Half of teachers report more classroom disruptions

More than half of teachers in Seoul say classroom disruptions involving students in emotional or behavioral distress have increased over the past year, according to a survey released Monday by a city-affiliated education think tank.

The Seoul Education Research & Information Institute surveyed 2,485 elementary, middle and high school teachers in the capital from Sept. 15 to 19. Of them, 52.6 percent said disruptions by “students in emotional and behavioral crisis” had become more frequent in 2025 compared with the previous year.

The study defined such students as those experiencing difficulties at school due to psychological, emotional or behavioral issues, but whose conditions are not severe enough to qualify them for special education programs.

Researchers said the study aimed to identify support needs for students who remain in regular classrooms despite requiring additional help, describing them as a “blind spot” in the current education system.

The increase was felt most strongly in elementary schools. Some 58.6 percent of elementary school teachers said disruptive behavior by these students had increased over the past year, followed by 54 percent of middle school teachers and 42.8 percent of high school teachers.

The findings also suggest that the number of students in need of support may be higher than official figures indicate. Among elementary school teachers, 56.3 percent said the actual number of students in emotional or behavioral crisis did not appear to match those identified through the institute’s official diagnostic tools. The figure stood at 48.2 percent for middle school teachers and 35.5 percent for high school teachers.

“This shows that screening based on self-reporting has cognitive limitations in identifying crises among younger students, and that close professional observation by teachers can detect such problems more sharply than data-based identification tools,” the researchers said.

Teachers cited lack of parental cooperation as the biggest obstacle to providing timely support. Some 77.5 percent of respondents said support is delayed when parents do not cooperate, making it the most commonly cited reason that help fails to reach students in emotional or behavioral crisis. Among elementary school teachers, the figure rose to 90.8 percent.

The issue has gained wider attention in South Korea amid growing public debate over teachers’ rights and conflicts between teachers and parents over students who require additional support. One prominent case is the ongoing legal dispute involving popular webtoon artist Joo Ho-min and a teacher who taught his son, who has autism.

The report said some parents resist outside intervention because of a psychological defense mechanism rooted in fears that their children may be stigmatized. This, researchers said, is a key reason students in need of help continue to fall through the cracks.

The report called for a legal framework that can better protect the safety and welfare of students in emotional or behavioral crisis, even if it requires placing limited restrictions on parental rights in certain cases.