C.L.L.I.F.F. Notes
Constant Love and Learning In Fast Focus — for when time feels tight
- The highest-leverage investment for student behavior and engagement is not a new student-facing program. It is the nervous system and patterns of every adult in the building.
- Research confirms that regulated, self-aware educators create the neurological conditions for learning, relationship, and student behavior change. The adult IS the intervention.
- This post makes the science-backed, ROI-positive case for why investing in your educators is the most student-centered decision a school or district can make, and shows you exactly where to start.
The Highest-Leverage Investment for Student Behavior and Engagement
by Katie Raher, PhD
You are staring at the data. Office referrals are up. Attendance is down. Classroom disruptions are climbing. Students seem harder to reach, harder to settle, harder to engage. You have tried new behavior systems. You have brought in specialists. You have adjusted schedules, restructured classrooms, and purchased programs.
And still. Something is not landing.
Here's the deal... the research, and my own lived experience inside schools, points to the same place every time. The highest-leverage investment for student behavior and engagement is not a new student-facing program. It is the nervous system and patterns of every adult in the building.
I know. That might not be what you were expecting to read. But stay with me, y'all. While my gut told me this was true long before the studies caught up, I am a research nerd at heart and have been quietly geeking out on the data for over a decade. And that's what I'm here to share with you.
The evidence is deep, longitudinal, and consistent enough that even the most budget-skeptical administrator in the room is going to have a hard time arguing with it. This is not a soft answer. It is a science-backed, data-supported, ROI-positive answer. And by the end of this post, I want you to see exactly why it is true, what it looks like in practice, and what it means for where your professional development dollars should actually go.
The Myth That Is Quietly Costing Schools
There is a persistent myth in education that spending time and money on adult well-being is somehow taking time and money away from students. That professional development focused on how educators' own brains work, what patterns they carry into their classrooms, and how to move from reactive to responsive... is a luxury. A detour from the real work.
And honestly? I get it. Schools are under relentless pressure. Every dollar is scrutinized. Every hour is accounted for. When a principal walks into a room full of educators doing breathwork or reflecting on their own nervous system responses, it can feel like exactly the kind of thing a skeptical board member would question.
Sound familiar?
But here is what that framing gets fundamentally wrong. It assumes that student outcomes and adult well-being are separate investments. They are not. They are the same investment, approached from the most powerful leverage point available. And the evidence for that is no longer thin or emerging. It is deep, longitudinal, and consistent across decades of research.
The Adult IS the Intervention
Let me say that again, because it is the whole post in five words.
The adult IS the intervention.
In 2009, Jennings and Greenberg published what is now considered a landmark paper in education research. Their finding was direct: teacher social-emotional competence is the primary driver of classroom climate and student outcomes. You cannot effectively teach what you are not embodying (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).
And it has only gotten clearer since then. A 2024 study found that teacher mindfulness directly predicted student mindfulness, empathic concern, and prosocial orientation. Teacher empathic concern predicted student prosocial behavior (Orr & Lavy, 2024). The mechanism is not mysterious. Children are exquisitely attuned to the adults around them. They do not just hear what we teach. They feel who we are.
Pulling from my own experience... I spent years as a teacher and then as a School Psychologist watching this play out in real time. I watched educators who were running on empty, trying their absolute best, and still losing ground. Not because they were not trying. Not because they didn't actively try to generate intervention ideas on their planning periods. Because the gap between their own nervous system state and what their students needed in real time was simply too wide to bridge. And I watched, again and again, what happened when those same educators got real nervous system support. Sustained, relational, science-rooted support for their own inner life.
The shift was not subtle. It showed up in their classrooms the next day.
And after seeing this enough times, in enough schools, with enough educators... I stopped being surprised by it. I started building toward it on purpose. Because that is what Constant Love and Learning© exists to do. To give educators the support I wished I had had during my own years in the classroom and in the field. Before the burnout that eventually changed everything for me.
What the Neuroscience Actually Says
Dr. Bruce Perry's evidence-based Neurosequential Model gives us the clearest framework for why this is true. A brain in a state of threat or chronic stress cannot access higher-order thinking. The cortex, where reasoning, language, memory consolidation, and learning live, goes offline when a child feels unsafe or dysregulated (Perry, 2006).
So here is what that means in plain terms.
No matter how beautifully designed your curriculum is... no matter how strong your intervention program is... if a child's nervous system is in a state of alarm, the learning cannot effectively reach them.
