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Critical Terms

Educational Performance - reflects the total involvement of a child or youth in the school environment. It includes social and emotional development, communication skills and participation in the classroom activities as well as academic achievement.

Social Competence - those adaptive behaviors and social skills that enable a student to meet environmental demands and assume responsibility for his/her own and other's welfare.

Academic Progress - refers to a student's progress in core academic subjects (e.g. math, science) as measured by achievement tests, report cards, daily work samples, curriculum-based assessment, etc.

Goals and Purposes

The primary goals of this manual are to assist Kentucky school districts in: (1) identifying students who need assistance because of their emotional-behavioral problems; and (2) providing services that will help them overcome these problems in the least restrictive educational setting. Although the under identification of EBD pupils is a concern, the purpose of the identification process is not to increase the number of EBD students served in special education programs, per se. Rather, this process is designed to assist school personnel in the early identification of pupils who are at risk for EBD identification and placement, and then to provide them with appropriate supportive educational assistance that will, in many cases, avoid the need for special education. Thus, a major purpose of this manual is to increase the availability of services to all students who need help because of their behavior. Appropriate early intervention in the general education program is preventative. If the students' problems are successfully addressed in general education, special education labeling and placement may not be required.

Further, it is believed that the under identification of EBD students primarily is due to a lack of appropriate intervention strategies across all levels of the educational continuum, including general classroom services, special education services, and the use of appropriate community resources. Therefore, another major purpose of this manual is to provide clear and systematic guidelines for identifying and delivering a full range of services to students who need help with their emotional or behavioral difficulties. Thus, the criterion for providing assistance is student need, not whether the student may be labeled EBD. Such assistance, in the form of effective intervention strategies developed by school and community professionals, may or may not lead to the identification of a student as EBD. If it does not, then a major goal (avoiding a special education label and placement) has been achieved.

Process

The process recommended for identifying and delivering services to EBD pupils is comprehensive. This process emphasizes early intervention for any student who needs assistance. It includes screening, formal evaluation, and the provision of special education and related services. The focus of this process is on the provision of appropriate services to those students who experience emotional or behavioral problems in school.

The identification and service delivery process is summarized as follows:

Systematic screening of students for possible emotional or behavioral problems is conducted regularly on a school-wide basis.

Screening focuses on both externalizing (acting out, disruptive behavior), and internalizing (withdrawn behavior) problems. The latter types of problems are viewed as equally important.

Supportive educational assistance for students with problems is provided within the general program, using interventions developed via a cooperative arrangement with general education staff.

Systematic evaluation procedures are used throughout screening, identification, and intervention.

Referrals for possible EBD identification are made after interventions in the general education program have been implemented and have been documented as unsuccessful.

Formal, comprehensive evaluation procedures are initiated after a referral has been made for possible EBD identification and delivery of special education services.

The provision of appropriate services for students with emotional-behavioral problems is emphasized throughout the process.

This technical assistance manual should be used to guide the delivery of appropriate services to students who demonstrate significant needs. It also should be used for the identification and delivery of services to EBD students. Therefore, this manual should be carefully studied, and should be used in serving pupils who are at risk for developing an emotional-behavioral disability as well as for those who are identified as EBD.

Definition

A student has an emotional-behavioral disability and is eligible for special education and related services if, when provided with appropriate interventions to meet instructional and social-emotional needs, the student continues to exhibit one or both of the following across settings, over a long period of time, and to a marked degree:

A. Severe deficits in social competence which impair interpersonal relationships with adults or peers, or

B. Severe deficits in academic performance which are not commensurate with the student's ability levels and are not solely the result of intellectual, sensory, or other health factors, but are related to the student's social-emotional problems

The deficits must be documented as severe when compared to the student's peer and cultural reference groups, and must adversely affect his/her educational performance.

To properly identify and serve a student as EBD the technical assistance manual shall be used.