Relationship building is an area of special education teacher preparation in emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) that has been overlooked in the recent past, but it has rich potential for improving the classroom environment, student learning, and behavior. The psycho-educational model, with its focus on relationships, was quite prominent in teacher education in the mid-1970s, but now plays a secondary role. Psycho-educators believe that for positive behavior change to take place the teacher must first develop a caring and trusting relationship with the child. A wide range of scholars has concluded that caring relationships in effect are the intervention for children with EBD. In the current theoretical article, we (a) describe the need for psycho-educational approaches within teacher education, (b) outline an undergraduate course introducing EBD to pre-service teachers, and (c) summarize results from multiple studies focused on the undergraduate EBD course and its relationship-based curriculum.