Dan is a national educational consultant who provides staff development and consultative services to educators K-12.
Dan is passionate about helping individuals shift their perspective on behavior, understanding the best ways to provide support given the challenges posed in today’s society. He regularly presents on topics impacting school climate, brain-based instruction, developmentally appropriate educational practices and presentation skills.
Dan’s overwhelming strength is his skill as a presenter. Although his sessions are exceedingly interactive and engaging, his greatest asset lies in his ability to offer participants rich insight into the connectedness between educational practices and student behavior.
After receiving his master’s degree in education, Dan worked in both private residential and public school settings. His work as a self-contained behavior unit teacher, Educational Diagnostician, and Director of a Learning Resource Center afforded him experience at all levels, in both general and special education settings. Dan’s consultative experience comes from his work as an Educational Specialist for the Education Service Center in San Antonio, Texas. While there, he designed a three-year program certifying individuals to serve as behavior specialists throughout the region. He also regularly provided technical assistance in the areas of behavior, special education, dropout prevention, school climate and developmentally appropriate practices.
After working at the Education Service Center, Dan sought out a job returning to the school setting allowing him to work directly with children. For seventeen years, Dan was a behavior consultant for the Alamo Heights Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. Though he provided support for all schools, his primary responsibilities were at the Howard Early Childhood Center working with the district’s youngest learners. While there, he provided in class lessons, small group and individual support, as well as presentations to staff and parents.
Dan retired from the school system in May of 2020 after thirty years of work in education. Though he is now slowing down, working to have a better balance between his work and home life, he still provides presentation and consultative support as an independent consultant.
Dan's Books
What Dan’s Participants Have to Say
Dan St. Romain is the Oprah of teaching! My favorite thing about his workshops is that I leave not just with new knowledge and skills but actual lessons and ideas of how to implement the new skills into my classroom. You won’t be bored because you will be laughing, singing, moving and grooving your way through his whole workshop! He reminds me why I love working with children and his passion for helping kids is contagious and inspiring!
I have attended several workshops presented by Dan St. Romain and they all have one thing in common. Dan’s energy is infectious, entertaining and incredibly informative. The thing I love the most about all of them is the ability to return to the classroom and immediately begin implementing some facet of what I just learned. I find Dan’s presentation style and information to be timely and extremely accessible. Thanks Dan.
I first saw Dan St. Romain in San Antonio, Texas. I was so excited about what I heard in his session that I strongly suggested to our board that we have Dan as a presenter at our conference. I don’t usually get the privilege of attending breakout sessions but Dan provided so much information at our pre-conference session that I did not want to miss his presentation. My classroom behavior is much better this year because of the sessions I attended.
Excellent information. Very interesting! I got a lot out of this session, that I can use on Monday. Thank you, Mr. St. Romain. Could he present again next year?
Loved it! Really helped me focus on where I am not helping my difficult kids (how I can improve) fun and interactive
Dan’s Philosophy
Times have changed a great deal in the past few decades. For the most part, these changes have had a negative impact on the behavior of youth at all levels. If we are going to effectively support the behaviors demonstrated by youth, it is critical for adults to examine behaviors in light of all of the societal changes that have taken place over the years. Understanding behavior does not mean we accept it. By shifting our perspective, we are in a better place to design effective strategies, which will lead to positive behavior change.
As humans, we are creatures of habit. Adults will naturally have a predisposition to discipline children the same way in which they were disciplined. This creates problems due to the societal changes that have impacted behavior. Most adults grew up in a compliance-based system. (Because I said so. That’s why.) Although compliance-based discipline was an effective method for changing behavior in past decades, it is not the most effective way to change behavior currently. Compliance-based discipline is an effective method for the children who rarely misbehave. However, when we examine the effectiveness of these methods with youth who demonstrate more challenging behaviors, the results are not as favorable.
It is for this reason the majority of Dan’s work focuses on helping adults understand how times have changed, how these changes have impacted the behavior of youth, and most importantly, how best to design strategies to support long-term behavioral change, vs. short-term compliance.
