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The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher characteristics that may lead to special education referrals, including efficacy, burnout, experience, and preparation. We hypothesized that likelihood to refer for special education is related to these teacher characteristics. This study involved 106 elementary teachers who rated themselves on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES). They were given a case vignette of a child exhibiting behavioural problems in a classroom and were asked how likely they would be to refer the child for special education assessment. Analyses revealed that teachers who were uncertain whether they would refer a child for special education testing had higher levels of burnout than teachers who were more decided about whether to refer. No relationship was found between teacher sense of efficacy, experience, or preparation and decision to refer. Significant correlations between the subscales on the MBI and the TES suggest an inverse relationship between teacher sense of efficacy and teacher burnout.

Ringeisen, Henderson, and Hoagwood 2003) have provided an important discussion of the significance of school context to children's mental health, particularly in relation to empirically supported interventions. They have outlined the influence of context on treatment integrity, and have emphasized appropriately the significant gap between research-supported interventions and practice. Finally, they have proposed a useful heuristic for conceptualizing context and practice from the individual to the organizational to the policy level. Their conclusion is that school context is a critical mediator in both research and practice, one that must be addressed to ensure successful children's mental health services. Although Ringeisen et al. (2003) deal with children's mental health and the school context thoroughly, they address the relationship between children's mental health and school psychology practice in somewhat less detail. In this commentary, I will examine some implications for school psychology practice of moving to a contextual perspective in children's mental health services, as outlined by Ringesein et al. School psychology is the specialty in American professional psychology that is most closely aligned with current, population-based thinking about children's mental health. However, to respond effectively to recent children's mental health policy, school psychology may need to expand the way services are conceptualized, planned, and delivered. Children's mental health is important to schools. As Ringeisen et al. (2003) note, relatively little systematic attention has been given to the effect of children's social and emotional problems on immediate educational outcomes, such as academic achievement. However, broader and longer term implications of children's mental health problems seem clear: Children with social and emotional problems are at much greater risk for dropping out of school and of subsequent problems in adulthood. Children with such problems often have difficulties with peer relationships, may present discipline problems, and often are disengaged from schooling and academic pursuits. They exhibit a higher incidence of family difficulties, which has a further impact on school functioning, and often have fewer resources available to them in the community. Even in the absence of data on the effects of social and emotional problems on short term educational outcomes, the cost to schools and society of failing to deal with these children is obviously--and distressingly--high (Short & Shapiro, 1993). Historically, American schools, as a context for addressing children's mental health problems, have maintained a reactive, often negative stance. Students in the United States are expected to conform to school roles and expectations; failing that, they typically either have been excluded from school or referred for clinical educational or mental health services. Exclusion from school merely relocates the child while depriving him or her of educational supports and services. On the other hand, clinical services are expensive, require substantial additional expertise and resources, and typically define problems as residing within the child, and therefore may fail to address critical contextual contributors to child problems. And, as Ringeisen et al. (2003) accurately point out, add-on program and resource requirements may have caused schools to be less willing to deal with children with social and emotional problems. The recent report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health (U.S. Public Health Service, 2000) has provided an important framework that schools and school psychologists may use to build context-sensitive mental health services. Important components of this framework include: (a) All children develop socially and emotionally, as well as cognitively, and therefore have social and emotional needs that are as important as educational needs; (b) beyond the social and emotional developmental needs of all children, a smaller group of children have serious social and emotional problems; (c) addressing the social and emotional development and needs of all children likely lowers the incidence of children with expensive and difficult-to-treat social and emotional problems; and (d) schools are crucial both in addressing the social and emotional needs of all children and in providing services to that smaller group of children with social and emotional problems. …

(2004). Responding to the Needs of Children, Families, and Schools: The 2002 Multisite Conference on the Future of School Psychology. School Psychology Review: Vol. 33, Special Issue Proceedings of the Multisite Conference on the Future of School Psychology, pp. 12-33.

Eleven broad themes emerged from the 2002 multisite conference on the Future of School Psychology. After the conference, strategies developed by the participants were clustered into the following d...

A significant paradigm shift is occurring in the delivery of health and human services in the United States. Services are changing from single-profession, single-setting, office-based practice to school/community-based and -linked, consumer-centered, interagency services. The nature of the client, the role of the service providers, and the location of the setting are important elements in these changes. Although the new paradigm has many attractive features, a number of issues must be resolved to ensure its success.

