Your Student Is Hungry, Tired, Angry—Now What? Addressing Distal Setting Events in the Classroom

All students, including those with a Behavior Support Plan (BSP), sometimes start their school day after experiencing an event or circumstance that makes challenging behavior more likely to happen, such as not eating breakfast, getting into an argument, or not getting a good night’s sleep. Because these events occur outside of school, teachers may feel incapable of addressing them. Viewing these circumstances as distal setting events provides an evidence-based framework for understanding and intervening on behavioral challenges impacted by factors outside of teacher control. Setting events are circumstances that change the value of common classroom reinforcers, such as teacher attention or escaping work, which in turn increase the likelihood of student challenging behavior. This article describes the concept of distal setting events and provides a step-by-step guide for assessing and intervening upon challenging student behavior impacted by out-of-school setting events.