Georgetown ISD is aiming to better assist teachers in addressing student behavioral issues.
At a March 9 board workshop, district officials discussed hiring 10 new behavior coaches and paraprofessionals. GISD elementary teachers have requested more behavior support amid increased behavioral challenges among elementary students in recent years, GISD Superintendent Devin Padavil said.
"Students have changed in the last five years," Director of Intervention Tamra Marbibi. "Some of their early formative year where they're building their communication [and] their ability to read people... some of those skills are lacking and needing reinforcement in the classroom."
The update
GISD officials have proposed hiring four behavior coaches and six additional behavior paraprofessionals for general education classrooms. The behavior coaches would each be split between two campuses while the behavior paraprofessionals would work at campuses every day, Marbibi said.
The new positions could assist teachers by modeling instruction and offering advice for responding to students' behavior during class, Padavil said.
GISD may repurpose some current district positions to fill these roles. The district may still see a net increase in expenses, Padvail said.
"If someone is readily accessible... well then tomorrow gets a lot easier for that teacher," Padavil said about the behavior positions.
Current situation
The district currently has behavioral positions for special education students, Padavil said. Meanwhile, administrators, school counselors or teachers must respond to students who do not qualify for special education services, he said.
GISD has one position among its 18 campuses dedicated to supporting general education classrooms with behavior challenges, Marbibi said. The district has two behavior paraprofessionals currently, which would increase to eight if the additional six paraprofessionals were hired.
How we got here
Over the last four years, GISD has seen a teacher turnover rate of 22%, Padavil said. Many teachers are leaving the profession due to students' behavioral issues, he said.
Elementary students have experienced more behavioral challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic, during which some students were not interacting with others in group settings, Marbibi said.
Almost 1 in 4 teachers are new to their positions, the majority of which are in the first three years of their career, he said.
"The teacher is not equipped to figure out, 'How do I mange the behavior [and] create structures that avoid this behavior from becoming disruptive in the classroom?'" Padavil said. "That's really the service we want to try to provide to our teachers."
Something to note
House Bill 6 gives public school teachers more discretion to remove students from the classroom if they are repeatedly disruptive or threaten the safety of others, according to previous Community Impact reporting.
The new law—passed in 2025—comes after nearly half of Texas public school teachers cited discipline issues as a top workplace challenge in 2022, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The change has allowed schools to suspend students of any age, including prekindergarten through second grade students, for engaging in "repeated or significant" disruptions. Campuses may now place students in in-school suspension as long as they see fit, instead of the previous three-day limit.
Hannah Norton contributed to this article.