Traditionally, principals have been held accountable for the effectiveness of schools. This continues to be largely true as principals work to influence the change process toward increased teacher ...

Summary The health of our nation is inextricably linked with the health of our children. While families and professionals alike have recognized this truth for decades, current social reform movements in education and health services have provided an unprecedented opportunity for schools to become equal partners in addressing the needs of children, families, and communities in a wholistic, boundary-free, and collaborative manner. Since schools are the one social institution with which every child has contact, they offer a natural environment for assessment, services, and follow-up to promote the convergent education and health agendas articulated in Goals 2000 and Healthy People 2000. This article examines the components of education and health care reform with particular attention to a recon-ceptualization of health care services in schools. Within this framework, special services professionals are highlighted as leaders in service coordination and delivery for students, staff, and the community at large.

Conduct disorder represents a class of chronic antisocial and disruptive behaviors that interfere with effective interaction with the environment. The disorder is relatively common, well-documented...

PL 94-142 mandates that students who are seriously emotionally disturbed be provided with a free and appropriate public education. Embedded in the federal definition of serious emotional disturbance is a clause that excludes socially maladjusted students from the diagnostic category. Although socially maladjusted children may therefore not receive special education services, their presence in the schools may have implications for society and particularly for the educational system. However, there is little data concerning the prevalence of socially maladjusted students in the schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of social maladjustment in two rural/suburban school systems in the southeastern United States. Results of the study indicate that the percentage of students reported as exhibiting characteristics of social maladjustment is sufficiently high to indicate that services beyond special education may be necessary to meet their educational and social needs.

Attribution theory recently has been applied to school psychology practice in general and to school-based consultation in particular. Previous research has shown that consultants characteristically attribute responsibility for consultation outcomes, and particularly for failed consultations, to teacher consultees. However, these attributions may be a function of differential experiences. In this study, we hypothesized that the teaching experience of school psychologists is related to causal attributions of consultation outcome. A randomly selected national sample of school psychologist practitioners completed a questionnaire concerning reasons for successful and unsuccessful consultation outcomes. Results of the study showed that the teaching experience of school psychologists may mediate attributions of causality in consultation.

Provided critical values to determine significant differences between scale scores on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist (RBPC). Although one method of interpreting the RBPC consists of pairwise comparisons among an individual's scale scores, several psychometric issues concerning such a procedure are apparent. An ipsative strategy provides a psychometrically tenable approach for interpreting within-child differences. This strategy compares differences between each scale score and the mean of all scale scores with critical difference values to ascertain statistical significance. An example of the procedure is provided.

In this study we investigated the effect of videotaped characteristics (degree, experience as a school psychologist, and teaching experience) of a school psychologist consultant on 153 teachers' ratings of the consultant's expertness, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Analyses indicated that the school psychologist's degree affects perceptions of expertness and trustworthiness and experience as a school psychologist affects perceptions of trustworthiness. These results are interpreted as reflecting differential social influence related to differences in consultants' characteristics.

Although the origin and function of stereotypical behaviors remain poorly understood, they appear to be common characteristics of both normal infants and infants with handicaps. However, there is limited information about the relative prevalence of stereotypical behaviors as a function of handicapping condition in infants and young children. This study documented the occurrence of stereotypical behaviors in young children with various handicapping conditions. The occurrence of stereotypical behaviors in young children with handicaps was rated by caregivers in early intervention programs. Most of the children in the study exhibited at least one stereotypical behavior, and some stereotypical behaviors were differentially associated with particular handicapping conditions. Children with more severe handicapping conditions exhibited stereotypical behaviors that may be indicative of central nervous system impairment.

School-based problem-solving teams recently have received much attention as a possible support for children who are at risk for school failure and for over-referral to special education. However, no controlled studies of the effects of such teams on numbers of referrals for special education or for proportion of appropriate referrals for special education have been conducted. The lack of adequate research concerning school-based problem-solving teams, coupled with the widespread promotion of their use, suggests that further study of such teams is important. In this study, we investigated the effect of one team model, Teacher Assistance Teams, on special education referrals in elementary schools of a large urban district. To address limitations of previous research, schools with such teams were compared with those without across several years of implementation. Analysis yielded a significant decrease in referrals in both groups of schools but no significant differences between groups. These findings may be explained by the context in which both groups of schools functioned.