And the most powerful regulator available to that child is the regulated nervous system of the adult standing in front of them.
This is what we mean at CLL when we say Regulate Before You Educate™. It is not a slogan. It is neuroscience. The adult's regulated, grounded presence creates the neurological conditions that make learning possible. You might also hear us saying Regulate to Elevate™.
Ripple Effects of Educator Regulation
A 2025 observational study by Murray and colleagues examined the effects of teachers’ mindful co-regulation – the process by which teacher mindfulness translates into supportive, regulating interactions with students. They identified three specific, measurable behaviors through which that internal capacity shows up in the classroom.
The first is responsive relationships. Mindfully regulated teachers demonstrate attuned awareness of individual students. They notice emotional states in the moment and adjust their relational approach accordingly. They maintain warmth under pressure. This is not general niceness. It is specific, moment-to-moment responsiveness that is only possible when the adult in front of the room is regulated enough to actually see the student in front of them.
The second is creating safe, supportive learning environments. These teachers actively and intentionally shape classroom climate through the way they manage transitions, handle disruption, use language, and structure predictability. Students in these classrooms know what to expect. They feel secure enough to take risks, make mistakes, and ask for help.
The third is intentional day-to-day interactions that promote student SEL. These teachers use ordinary, everyday moments as opportunities to model regulation, coach emotional skills, demonstrate repair after conflict, and narrate their own thinking and feeling in real time. The curriculum is the relationship. The lesson is the interaction.
Not surprisingly, there was a lot of variability in what they saw in teachers. In classrooms where teachers scored higher on mindful co-regulation, and therefore exhibited more of these three behaviors, there were better student outcomes across social, emotional, and behavioral domains. This means the quality of everyday teacher-student interaction is a measurable predictor of student outcomes, and it is directly shaped by how regulated, self-aware, and emotionally available the teacher is. When you invest in educator well-being and inner capacity, you are not simply investing in how teachers feel. You are investing in the specific behaviors that determine what students experience every single day (Murray et al., 2025).
The Relationship As the Mechanism
Of the three behaviors Murray identified, it's vital to mention that responsive relationships are not just the first item on a list. They are the foundation the rest is built on.
Don't get me wrong, programs matter. Curriculum matters. Systems matter. But underneath all of it is something more fundamental.
The relationships.
A major second-order meta-analysis published in 2025 synthesized decades of research on teacher-student relationships. The finding? Relationship quality predicts several clusters of student outcomes: Achievement, motivation, engagement, belonging, well-being, and behavior (Emslander et al., 2025).
The relationship is not the soft backdrop to the real work. It is the lever.
And for the students who need it most, that lever matters most. Longitudinal research found that teacher-student relationship quality in early elementary school predicts children's social and academic trajectories years later, with the strongest protective effects for children who entered school with behavioral difficulties (Hughes et al., 2001). The kids who are hardest to reach are the ones most changed by the adult who chooses to reach them anyway. With steadiness. With warmth. With genuine connection.
Decades of resilience research land on the same finding: children who beat the odds had at least one stable, caring adult (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2015). Not a program. An adult. Educators can be that adult. But only if they are supported enough to show up that way.
Are your educators supported enough to be that adult for the kids who need them most?
Support to Ensure the Ripple Goes in Positive Directions
That question isn't rhetorical. Here is the part we do not talk about enough: the ripple from the adult's inner life to the child's experience can work in reverse too.
Chronic teacher stress transmits into classroom climate through what researchers describe as physiological and relational contagion. Cortisol dysregulation, emotional exhaustion, reduced warmth... all of it transfers to children in ways that are measurable in student anxiety, aggression, and academic difficulty (Greenberg et al., 2016). A dysregulated adult does not just fail to co-regulate students. They actively contribute to student dysregulation.
A three-year longitudinal study also found that children whose teachers reported sustained higher burnout showed compounding smaller gains in social skills, frustration tolerance, and closeness with teachers, alongside increased conflict, year over year (Stephens et al., 2026). Burnout costs are not just felt by teachers. They accumulate in children across years of schooling.
This is not the end of our story. This is why we often ask administrators, "Are your adults in your building co-regulating or co-escalating?" We get to notice what's present, and we have the power to choose. To support our teachers in a way that leads to change. That reduces burnout. Reduces their own nervous system dysregulation. Increases their awareness and capacity for mindful co-regulation. And in turn improves student outcomes and school culture.
