Causal Factors and Potential Solutions for the Persistent Underidentification of Students Having Emotional or Behavioral Disorders in the Context of Schooling

Abstract

This article examines factors associated with the substantial underidentification, referral and service of the student population having emotional-behavioral adjustment problems in school. The identification of students as emotionally or behaviorally disturbed over the past decade is analyzed in terms of their absolute number and distribution across age-grade levels. These results are contrasted with those for students with autism, which show a highly divergent pattern in both level and distribution. The validity of the EBD categorical certification is evaluated in terms of its ability to identify a unique student subpopulation as distinct from students with social maladjustment and learning disabilities. The professional literature related to disincentives and barriers to the proactive screening and identification of students having behavior problems is discussed. Multiple-gating and universal approaches to the screening-identification of students with EBD are illustrated and some guidelines are offered as to their effective application in school settings. It is recommended that schools abandon the EBD certification process to focus instead on assessing behaviorally at-risk students along internalizing-externalizing and severity dimensions.Convergent expert opinion and considerable evidence suggest that school settings substantially underrefer, and thus underserve, students with emotional or behavioral disorders (

Eligibility, Assessment, and Educational Placement Issues for Students Classified with Emotional Disturbance: Federal and State-Level Analyses

“…However, emotional disturbance, per se, is not a diagnostic category within psychiatric nomenclature and ED, as defined by educators, does not meet the criteria for a mental disorder (Della Toffalo & Pedersen, 2005;Walker, Nishioka, Zeller, Severson, & Feil, 2000). As specified within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2000), a mental disorder is ''a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (e.g., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom'' (p. xxxi).…”

Convergent and discriminant construct validity of the internalizing symptoms scale for children with the BASC‐SRP‐C

“…This instrument is unique not only because it targets elementary-age children ages 8-12, but because it is designed to measure the broad spectrum or band of internalizing symptoms, and not just one aspect of this area, such as depression or anxiety. Thus, the goals of the ISSC are consistent with the evidence that the most effective classification of children's emotional and behavioral problems is the internalizing-externalizing behavioral dimensions approach (Cicchetti & Toth, 1991;Quay, 1986), and that this two-dimensional approach may have numerous advantages for special education classification of youth who might qualify for services under the IDEA classification category or Emotionally Disturbed (Walker, Nishioka, Zeller, Severson, & Feil, 2000).…”

The surgeon general’s national action agenda on children’s mental health

“…Such misidentification resulted in significant delays in appropriate services, so that their emotional and behavioral problems were more severe and comorbid conditions more likely when they were finally appropriately placed in ED at age 10.4 [28]. Walker et al [26] found a similar pattern in analyzing IDEA data. Replicated across three years, ED certification was found to strongly correlate with increasing age-grade levels.…”

“…Yet, data based on mental health care in schools suggest significant problems in the appropriate identification of children with mental health needs [1,26]. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 11% of school age children receive special education services; yet less than 1% are classified under the category of emotional disturbance (ED).…”