behavioural thresholds

Behavioural thresholds refer to the often arbitrary, unstated limits at which a child’s behaviour is deemed unacceptable, requiring intervention, exclusion, or punishment—thresholds that are shaped more by adult tolerance, cultural norms, and institutional capacity than by the child’s actual needs or intent.
These thresholds are rarely consistent; they shift based on staffing, setting, race, disability, and the perceived likeability or “fit” of the child. A behaviour tolerated in one classroom may trigger crisis response in another. Behavioural thresholds reveal the elasticity of institutional patience—and expose how support is rationed not by severity of need, but by social legibility and compliance.