Supporting Students with Non-Compliance: Building Emotional Capacity Series – The Accommodation Continuum

Join us in this session presented by: Alex Hirshberg, Psy.D. Alex Hirshberg is a clinical psychologist and founder of Hirshberg Behavioral Health Services. He has spent the last several years providing consultation, professional development, and assessment services for dozens of districts across Massachusetts. He received his doctorate from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Accommodations play an essential role in helping students access learning and maintain engagement during periods of challenge. However, schools often struggle to determine when support is facilitating growth and when it may be unintentionally reinforcing avoidance or dependence. This session introduces a framework for understanding accommodations as tools for stabilization, skill development, and gradual independence. Participants will learn how to distinguish between accommodations that increase student capacity and those that inadvertently reduce it, develop plans for fading support over time, and create intervention pathways that balance compassion with long-term skill building. This is Part 4 of the 4-Part Supporting Students with Non-Compliance Series. The series explores practical, tiered strategies for supporting students who experience non-compliance, avoidance, emotional dysregulation, and difficulty managing challenging situations in general education settings.