The 2nd-grader at PS 55 in the Bronx was acting out — hitting other students, throwing chairs, running in the halls. His teacher knew something was wrong; he was a different child from the one she’d taught in kindergarten. She also knew the best way to respond was to validate his feelings. She told him, “I understand you’re upset, and if you’re angry, that’s OK. Let’s talk about it. What can we do?” When he gravitated to the classroom’s library nook, she brought him pillows to sit on, her way of making him comfortable.

The teacher has been trained in therapeutic crisis intervention, the cornerstone of the Positive Learning Collaborative, a joint initiative of the UFT and the Department of Education. The PLC mission is to create positive learning environments by providing educators with strategies to respond to and head off challenging student behavior. In the case of the 2nd-grader, the teacher said her PLC training helped her calm the child enough so he could focus on his work.

When a school joins the PLC, every staff member receives four days of intensive training to help children process feelings of frustration, anger and rejection. Every school is assigned a behavior specialist liaison who visits regularly to support the staff.

The PLC, launched in 2013, is now engaged in 16 city schools. The program is at capacity, with about 25 schools on a waitlist, according to Dana Ashley, the program’s director. The union is hoping to get funding next year to expand it.

PS 55 Principal Luis Torres says the changes in the pre-K–5th grade school he has led for 12 years have been remarkable: Not a single child has been suspended, attendance has increased this school year and the number of classroom incidents has dropped 50 percent over the past two years.

Torres says 80 percent of the PS 55 staff has been trained, but “eventually even custodians and cafeteria workers will be trained so we have a common language.”

That common language is about listening, validating emotions and providing tools so the student can better manage his or her feelings.

The children who attend PS 55 in Claremont Village, located in the nation’s poorest congressional district, face many hurdles: 97 percent come from families with incomes at or below 130 percent of the poverty level, 21 percent have disabilities, and, according to Torres, virtually all live in homeless shelters, foster homes or doubled up with other families.

As one of the mayor’s community schools, PS 55 houses a medical clinic, an indoor teaching farm, an outdoor garden and a mobile kitchen to teach students and their parents about healthy meals.

With the advent of the PLC, the staff says, the culture of the school has shifted from putting out fires to thoughtful conversation and planning in response to troubling student behavior.

The PLC has procedures in place to identify students who are experiencing academic or behavior difficulty. Once identified, all the staff members who have contact with a particular student gather to share information and work together. The school psychologist, social worker, guidance counselor, speech therapist, family worker and instructional coaches form a Response to Intervention team that works with the teacher to explore the student’s needs and possible interventions.

The PLC has trained the team to probe issues that affect student behavior, including home and family, health, peer interactions, instructional needs and the student’s learning environment.

At a recent meeting of a Response to Intervention team, a teacher shares her concerns about a student who has not been able to work on his own. The teacher provides attendance data, classwork samples and information such as academic and social strengths and needs to help everyone connect the dots: The student is not performing at grade level and has been teased about it. “He puts his head down on the desk and appears depressed,” the teacher says.

The guidance counselor has observed the child’s outbursts. The teasing is “his trigger,” she says.

By the time the meeting ends, an intervention plan is in place: The student will be assigned a mentor to boost his attendance and a tutor for reading and math. His mother will be encouraged to attend Parent University at PS 55, where students help plan the lessons that help parents help them. It’s also suggested that his mother be called when there is good news to report. To boost his self-esteem and reinforce his skills, the boy will be asked to assist in a kindergarten class.

Joey Coschigano, the school psychologist, says interventions help eliminate unnecessary referrals to special education. “It’s a safe place for teachers to vent and get advice, and the background information helps me make better recommendations,” he says.

The following week, the child’s teacher reflected on the process. “It was very insightful and productive,” she says. “You’re not getting just one point of view, but sharing ideas.”