Students with disabilities who engage in high rates of challenging behaviors require educators who employ function-based thinking and have a particular sensitivity to the wide range of factors that influence student behavior. In essence, educators working with special needs students need to know what makes their instruction "special"; they must use strategies that are evidence-based and make use of supports, adaptations, and accommodations. Taken together, the papers in this special issue provide innovative and research-based violence prevention efforts with a specific emphasis on the needs of students with disabilities. However, several challenges remain in ensuring that violence prevention efforts are made responsive to a full range of students with special education needs. First, it is important to recognize that the delivery of violence prevention efforts to students with disabilities is not easy and that many teachers will require considerable on-going professional development and support. Second, as many researchers and professional developers know far too well, individualized behavioral programming such as functional behavioral assessments and function based thinking can be a tough sell to busy educators who face large classes, increasing caseloads, and multiple reform agendas on a daily basis. Finally, educators must remain vigilant that there is something "special" about special education and by definition students with special education needs require individually designed instruction typically comprised of supports and accommodations.