How One Head Start Program Cut Discipline Referrals by 45% — By Regulating the Adults First

At Foundation for Early Childhood Education, a Head Start and Early Head Start program serving more than 500 children across 19 sites, one change cut discipline referrals by 45%, lifted staff and student regulation skills by 30%, and doubled staff collegiality and school climate scores. The change wasn’t a new curriculum or another retention perk: it was regulating the adults first. Here’s how they did it, and why it worked.

Every leader in early childhood and Head Start education knows the other version of this story: a great teacher hands in their notice, and it costs far more than the time it takes to fill the role. Burnout doesn’t just show up as turnover, it lingers in classroom culture, in child outcomes, in family life, and in the daily emotional weight carried by the ones who stay.

What if the real fix isn’t another wellness day or recognition program, but a fundamentally different starting point: the adults? That’s exactly what Foundation for Early Childhood Education, Inc. (Foundation ECE) decided to test.

The Warning Signs

Like many programs, Foundation ECE was seeing all the familiar signs: rising social and emotional needs in children, staff frustrated that existing efforts weren’t working, and a widening gap between school and home.

Most retention strategies focus on the symptoms: stipends, recognition, wellness days. Those help, but they don’t touch the root cause: early childhood educators are asked to co-regulate a room full of developing brains, often without ever being taught how to regulate themselves first. Burnout isn’t a personal failing. It’s what happens when the emotional demands of the job consistently outpace the tools available to meet them.

That was the piece Foundation ECE decided to address. Rather than adding another lesson-based curriculum, they partnered with Conscious Discipline to focus on the one thing they hadn’t tried: adult regulation.

What They Did

Foundation ECE built a small internal team of administrators and education leaders to lead the work, supported by “CD Champions” at each site who modeled the practices for their peers. The approach was intentionally gradual: start small, train the trainers, then let it spread.

“I was self-reflecting and realizing… I was in my survival state. With me reflecting and thinking ‘I need to regulate myself, I need to calm myself.’ This is going to help.”
— Ana Mendez, Early Learning Childhood Education Coordinator, Foundation ECE

The Results

After several years of implementation, the shift from reactive to intentional adult responses showed up in measurable ways:

• 45% fewer discipline referrals
• 30% increase in healthy regulation skills for staff and students
• 100% increase in staff collegiality and positive school climate

Staff also reported something harder to quantify but just as important: less stress, more confidence, and a genuine sense of agency in their classrooms.

“The breathing technique has helped me as a teacher also, even in my own personal life… I will put my hand on my tummy, and I breathe, so that my tummy can rise and fall, and before I know it I forget about what it is that’s going on.”
— Head Start Teacher, Foundation ECE

The impact didn’t stop at the classroom door. Foundation ECE saw a growing school-to-home connection, with families adopting the same calming language their children were learning — and over 40 family members participating directly in Conscious Discipline parenting education.

“The other day I observed a child about to have not a good day, so Mom got on his level and said ‘Show me, calm. You know. Let’s breathe together.’ And that child breathes 1, 2, 3 times.”
— Head Start Teacher, Foundation ECE

Where to Start

Foundation ECE’s experience points to a few practical starting points that don’t require a system-wide overhaul to begin:

• Start the conversation about the importance of adult-first, self-regulation in staff meetings. Acknowledging that self-regulation is a real, learnable skill — not just a personality trait — starts to shift how staff talk about their own stress.
• Build in a shared reset ritual. A brief shared calming practice at the start of a staff meeting or shift change models that regulation is a normal part of the workday, not an afterthought.
• Start small and grow slowly. Foundation ECE’s own advice: begin with interested educators who can model for their peers, rather than mandating change all at once.

The Takeaway

Staff wellbeing isn’t a separate initiative from behavior management or child development — it’s the foundation that holds both. Programs that invest in adult regulation first, the way Foundation ECE did, don’t just reduce burnout. They build the kind of connected, stable environment where children and the adults who care for them can actually thrive.

This is the same principle behind Conscious Discipline’s S.A.F.E. framework: an adult-first approach to building co-regulating cultures in early childhood, Head Start, and K-12 settings.

Explore the S.A.F.E. Framework: https://consciousdiscipline.com/safe/