Twenty-two educable mentally retarded (EMR) and 41 mentally typical students, 7 to 13 years of age, in an inner city school setting, were observed for six 5-minute period sessions on a 12 category schedule and were given a sociometric test to determine whether specific classroom behaviors of EMR children are related to social rejection and whether the relationship between social status and behavior differs for EMR and mentally typical children. The 12 behaviors included attention, distraction, self-stimulation, aggressive behavior to and from peer, positive and negative verbal response to peer, and positive and negative verbal response from peer. Sociometric questionnaires were administered to all the Ss and were scored on the basis of percentage of peer knowing student, times student was chosen as a friend, "alright" responses, and "not liked" responses. Results partially confirmed the view held by special educators that EMR children are rejected because they engage in inappropriate behavior. A significant relationship was found to exist between social status and verbally aggressive behavior though physically aggressive behavior was not related to social status. The same relationship between verbal aggression and social rejection was found for the mentally typical children. The results implied that the social position of EMR children could be improved by reducing the incidence of verbally abusive behavior. (MC)