I think about a teacher I worked with who told me that before working with us at Constant Love and Learning©, she felt like she was always on edge. She described coming into her classroom braced. Already anticipating the hard moments. Already half-depleted before the first bell rang. Definitely not making the impact she wanted, and even worse, adding to the problems. How beautiful that this teacher, and others like her, are willing to vulnerably name their realities and work to create change!
After sustained support through our work together, something fundamental shifted. She started interacting with her students with more compassion. More awareness. More patience. More creativity. More capacity for co-regulation. She noticed powerful changes in how her students responded. Much more meaningful growth. More joy for her and her students.
The effects weren't limited to her interactions with students. When conflict arose with colleagues, she approached those conversations differently too... more curious than defensive, more solution-oriented than self-protective, more co-regulation than co-escalation with the fellow adults as well. She said that everything changed with colleagues and administrators too. She was able to make bridges and accomplish her goals more effectively, seeing her work from a more collaborative lens.
And she told me something I carry with me still. Before this work, she was weeks, if not days, away from leaving the profession. Entirely.
Now she describes herself as restored. Recharged. Fulfilled. Not just staying in the classroom, but thriving in it. And not just in her own classroom anymore. She has started taking on systems-level work, bringing what she has learned into broader conversations about how her school can do better for all educators and kids.
That is not just a feel-good story. That is what regulated adults do. They build better relationships. They expand. They innovate. They ripple forward. From fatigued to fulfilled. And then some.
The ROI Case: What This Looks Like in Real Numbers
Now, I know some of you are reading this and thinking, this all sounds beautiful, Katie. And also... my budget committee meets next Tuesday.
So let's talk numbers.
Teacher retention. K-12 workers have the highest occupational burnout rate of any sector in America. Fifty-two percent of teachers report feeling burned out always or very often (Gallup, 2022). Educators with poor well-being are significantly more likely to intend to leave (Doan et al., 2023). And the financial cost of losing them is significant. The Learning Policy Institute estimates teacher turnover costs districts between about $12,000 and $25,000 per teacher (depending on district size) when you factor in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and the loss of institutional knowledge, and that figure compounds when multiple educators leave in the same year. Want to see what that looks like for your district specifically? The Learning Policy Institute has a Turnover Cost Calculator I love to share and worth bookmarking. Investing in adult well-being is a retention investment with a measurable return.
Fewer referrals and crises. When educators develop stronger regulatory capacity and emotional awareness, reactive moments decrease. Escalations decrease. Mindfulness-based professional development programs for teachers produce sustained reductions in psychological distress and sustained gains in emotion regulation (Jennings et al., 2019). Fewer escalations means fewer office referrals, fewer crisis interventions, and reduced demand on behavioral specialists, administrators, and support staff. That is time and money returned to the system.
Stronger Tier 1, with less need for Tier 2 and 3. When regulated adults create regulated classrooms, the foundation of your MTSS pyramid gets stronger. Fewer students need intensive intervention when the universal environment is genuinely safe and connected. Investing in adult capacity is one of the most direct Tier 1 strengthening strategies available. And one of the most underutilized. Let's better support our feeling-first responders, the educators on the frontlines in our classrooms.
Academic outcomes. A 2025 meta-analysis of over 33,000 students across twelve countries found that universal SEL programs significantly improved both literacy and math achievement (Ha et al., 2025). And the primary determinant of whether those gains materialized? Teacher implementation quality. Not the program. The teacher. In order to optimize the gains that are possible, we have to make sure we're adequately supporting those teachers.
Leadership compounds everything. A 2025 study found that principal social-emotional competence and well-being form the foundation from which school climate, teacher functioning, and student outcomes flow (Mahfouz et al., 2025). And the research is clear on why that foundation matters so much: principals are the single most influential factor shaping student learning, teacher retention, and school climate, with their impact landing primarily through how they support, develop, and create conditions for their teachers (Darling-Hammond et al., 2026; Leithwood et al., 2008). The adult-first argument applies at every level of the system. When you invest in your leaders and their nervous systems and patterns, the investment multiplies through every layer beneath them.
A principal I have had the privilege of working with described something that has stayed with me. After sustained support for her staff (and herself) through our partnership, she said it was the strongest, calmest start to a school year she had experienced in all her years as an administrator. Leader steadier. Staff steadier. Students steadier. The culture shifted because the people shifted, from the inside out. A steadier start led to a steadier year filled with better outcomes.
