Universal screening for emotional and behavioral risk in schools facilitates early identification and intervention for students as part of multitiered systems of support. Early identification has the potential to mitigate adverse outcomes of emotional and behavioral disorders. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research on the…

Base rate information is important in clinical assessment because one cannot know how unusual or typical a phenomenon is without first knowing its base rate in the population. This study empirically determined the base rates of social skills acquisition and performance deficits, social skills strengths, and problem behaviors using a nationally…

Students with emotional and behavioral difficulties are often unserved or underserved by schools and by mental health systems. One reason for the under identification of these students is the current and past definitions of emotional disturbance (ED) specified in federal special education legislation (IDEA and IDEIA). These definitions are vague,…

Secondary students with or at risk for emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) can be characterized as having severe deficits in social competence. Moreover, as students transition into the secondary grades, social competence takes on increased complexity and importance. Social skills training (SST) represents a class of interventions…

Professionals working with children who have severe emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) need to understand the risk and protective factors (RPFs) that are correlated with the development of these behavior patterns, for at least 3 reasons. First, significant numbers of students experience negative outcomes or fail to achieve positive outcomes.…

The authors describe a model classroom for students with severe behavioral problems that parallels regular classroom instruction while emphasizing positive expectations, relevant curriculum activities, and good teacher-student interaction. The authors also provide suggestions for controlling negative behavior in areas outside the classroom,…

Functional assessments were conducted to identify the variables maintaining disruptive behavior in eight, typically developing fifth-grade students enrolled in general education classrooms. Participants whose behavior was found to be functionally related to either task-avoidance or attention-seeking were randomly assigned to a treatment strategy…

This article surveys school safety and violence prevention through discussion of violence among today's school-age youth, causal factors, the impact of violence on schools, characteristics of safe and unsafe schools, and recommended strategies and resources for addressing school safety. A "School Crime Assessment Tool" and descriptions of five…

In response to Forness and Kavale's (2001) argument that the field of emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) should adopt a "new" medical model, this commentary argues that the benefit of psychiatric diagnoses and pharmacologic treatments have not been established. It advocates a resistance-to-intervention approach to E/BD eligibility…

This article discusses the process of assessing social skills with students who have emotional and/or behavioral disorders. It describes a three-stage problem-solving model of problem identification, problem analysis, and treatment evaluation. Specific social skills assessment strategies are described and linked to a classification system of…

Children and youth exhibiting serious emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems create substantial challenges for schools, teachers, their parents, and other students. Stu-dents having these characteristics are often underserved or unserved by educational and mental health systems in the United States. Recent prevalence rates for children…

Three groups of fifth graders (total n=104) classified as either at-risk and with anti-social behavior/hyperactivity, at-risk only, or controls were contrasted on protective and risk factors from third-grade using multivariate analyses. Seven of eight variables were found to predict group membership including protective factors (e.g., academic and…

Results of a study indicate that of 37 students who met the criteria for hyperactivity-impulsivity-inattention and conduct problems in third grade, 13 continued to meet the criteria in fifth grade. Students who remained stable, who improved, or who became worse differed significantly on key risk and protective variables. (Contains references.)…

Behavior disorders of children are conceptualized in terms of resistance to intervention; children are considered to have a behavior disorder if their behavioral excesses or deficits or situationally inappropriate behaviors persist at unacceptable levels after school-based interventions. The factors that contribute to resistance to intervention…

This article discusses evidence for functional behavioral assessment (FBA) procedures in terms of the meaning and interpretation of different forms of reliability and validity in FBA. It concludes that additional research needs to be conducted with various target behaviors across different settings to support the continued use of FBA. (Contains…