Elementary teachers say they’re seeing worsening and increasingly severe behavior problems in young children and want help — although states and school districts nationwide are divided over the right approach.
Teachers say students are more disruptive during lessons. They sometimes lash out physically. They’re more defiant. They wander around the classroom without permission. They interrupt.
“They’re just so much more physical. We’re struggling with kids being able to talk to each other and talk to adults in a respectful manner,” said Andrea Quinn, a veteran teacher at Lead Elementary School in San Mateo. “It’s a lack of understanding how to interact with others.”
Federal data show the growing need to help teachers bring classrooms under control: The percentage of elementary schools where educators say they want more training on classroom management increased from 51% in May 2022 to 65%last year.
It’s not a coincidence that the rise in behavior issues teachers are reporting emerged in the years following the pandemic, education experts said.
‘Pandemic babies’ go to school
Even though many of these children were toddlers or infants when the pandemic began, the disruption has had long-lasting repercussions.
In 2021, researchers at Brown University found that toddlers who were born during the pandemic had significantly lower verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared to toddlers born in the previous decade. Those “pandemic babies” would now be around 6 years old and in first grade.
In a 2025 survey, 76% of elementary school leaders said they “agree” or “strongly agree” that the pandemic has continued to negatively affect the behavioral development of students.
Many young children missed out on preschool and other social experiences during the pandemic that could have helped prepare them for school. A study published last year showed that children whose early education was highly disrupted by the pandemic suffered from more emotional problems and lower reading skills compared to students who were in more stable programs.
These children also are entering challenging environments. Over the last two decades, schools have started requiring even the youngest children to focus on more challenging academic tasks. At the same time, children are getting less time for recess even though it is proven to improve behavior and learning. Children also are on screens more than ever, which is believed to contribute to more anxiety, depression, aggression and hyperactivity.
“A lot of things have changed since the pandemic,” said Wendy Reinke, co-director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute and a professor of school psychology at the University of Missouri. Those years “really disrupted a lot of children’s social-emotional development and routines … I think teachers are seeing that and feel undertrained.”
A look inside one classroom
School had been in session at Lead Elementary in San Mateo for less than an hour, but already Quinn had to pause instruction nearly 20 times.
First, there was the child who zipped his entire face inside the hood of his green sweatshirt.
“Is that a good choice?” Quinn asked.
“Yeah?” a muffled voice responded.
A few minutes later, a boy spun around uncontrollably from his corner of the carpet in the front of the room, kicking students near him.
“Your feet are not safe,” Quinn told him.
Teaching first grade always has involved dealing with wiggly and talkative kids, but it hasn’t always been quite like this, Quinn said.
Over the last 10 years, Quinn has seen an increase in challenging behavior among her 6- and 7-year-olds, with a particular ramp-up since the pandemic.
Quinn, who has taught at the same Northern California school for 21 years, said that in the years leading up to 2020, she started to notice students weren’t as independent and struggled more to manage their emotions, get started on assignments and ask for help.
Then the pandemic hit, and as kids navigated tough situations at home, isolation, more screen time and school closures, misbehavior got worse.
Educators make classroom changes
Educators are overhauling their classroom management approach to cut down on the chaos.
In New Jersey, kindergarten teacher Tahnaira Clark said she has seen more challenging behaviors with her current class of “COVID babies” than previous groups. “Getting them to sit on the carpet for a long book can be challenging,” she said.
Clark spent six weeks at the beginning of this school year setting up and practicing classroom routines and procedures. “I’m explaining everything from how you throw your trash in the trash can to how you hold your pencil,” Clark said. She rewards good behavior with a sticker.
Kindergarten teacher Cristina Lignore, who teaches in New York City, said, “There’s a lot of interruptions. And a lot of times when I have to pause and address behaviors over and over again, that can interfere with students who are 100% ready to learn.”
Lignore says she benefited from a behavior coach sent from the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit focused on child mental health, for the last four years. Her coach observed her frequently and gave feedback on classroom management, something she felt she didn’t learn much about even after getting her master’s degree in education.
States divided over how to manage behavior
Across the country, schools are divided on how to handle these problems.
Some are backing away from exclusionary discipline like suspensions and expulsions and have embraced schoolwide approaches that reward positive behavior and provide social skills practice through games and role-playing. Others are opting for restorative practices, which emphasize group conversations in which students share feelings and perspectives to build community and resolve conflict.
Research has found restorative practices can improve student behavior and academic performance. Still, these schoolwide systems do not always get rolled out correctly or get all teachers to buy in, which can affect their success.
Some states are taking a different approach to misbehavior, saying that the answer is to bring in more consequences and give teachers more power to punish disruptive students.
For example, a West Virginia law passed early last year gives teachers more power to exclude disruptive students from their classrooms. The law also creates a discipline process for preschool and elementary students where there was none before.
President Trump also has called for a return to what he called “commonsense discipline policies” in an executive order last April. The directive repealed federal guidance that schools work to avoid racial disparities in school punishments.
As behavior challenges persist, educators say programs could better prepare new teachers. Only 27% of teacher preparation programs surveyed by the National Council on Teacher Quality in 2020 mandated that aspiring teachers practice the effective management skill of reinforcing positive behavior before they graduate. Difficulty managing student behavior frequently is cited as one of the main reasons teachers quit.
Some teacher preparation programs are trying to evolve to meet the need. Challa Flemming, the assistant dean of clinical experience at the Relay Graduate School of Education, which has locations across the country, said the program added a focus on trauma-informed teaching practices and restorative practices over the last few years.
“Behavior has meaning,” Flemming said. “If we can reposition ourselves to be curious about why students are doing what they’re doing, and help them move through that, then we can end up in a much stronger place in terms of classroom culture.”
Quinn has cycled through various management techniques over the last two decades. Now, she focuses on affirming positive behavior, hoping students will want to then emulate it. She tries to assume there’s a reason behind students acting out so she can try to address the root cause. While she feels confident that’s the right approach, it’s an immensely challenging, exhausting job that on some days feels impossible to do alone.
“I’m just one person,” Quinn said. “My real purpose is to teach them content. … I’m not trained in psychology. I’m not trained in social work,” she added.
Mader writes for The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education that produced this story.
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