That is the ripple flowing as it should. Right there.
What Effective Investment Actually Looks Like
So what does this actually look like in practice? Because here is the thing about professional development...
Not all of it is created equal. Not even close.
A landmark review from the Learning Policy Institute identified the characteristics of PD that actually produces lasting change: content-focused, active rather than passive, collaborative, embedded in practice, and sustained over time (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). The ROI of sustained, relational, embedded adult learning is categorically different from the return on a quick compliance-based training.
This is why at Constant Love and Learning©, every engagement is designed as a relationship first and a scope of work second. We ask what your school needs, what your people are carrying, and what conditions need to shift for educators to show up as the best of themselves... not just what is left of themselves. Then we build from there. In doable doses. Sustained over time. Rooted in the science of how adult nervous systems actually change.
The Both/And That Changes Everything
Here is what I want you to hold as you close this tab and head back into your day.
Investing in adult well-being and investing in student outcomes are not competing priorities. They never were. They are the same investment, viewed from the angle that actually produces change.
When you help educators understand their own nervous systems, unpack the patterns they carry, and move from reactive to responsive... you are not doing something instead of serving students. You are doing the thing that makes serving students possible. Sustainably. Skillfully. With genuine connection and joy still intact.
We often share the message, "My well-being spreads well-being." That is not a bumper sticker. It is the whole argument.
The most student-centered thing a school can do is invest in its adults.
And the data, the neuroscience, and the lived experience of educators whose careers and whose love for this work have been genuinely restored... all point to the same conclusion.
This is not a detour from the mission. This is the most direct path to it.
One breath, one feeling, one HEARTbeat at a time.
Start Here. Today.
If this landed for you, I want to make the next step easy. Really easy.
First, a quick win for you. Because y'all, we cannot pour from an empty cup, and the research is clear that your own nervous system regulation is where this all begins. Grab our free Self-Compassion Break Poster, a simple, science-rooted practice you can use in under two minutes, for yourself or with your staff, to help better navigate the stress that is certain to happen in our line of work.
Download the Free Self-Compassion Break Poster
And when you are ready to zoom out and look at the whole system... the WholeHEARTed School Audit is your next step. It is a free diagnostic that helps you see exactly where your school stands across the conditions that make adult and student thriving possible. You will walk away with a picture of what is working, what needs attention, and where the highest-leverage investment is for your specific community.
Take the Free WholeHEARTed School Audit
Just a couple minutes to get curious and get a real look at what your school needs, and a place to start.
If you're already ready to make this the year your PD dollars actually move the needle, by investing in the adults' nervous systems and social emotional competence, here is how we support that at Constant Love and Learning:
- Brain-aligned, research-backed, reflective, interactive, engaging, beloved PD workshops that provide neuroeducation, adult SEL, and well-being experiences that transform how your educators support the students in their care and greet the challenges they face.
- Systems-level support, with a mix of consultation to transform the school culture and elevate educator nervous system regulation through a preventative lens.
- Live virtual regulation sessions for real-time, embodied practice with your staff so the benefits keep coming.
- Coaching for the educators and leaders you cannot afford to lose, moving them from reactive to responsive and from fatigued to fulfilled in doable doses.
- On-demand regulation library so capacity keeps building between live PD supports.
- Resilience card decks that provide doable doses of nervous system regulation, prevention of compassion fatigue, self-compassion, reflection, and sustainable impact
Simply send us a message at [email protected] and let's connect. Connection really is the foundation of everything!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest-leverage investment for improving student behavior and engagement?
The research consistently points to one answer: investing in the regulated, self-aware capacity of the adults in the building. Teacher social-emotional competence is the primary driver of classroom climate and student outcomes. When educators move from reactive to responsive, students feel it immediately, in the emotional climate of the classroom, in the quality of their relationships with teachers, and in their own capacity to settle and learn.
How does teacher burnout affect students?
Research shows that chronic teacher stress transmits into classroom climate through what researchers call physiological and relational contagion. Children in classrooms with burned-out teachers show higher rates of anxiety, aggression, and academic difficulty. A three-year longitudinal study found that children whose teachers reported sustained higher burnout showed compounding smaller gains in social skills, frustration tolerance, and closeness with teachers year over year. Burnout costs do not stay with the teacher. They accumulate in children.
What does it cost schools when teachers burn out and leave?
