Citation

Lopez MF, Forness SR, MacMillan DL, Bocian KM, Gresham FM. Educ. Treat. Child. 1996; 19(3): 286-299.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, West Virginia University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There is evidence that students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders (EBD) are often inappropriately placed in special education programs other than classrooms for Seriously and Emotionally Disturbed (SED) students. This paper examines the congruence between research-based classifications of children as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and EBD and the actual placement decisions made by the schools. Students in grades two through four referred to School Study Teams (SST) were participants in the study. An ethnically stratified sample of 150 students participated. Forty three of the children were classified as ADHD and 12 were classified as EBD by the project. The majority of these students received special education services under the category of Learning Disability (LD), while very few were qualified as eligible under the category of SED. Comparisons on measures of intelligence, achievement, and social skills revealed that ADHD and EBD children (i.e., behavior disordered children) did not differ on intelligence or achievement when compared to other at-risk nonbehavior disordered children; however, significant differences were found between these two groups on social skills measures. Similarly, ADHD and EBD children placed in LD programs did not differ on measures of intelligence and achievement when compared to nonbehavior disordered children, but did differ significantly on measures of social skills. The reluctance of schools to classify children as SED and instead utilize the LD designation is discussed.

Language: en