There is an urgent need to aid in what will be an ongoing educational recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. One avenue for supporting students with and at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (e.g., internalizing and externalizing behaviors) is implementation of tiered systems, which emphasize evidence-based practices to prevent…

Disproportionality persists with regard to the labeling of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). A blending of critical race theory and disability studies, or DisCrit, provides a framework to examine disproportionality. In this article, a DisCrit mindset is applied to examine how racism and ableism intersect to disproportionately…

Early elementary-age students with and at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) tend to develop negative interaction patterns with their teachers. This preliminary study examines the extent to which symptoms of teacher burnout and teacher reports of classroom adversity are associated with the likelihood of negative interactions between…

Students with early indicators of behavior risk have predictable, negative outcomes, and those with co-existing academic problems have significantly more negative outcomes. Identifying academic subclasses of students with behavior risk can inform integrated interventions and school-based problem-solving teams. In addition, identifying academic…

Universal screening serves to identify students at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties while their behavior is still amenable to treatment. However, there are few universal screeners available for middle school students who may be at heightened risk for developing emotional and behavioral difficulties due to major academic and social…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between language behavior in students with or at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders. School-age students in K-4 grades (N = 300, 76% male) were sampled across three school districts. Students were grouped based on oral language ability and measured on teacher-rated subscales of…

In this article, we provided descriptive and methodological illustrations of how to conduct systematic behavior screenings at the middle and high school levels to detect students with intensive intervention needs using one systematic screening tool: the Student Risk Screening Scale. We discussed the importance of systematic screening and presented…

We report results of an exploratory validation study of the "Student Risk Screening Scale-Internalizing and Externalizing" (SRSS-IE) applied with the first sample of middle and high school students from nine middle and three high schools from three states. The "Student Risk Screening Scale" (SRSS) was modified to broaden the…

This study examined the potential utility of adding items that assessed youths' emotional and behavioral disorders to a commonly used surveillance survey. The goal was to evaluate whether the added items could enhance understanding of youths' involvement in high-risk behaviors. A sample of 3,331 adolescents in Grades 8, 10, and 12 from four…

In this article we examine the psychometric properties of the "Student Risk Screening Scale" (SRSS) for use in diverse, urban elementary schools. Results of two studies suggest strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Both studies also suggest strong convergent validity with other psychometrically sound, systematic…

Few research studies have examined how screening outcomes may be different or similar for males and females, despite evidence that male students outnumber female students in special education populations and are more likely to experience school failure. During the 3 years of this study, 15,932 students in Grades 6 through 9 were screened with the…

Reading deficits among students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) are well documented. One approach to addressing these deficits has been providing students with intensive and explicit reading instruction. In this study, 31 students with E/BD and reading deficits in self-contained settings were provided with 8 weeks of…

In this article, the authors examine the psychometric properties of the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS), including evaluating the concurrent validity of the SRSS to predict results from the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD) when used to detect school children with externalizing or internalizing behavior concerns at three…

Early identification of students who might develop emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is essential in preventing negative outcomes. Systematic screening tools are available for identifying elementary-age students with EBD, including the "Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders" (SSBD) and the "Student Risk Screening…

A total of 1,446 elementary school children were screened with the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD) procedure. Results indicated that the SSBD could accurately and efficiently identify children in need of special services, and was viewed as cost efficient because it could proactively screen all students in an acceptable amount of…