The Effect of a Psychiatric Diagnosis on School Psychologists' Special Education Eligibility Decisions Regarding Emotional Disturbance

Abstract

In this analogue investigation, 215 practicing Pennsylvania school psychologists reviewed hypothetical referral forms and related data (vignettes). Vignettes represented children who met eligibility criteria for special education as well as children who did not. Participants were most likely to recommend,as eligible due to emotional disturbance,children who met eligibility criteria and carried a psychiatric diagnosis; they were least likely to recommend children who neither met criteria nor carried a diagnosis. Participants were just as likely to consider children eligible by virtue of emotional disturbance when they carried a diagnosis but did not meet eligibility criteria, as when they met criteria but had no diagnosis.These results suggest that school psychologists may allow the presence of a psychiatric diagnosis in referral information to inappropriately influence their recommendations regarding eligibility under the special education category of emotional disturbance.

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

“…In sum, it is important that both researchers and education and mental health practitioners understand the similarities and differences between the educational and psychiatric conceptualizations of emotional and behavioral problems, as well as the overlap between the classification of ED and specific psychiatric diagnoses (see Della Toffalo & Pedersen, 2005). This information can then be used to inform the definition and criteria for classification, in addition to the assessments and interventions used with students experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties.…”

“…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).…”

The psychology of containment: (mis) representing emotional and behavioural difficulties in Australian schools

“…For example, Toffalo and Pedersen (2005) suggest that the classification criteria of the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Act used widely in the United States lacks specificity; with particular controversy regarding an exclusion clause used by some US states for students who are 'socially maladjusted', and with overlap between the categories of ED, BD, SED (serious ED) and learning difficulties (also see Stinnett et al 1999;Yeh et al 2004). Similarly, Lee and Jonson-Reid (2009, 723) argue that:…”

Wading Through Quicksand: Making Sense of Minority Disproportionality in Identification of Emotional Disturbance

“…Even if one accepts the conceptualization of ED offered in a given context, identification practices and decisions are often unreliable (e.g., Allen & Hanchon, 2013; Costenbader & Buntaine, 1999). Much of the literature has focused on decisions related to identification of learning disabilities, but research suggests identification of ED is similarly affected by conflicting conceptualizations of the category and by practices of limited reliability and validity (e.g., Costenbader & Buntaine, 1999; Della Toffalo & Pedersen, 2005; Kelley, Reitman, & Noell, 2006). Unsurprisingly, there seems to also be little agreement among educators and service providers involved in the eligibility determination process (e.g., Stein & Merrell, 1992).…”