In today’s schools, the emotional climate of a classroom is a powerful determinant of student success. Research has shown that students learn best in environments where they feel psychologically safe, understood, and connected. But what is often overlooked is the vital role teacher regulation plays in creating those environments. When teachers are dysregulated—overwhelmed, stressed, triggered, or emotionally depleted—it becomes harder for them to respond with empathy, maintain boundaries, or build relationships with challenging students. Principals, as instructional and cultural leaders, have a unique opportunity to support teachers’ emotional well-being and co-create school communities grounded in safety, connection, and belonging.

The following post provides practical strategies principals can use—including adjustments to the master schedule, strategic use of staffing, and their own relational leadership—to help teachers develop self-awareness, regulate their stress responses, and build stronger connections with their students. Students are first, and as educators we know they are the reason for the work. Teachers must be a very close second–their impact greatly depends on the level of support, safety, and belonging they feel within the school. The biggest part of a principal’s role is finding ways to grow teaches and empower them in their practice.

The Neuroscience of Stress and Connection

To understand why regulation is foundational to effective teaching, it’s essential to look at what’s happening in the brain. When humans perceive threat—whether physical, emotional, or social—the amygdala activates the fight, flight, or freeze response. This is part of the limbic system, which takes over and suppresses higher brain functions in the prefrontal cortex responsible for reasoning, empathy, and executive functioning.

For both teachers and students, chronic stress can keep the brain in a state of survival, limiting the capacity to learn, connect, or problem-solve. Importantly, co-regulation—a process where one regulated nervous system helps calm another—is a critical component of creating a safe classroom. But teachers can’t co-regulate with dysregulated students if they themselves are operating in survival mode. Having a system where school staff are supporting each other, and where the principal is proactive with behavior intervention for students requiring additional support with unsolved problems or lagging skills provides opportunities for everyone to grow.

This is where school leadership comes in.

Use the Master Schedule to Create Space for Regulation and Reflection

The master schedule is a powerful, often underutilized, tool for shaping a school’s culture. Principals can use it to intentionally build in time and structures that allow teachers to regulate, reflect, and connect.

Strategies:

• Daily planning and regulation blocks: Go beyond contractual prep time. Create a rotating block in the schedule (10–15 minutes daily, weekly) for teachers to step away, reset, or debrief with colleagues where extreme behavior challenges are causing dysregulation and high levels of stress.
  
• Built-in collaboration time: Make space for small-group teacher check-ins (e.g., weekly grade-level team huddles) that prioritize emotional processing and peer support.
  
• Mindful Mondays or Flexible Fridays: Use shorter instructional days at the start or end of the week to allow for community-building, shared regulation practices, or teacher-student restorative activities.
  

Establish a Student Success Team

A student success consists of staff who come together to create plans of support for students who are most vulnerable in the school. What makes a student vulnerable can be determined by the team, but consider the following:

• Physiological needs outside of school
• Poor attendance
• Lagging executive function skills
• Multiple discipline referrals
• Unhealthy attachments with adults outside of school
• Unhealthy peer relationships
• Neurodivergence

The Success Team not only digs deeply into quantitative and qualitative data of these students, they also help the classroom teacher by preparing a plan of action for them. The teacher success plan might include the following:

• A staff member to supervise students so they can take a quick break
• An arranged break for the student
• Building question and sentence stems to use with an escalated student
• Choice menu for the student that includes regulation activities as well as academic choices
• A staff member to supervise the class while the teacher and a student spend a few moments together

The Success Team is a collective advocate for both the student and the teacher, focusing on the goal of co-regulation.

Leverage Staff Roles to Support Teacher Regulation

Principals can think strategically about the roles of counselors, behavior interventionists, paraprofessionals, and even office staff in supporting both students and educators. In addition to those stated through the lens of a Success Team, consider the following:

• Behavioral support on-call rotations: Establish a predictable system where behavior specialists or social workers respond to escalating student behaviors, giving teachers a break to reset without guilt.
  
• Regulation partners: Assign every teacher a “wellness partner” (another adult in the building trained in co-regulation and active listening). They can check in weekly or be called on when needed.
  
• Shared student relationship builders: Identify staff members (counselors, deans, trusted support staff) who can build Tier 2 relationships with students struggling in class. This gives teachers time to focus on regulation and reconnection, rather than constant crisis management.
  

Model and Normalize Regulation as a Leadership Practice

A principal’s own modeling of regulation and relational leadership sets the emotional tone for the building. When school leaders prioritize their own nervous system health, communicate openly about stress, and lead with empathy, it gives teachers permission to do the same. Being vulnerable allows others to feel emotionally safe and more willing to admit struggles and when they need help.

Strategies:

• Open door, regulated leader: Instead of always appearing “strong” or “neutral,” model authentic emotion + coping. “That was a hard meeting—I’m going to take five minutes and then circle back,” shows healthy regulation.
  
• Regular check-ins with a purpose: Don’t just ask “How are you?” Ask: “What’s been draining you lately?” or “What kind of support would feel helpful this week?”
  
• Staff regulation practices: Begin staff meetings with a grounding exercise, mindfulness, or reflective journaling. Provide space to settle nervous systems before diving into data or logistics.

Promote Teacher-Student Relationship Time That Isn’t Academic

Relationships are the bedrock of safe, thriving classrooms. But teachers often need time and tools to build authentic connections, especially with students who are dysregulated or oppositional. Principals can give permission and structure for this to happen.

Strategies:

• Scheduled non-academic time with students: Allow teachers time to check in with individual students during lunch, homeroom, or advisory, without the pressure of curriculum coverage.
  
• Student support circles: Support the use of relationship-building circles, where students and teachers share stories, values, and experiences outside of the academic lens.
  

Teach teachers about stress and trauma! Offer professional learning on the neuroscience of stress, the impact of childhood adversity, attachment theory, The Polyvagal Theory, and co-regulation so teachers understand that difficult behaviors are often signs of unmet needs, not disrespect. There are so many podcasts, books, blogs, and articles to learn more about the brain, the autonomic nervous system, and what makes us feel safe.

A Last Thought…

When we see people differently, we learn how to support them differently.

Classroom safety doesn’t start with rules or consequences—it starts with relationships, and relationships require regulation. When principals take the lead in creating space and structures for teacher self-regulation, they shift the school from reactive discipline to proactive connection. This doesn’t just improve climate and culture—it transforms it. As the adults become more grounded, the students follow. The classroom becomes not just a place of learning, but a true community of care. This lays a path for equitable access to learning at high levels for all students.