ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on deficit thinking and how a deficit mindset can adversely impact RELD students with varying exceptionalities. Deficit thinking refers to the idea that students—specifically, RELD students from low-income backgrounds—fail in school due families’ defects that interrupt the learning process: for example, inadequate family support and limited education among parents. As a result, educators subconsciously place RELD students in a box, restricting their learning. Also, in this chapter, the impact burnout has on the mind will be discussed. Last, the importance of a mindset shift to improve outcomes from all students—including students in special education—will be discussed.
