Discusses parent-teacher communication problems, factors that contribute to homework-communication problems, and strategies that the whole school community can use to ensure parent involvement in the homework assignments of children with high-incidence disabilities. Focus-group recommended strategies are provided for teachers, parents,…

A review of 20 independent samples found a wide range of school and student variables influence the use of administrative discipline contacts, whereas administrator/teacher and family variables have less influence. Relevant variables include participation in athletics, child neglect, antisocial behavior, and anecdotal suspension report. (Contains…

A study examined the office disciplinary referrals of 103 children who met the borderline or clinical cut-off scores of the Teacher Report Form. Results indicate there was a low-to-moderate degree of correspondence between children identified via a systematic gating procedure that included the form and office disciplinary referrals. (Contains…

Discusses the need for professionals in the field of behavioral disorders to take a leadership role in addressing larger issues and problems of great concern to our society, including ensuring school safety, identifying children vulnerable to gang membership, dropout prevention, and youth violence. (CR)

Logistic regression analyses were used to establish the most robust set of risk factors that would best predict borderline/clinical levels of problem behavior (i.e., a t score at or above 60 on the Child Behavior Checklist Total Problem scale) of kindergarten and first-grade children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Results showed…

This study of risk characteristics of 100 Illinois children/adolescents with emotional/behavior disorders admitted to programs to prevent the need for residential placements found that most of the children were in single parent families; almost 85% had average or above average intelligence; and almost half were exposed to divorce, poverty,…

This study compared teacher and parent ratings on the Homework Problem Checklist for 111 children (either learning disabled, behavior disordered, or typical; ages 7 to 17). The study found that both groups with disabilities experienced more problems than the typical children, and the group with behavioral disorders had the most pronounced…

This article describes the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS), a measure designed to identify the emotional and behavioral strengths of children and adolescents. The 52-item BERS assesses five areas: interpersonal strength, family involvement, intrapersonal strength, school functioning, and affective strength. A case study of a…

This article provides an overview of strength-based assessment of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders and discusses the development and psychometric characteristics of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS). The BERS is a norm-referenced, standardized test that assesses the strengths of children and…

A study used the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS) with 129 students (ages 7-18) with learning disabilities (LD), 145 with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and 144 typical students. BERS discriminated among students with LD and EBD and controls and was able to classify students with EBD and controls. (Contains references.)…

This study investigated the effects of an intensive prereading intervention on the beginning reading skills and social behavior of kindergarten children at risk for behavioral disorders and reading difficulties. Children identified through a systematic screening process were assigned randomly to experimental or nonspecific treatment conditions.…

This paper describes the development of the Behavioral and Emotional Strengths Scale (BESS), developed as part of a program which focuses on strengths of children usually seen as having severe emotional and/or behavioral disorders. The BESS is a 68-item scale that identifies children's behavioral strengths on five dimensions: (1) self-control; (2)…

This conference paper discusses the results of a study that investigated how the clients of the Chicago-based Satellite Family Outreach program are served by the social workers and family workers of Satellite. The Satellite Program is offered by Kaleidoscope, Inc., a child welfare agency that provides unconditional, individualized and, when…

A survey attempted to identify the assessment practices used in 170 school districts with programs for adolescents with behavior disorders. Results are interpreted for the areas of school policy, multidisciplinary team meetings, test instruments, and entrance and exit criteria. (DB)

Regular and special educators evaluated the acceptability of alternative treatments to modify a childhood behavior disorder in two experiments. Teacher status was varied in Experiment I; child disability was varied in Experiment II. Results indicated that in both experiments teachers could distinguish between treatments on the basis of their…