and job dissatisfaction due to poor working conditions. This article reports results of a survey on the working conditions and quality of work experiences of public school teaching staff that served students with multiple risk factors. The school provided services for students whose least restrictive environment was a separate school for those with intense emotional disturbance needs. In addition, most of the students experienced economic hardship and had histories of childhood trauma, behavior problems, and academic underachievement. The majority of respondents indicated they were satisfied with their working conditions and quality of work experiences. Correlational analyses revealed that participant job satisfaction was most strongly associated with perceptions of supportive school leadership and positive relationships with administrators and other personnel. Given the survey results and findings of other recent studies, recommendations for practice for special education leaders and administrators in other high-need schools are discussed.

This article describes the school personnel and leadership collaboration (SPLC) model, a shared-responsibility framework for faculty, staff, and administrators. Prior research consistently demonstrates the need for (a) administrative support for teachers and other school personnel and (b) collegial support among staff. The SPLC model represents an amalgamation of this research and, moreover, integrates personnel support for leadership. In the managerial sciences, leader-member exchange (LMX) is a well-known relationship-based leadership approach that focuses on a dyadic or two-way relationship between supervisors and their employees. Though managers are responsible for overseeing operations, personnel contribute ideas, participate in decision-making, and follow through with their responsibilities. LMX is associated with positive work experiences and job performance outcomes. In contrast, schools are often run with a top-down leadership approach that solicits little to no input from staff, leading to low morale, high attrition rates, and negative school climate. Thus, the SPLC model was inspired by LMX and emphasizes practices, such as shared decision-making, staff autonomy, and shared responsibilities. Detailed examples of ways schools may apply the SPLC model to their practices are included.

Staff who work in juvenile justice settings frequently face high levels of occupational stress, secondary trauma, and burnout as a result of numerous stressors. Without recourse, these stressors can negatively impact staff well-being, and decrease staff self-efficacy and ability to implement treatment programming to the youth they serve with fidelity. One way to reduce staff levels of occupational stress and improve well-being is consistent use of self-care practices. It is critical to develop an effective approach to support the increase of self-care practices among staff in juvenile justice facilities. The I-CARE instructional approach, influenced by the self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) and multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) frameworks, is one such method for teaching daily self-care practices. We describe the I-CARE instructional approach and how it can be supported within juvenile justice facilities.

Student mental health, well-being, engagement, and deep learning is tied to teacher wellness. Georgia State University's Center for Research on School Safety, School Climate, and Classroom Management in partnership with The Collaboration and Resources for Encouraging and Supporting Transformations in Education project approached student health, wellness, and achievement by promoting change within teachers. Culturally specific professional development workshops were delivered to teachers, administrators, and other school staff. The workshops positively affected participants' health and wellbeing through activities focused on identifying the body's stress response and the development of personalized stress management plans to support healthy lifestyles.

To address the behavioral needs of youth in juvenile settings, many juvenile agencies and facilities have adopted a multitiered system of supports framework that is predicated on teaching, modeling, and reinforcing expected prosocial behaviors while making data-based decisions with the underlying logic of all (universal, tier one), some(targeted, tier two), and few (intensive, tier three). As the adoption and implementation of this framework has produced positive results (e.g., improved behaviors and increased engagement for youth, improved staff self-efficacy), it has been hypothesized that the tiered framework may be useful when applied to staff as well. Staff within these settings may experience stress and burnout given the facility context and the youth being served. We describe how the tiered framework can be used with staff to address their self-care needs along with some specific strategies per tier from the staff stress and burnout literature.

In addition to the stressors common to many K-12 teachers, such as high-stakes testing, a lack of autonomy, and high mental and emotional demands, special educators also address the unique needs of their students, team-teach, and maintain caseload responsibilities (Emery & Vandenberg, 2010). Many who enter the profession are fulfilled by the nature of their work, which involves helping students overcome obstacles. Yet, to effectively do so, special education teachers must balance multiple roles that require them to sustain high levels of physical and mental energy over extended periods. Such high demands in the job design of special educators could lead to chronic and persistent stress and adversely affect their wellness, job performance, and ultimately, student outcomes (Emery & Vandenberg, 2010; Jennings & Greenberg, 2009; Shen et al., 2015). Fortunately, effective coping strategies can be self-taught by using quality informational resources or by hiring professionals who specialize in wellness or stress management (e.g., counselors, personal trainers, life coaches). Coping skills can be practiced individually, with a group of people, informally, or even under the supervision of a trained professional. As this article points out, special educator instructors have been using stress management skills concepts due to their knowledge of using different strategies and finding what works best for individuals as they routinely draft and execute personalized plans specific for their students. Similarly, special educators can apply their differentiation skills to create their own personalized plans for coping effectively with stress. The goal of stress reduction plans should be to reduce thoughts and behaviors that exacerbate stress and replace these with thoughts and behaviors that improve wellness.

The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 has drawn greater attention to the academic achievement of students considered at risk who attend alternative schools. Due to problems both inside and outside of schools, students in alternative education settings may struggle with academic content and require a different educational approach. This comprehensive literature review critically examined experimental intervention studies that were conducted in alternative schools published between 1990 and 2013. Eighteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Academic intervention studies conducted in alternative educational settings, limitations, practical implications, and future directions are discussed.