This report discusses preliminary results from a project designed to develop and test a practical approach to the identification of, and intervention with, students who have, or are at risk, for emotional and behavioral disorders. The study includes data from 28 elementary students with behavioral problems that concerned the classroom teachers. In…

This paper reports activities and accomplishments of a practicum which implemented school-wide staff training in a systematic crisis intervention approach, Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI), with junior high school students who have emotional disturbances. The 8-month implementation involved two inner-city, special education public school…

Summaries of four papers and a discussion presented at a symposium on expanding the research base of systems of care for children's mental health examine school-wide systems of positive behavioral support and provide data on a three-tiered Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) program for improving mental health functioning of…

This paper introduces a framework for conceptualizing a system of care for children and youth with severe emotional or behavioral disorders built on a child development perspective. The approach focuses on developmental transitions which all children and youth experience. Such transitions include entry into school, negotiating the challenges…

This paper discusses the results of a study that investigated the reliability and validity of the Youth Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (YCSQ). The YCSQ is administered as a telephone interview, which provides a higher response rate than mailed surveys. Participants in the study were 87 clients (ages 11-17) and their parents who had completed…

This study examined children's health care utilization at six sites within a Northern California health maintenance organization (HMO). Approximately 300 parent-child dyads seeking medical attention at the HMO sites were subjects. Parents completed the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC) and reported the presence of a serious or chronic illness. In…

This paper presents a synthesis of the research on positive behavioral support (PBS) for students with challenging behaviors. PBS is a long-term approach to reducing the inappropriate behavior, teaching a more appropriate behavior, and providing the contextual supports necessary for successful outcomes. It notes that the 1997 amendments to the…

This monograph provides an overview of intervention and programming strategies for students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) based on the behavioral approach. It reviews the progress of the behavioral perspective in education from its earliest beginnings to the present and describes its major characteristics, chief proponents,…

This resource guide is intended to assist schools in developing protocols for responding to critical incidents. It focuses on proactive plans to deal with the traumatic aftereffects of a critical incident which affects some or all of the members of a school community. The guide outlines a generic protocol which includes steps to be undertaken in…

This practicum paper reports on an effort to address the problem of acting-out, withdrawn, and immature behavior of 15 middle-school special education students during social skills instruction. Classroom behavior-rating checklists, discipline reports, and a student survey provided evidence that these behaviors occurred more during social skills…

This paper presents the Virtual Resource Center in Behavioral Disorders (VRCBD), a World Wide Web site designed to provide training and ongoing support for students and professionals preparing to work with children with behavioral disorders and their instructors. The goals of VRCBD are: to provide instructional supports for instructors and users…

Discusses a wilderness camp program for children with behavioral problems and provides recommendations for applying the program ideas in a public school setting, including group huddles for problem solving, goal-oriented living and learning, quiet time for rest and reflection, allowing transition time, and partnering adversaries. (Author/CR)

Traces the evolution of the social competence concept from the 1970s to the present, and addresses matching social skills training to social skills deficits, understanding contextual issues in social skills training, generalization of social skills training, and developing and using meaningful outcome measures in social skills training. (Author/CR)

A study of 36 students (ages 12-17) with behavior/emotional disorders in a residential school examined the effects of three types of in-school suspension programs on disruptive classroom behavior and the impact of classroom management. Results found no apparent effects of the in-school suspension interventions on classroom disruptive behavior.…

This paper describes the program of a special school in British Columbia for youth with behavior disorders and either learning disabilities or intellectual impairments. Program components (behavior therapy, activity-based learning, and attachment development) and program sequence (assessment, formulation and implementation of a Growth and…