The Learning Policy Institute estimates teacher turnover costs districts between about $12,000 and $25,000 per teacher when you factor in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and the loss of institutional knowledge. That figure compounds when multiple educators leave in the same year. You can see what those numbers look like for your specific district using the Learning Policy Institute's free turnover cost calculator at learningpolicyinstitute.org.
Why does teacher well-being affect student behavior?
Teachers are the primary regulatory environment for students during the school day. Research shows that a regulated adult nervous system creates the neurological conditions for learning, connection, and self-regulation in children. When educators are chronically stressed or burned out, that stress transmits into the classroom through emotional climate, reduced warmth, and increased reactive responses, all of which directly affect student behavior and engagement.
How does teacher-student relationship quality affect student outcomes?
A major second-order meta-analysis published in 2025 found that teacher-student relationship quality predicts several clusters of student outcomes including achievement, motivation, engagement, belonging, well-being, and behavior. For students who entered school with behavioral difficulties, strong teacher relationships had the most powerful protective effects. Decades of resilience research confirm the same finding: children who beat the odds had at least one stable, caring adult. Teachers can be that adult, especially when they’ve been supported to be their best selves.
Is adult-focused professional development really student-centered?
Yes. Decades of research across neuroscience, developmental psychology, and education confirm that the adult is the primary mechanism through which student outcomes are shaped. Supporting educators' nervous systems, self-awareness, and relational capacity is not separate from student-centered work. It is the foundation of it. The most student-centered thing a school can do is invest in its adults.
REFERENCES
Darling-Hammond, L., Fitz, J., Giani, M. V., Gordon, M. F., & Wechsler, M. (2026). The principal effect: How investing in school leaders is key to solving education's challenges. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/644.197
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/effective-teacher-professional-development-report
Doan, S., Steiner, E. D., Pandey, R., & Woo, A. (2023). Teacher well-being and intentions to leave: Findings from the 2023 State of the American Teacher survey (Research Report RR-A1108-8). RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-8.html
Emslander, V., Holzberger, D., Ofstad, S. B., Fischbach, A., & Scherer, R. (2025). Teacher-student relationships and student outcomes: A systematic second-order meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 151(3), 365–397. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000461
Gallup. (2022, June). K-12 workers have highest burnout rate in U.S. Gallup Poll Workforce Study. https://news.gallup.com/poll/393500/workers-highest-burnout-rate.aspx
Greenberg, M. T., Brown, J. L., & Abenavoli, R. M. (2016). Teacher stress and health: Effects on teachers, students, and schools. Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University.
Ha, C., Zhang, X., Weissberg, R. P., & Durlak, J. A. (2025). Social and emotional learning and academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543241312871
Hughes, J. N., Cavell, T. A., & Wilson, V. (2001). Further support for the developmental significance of the quality of the teacher-student relationship. Journal of School Psychology, 39(4), 289–301.
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79, 491–525.
Jennings, P. A., Doyle, S., Oh, Y., Rasheed, D., Frank, J. L., & Brown, J. L. (2019). Long-term impacts of the CARE program on teachers' self-reported social and emotional competence and well-being. Journal of School Psychology, 76, 186–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.07.009
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2008). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership. School Leadership and Management, 28(1), 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430701800060
Mahfouz, J., Greenberg, M. T., Weissberg, R. P., Kim, C., & Turksma, C. (2025). The prosocial school leader: Theory, research, and action. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 5, 100102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2025.100102
Murray, D. W., Mills-Brantley, R., & Hamm, J. (2025). Operationalizing mindful co-regulation to build understanding of educator social-emotional competency. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 6, 100159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2025.100159
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2015). Supportive relationships and active skill-building strengthen the foundations of resilience: Working Paper No. 13. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/working-paper/supportive-relationships-and-active-skill-building-strengthen-the-foundations-of-resilience/
Orr, S., & Lavy, S. (2024). Teaching who you are: Preliminary findings linking teachers' and students' social-emotional skills. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 4, 100062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2024.100062
Perry, B. D. (2006). Fear and learning: Trauma-related factors in the adult education process. In S. Johnson & K. Taylor (Eds.), New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education: The neuroscience of adult learning (Vol. 110, pp. 21–27). Wiley Periodicals. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.215
Stephens, C., Pianta, R. C., Whittaker, J. E., & Vitiello, V. E. (2026). Links between teachers' occupational burnout and students' academic, social-behavioral, and executive function performance from preschool through first grade. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 76, 468–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2026.04.011
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