DOCUMENT RESUME ED 432 856 EC 307 342 Forness, Steven R.; Ramey, Craig T.; Ramey, Sharon L. AUTHOR Head Start Children with SED: Two Years Later. TITLE PUB DATE 1998-00-00 4p.; In: Chapter 6, "Prevention and Early Intervention NOTE Projects," of Proceedings of the Annual Research Conference, A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base (10th, Tampa, FL, February 23-26, 1997). AVAILABLE FROM Web site: http://rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu/proceedlOth/lOthindex.htm Reports Speeches/Meeting Papers (150) Research (143) PUB TYPE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE At Risk Persons; *Behavior Disorders; *Disability DESCRIPTORS Identification; Eligibility; *Emotional Disturbances; Followup Studies; Incidence; Mental Health Programs; Minority Group Children; *Multiple Disabilities; Preschool Education; Primary Education; Services; Special Education *Project Head Start IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This study followed up a large national sample (N=4,161) of Head Start children in an attempt to identify children who are at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders and eligible for special education and to determine to what extent these children are actually identified in the natural progression of special education referral. Children were from 31 different Head Start sites across the nation and were followed through the completion of first grade. They were 29 percent African American, 12 percent Hispanic, and 16 percent other ethnic identities. Subjects received a test battery to identify those at risk for emotional disturbance (ED), learning disability, and mental retardation and school records were reviewed for school identification. Identification by either research diagnostic criteria or standard school processes were compared. In the ED category, 0.32 percent of students were identified as at risk for ED by research criteria and 0.95 percent identified by the schools with only about a 50 percent overlap. There was also a substantial overlap between disability categories for research criteria identification and school identification. Results suggest that children who have co-morbidity in which emotional disturbance or behavior disorder co-occurs with a learning or language problem are less likely to be identified in the ED category and may not receive needed mental health services. (DB) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Head Start Children with SED: Two Years Later Introduction Very few studies have examined the special education identifi- cation of Head Start children in the years immediately following their preschool experience. The speech and language impairment (SL) category is overwhelmingly the largest category of special education during the Head Start years, but very few children are identified in the other major categories of special education, including emotional disturbance (ED). Children with ED are generally considered to be underidentified in the early school years, and Head Start has not emphasized mental health issues to a significant degree until quite recently (Fomess & Finn, 1993). The present study is a follow-up of a large national sample of Head Start children in an attempt to identify children who are Steven R. Forness, EdD at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders that would be Professor of Psychiatry and expected to be eligible for special education. We then wished to Biobehavioral Sciences and determine to what extent these children are actually identified in Inpatient School Principal, UCLA the natural progression of special education referral. Also Neuropsychiatric Hospital identified were children at risk for learning disabilities (LD), 760 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles, CA 90024 mental retardation (MR) and speech or language impairments 310/825-0159 (SL). These children were selected for identification at the end of first grade, as part of a larger study (Head Start Bureau, 1996). Craig T. Ramey, Ph.D Sharon L. Ramey, Ph.D. Method Professors of Psychiatry and Psychology and Co-directors Subjects were 7145 children in two cohorts identified at 31 Civitan International Research Center different sites across the nation at the end of their Head Start University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, Alabama 35294 year and followed to the completion of first grade. There were A System of Care for Children's Mental Health: Expanding the Research Base 267 2 BESTCOPYAVAIABLE Forness, Ramey & Ramey 29% African American, 12% Hispanic and 16% other being greatest for LD and school identification (SI) for ethnic identities. Screening measures included the the other 3 categories. Identification by both means (RDC and SI) is greater, however, than the mean Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (Dunn & school identification rates for all school children by Dunn, 1981), 4 achievement subtests of the Woodcock this age as taken from the annual report to Congress Johnson Psychoeducational Test Battery-Revised (Woodcock & Johnson, 1989), and both teacher and on IDEA. In the ED category, there were 0.32% identified as being at risk for ED by research criteria parent forms of the Social Skills Rating Scales (Gresham & Elliott, 1990). These were administered and 0.95% identified by the schools with only about a to each child in kindergarten, and his/her parent or fifty percent overlap. Of the 6 children co-identified primary caretaker was interviewed as to presence of in both ED groups, only half of the RDC-identified hyperactivity, mental health problems, or other subjects were in the school-identified ED category. disabilities. From these data, research diagnostic Of those identified by the schools with ED, 19 of 22 came from the RDC categories of LD or SL. criteria (RDC) were developed to determine children at risk for ED as well as for LD, MR, and SL. These Discussion results were unknown to school personnel. Natural progression of special education identification in the The pattern of identification of emotional schools was then obtained from a school records disturbance has some potentially interesting implica- search in spring of first grade. tions. The identification rate in both RDC and school-identified groups ranges from about a third Findings to almost one percent. This is nonetheless about 6 to Attrition rate and missing data resulted in only 20 times the rate identified concurrently in the schools by the same age, possibly reflective of the high need in 58% or 4161 subjects being available at the completion any sample from a Head Start population. There has of their first grade year, but this attrition seemed to be randomly distributed, with just one or two been serious concern about underidentification by schools in the ED category. Despite the limitations exceptions. By the spring of first grade as shown in of this study and the fact that only a small handful Table 1, the four categories of special education show of children (11 in the RDC and 39 in the school- very differing rates with Head Start RDC identification identified categories) are involved, potential implications of co-identification between RDC and Table 1 school-identified groups in the ED category may of Percent of Children Meeting Research Criteria or particular interest. These results together lend some Identified by First Grade in Major Categories of support to recent studies in which children with Special Education emotional or behavioral disorders tend to be initially identified in categories other than ED (Duncan, Met Forness & Hartsough, 1995; Lopez, Forness, Identified Identified Research MacMillan, Bocian & Gresham, 1996). Criteria by School Categories in US The point is that the number of children with 0.27% 1.86% LD 12.65% emotional or behavioral disorders actually identified 6.30% 0.09% 2.41% SL by the schools may be much higher than the current 0.51% 0.11% MR 0.26% ED identification rate. The problem is that many 0.95% 0.05% 0.32% ED 268 10th Annual Research Conference Proceedings Head Start References seem not to be identified in the ED category. Children who have comorbidity in which an emotional or Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. (1981). Peabody picture behavioral disorder co-occurs with, or even underlies, vocabulary test-revised. Circle Pines, MN: a learning or language problem may not receive American Guidance Service. appropriate treatment or intervention for their Duncan, B. B., Forness, S. R., & Hartsough, C. (1995). mental health needs if the teacher views them as Students identified as seriously emotionally having only academic, cognitive, or language disturbed in day treatment classrooms: Cognitive, difficulties. Whether these children with emotional psychiatric and special education characteristics. or behavioral disorders are actually well served in Behavioral Disorders, 20, 221-237. other categories is a significant but unanswered question. Data collected in second and third grades Forness, S. R., & Finn, D. (1993). Screening children in Head Start for emotional or behavioral disorders. of this study will include a behavioral-rating scale Monograph in Behavioral Disorders, 16, 6-14. that was not able to be used in the first two years, and further analyses of children who score high on Gresham, F. M., & Elliott, S. N. (1990). Social skills this measure may provide useful information on rating system. Circle Pines, MN: American this issue. Guidance Service. Head Start Bureau (1996). Head Start children's entry into public school: An interim report on the National Head Start Public-School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Study. Washington, DC: Adminis- tration on Children, Youth & Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Lopez, M., Forness, S. R., MacMillan, D. L., Bocian, K., & Gresham, F. M. (1996). Early identification of children with emotional or behavioral disorders: Inappropriate placement in the learning disability category. Education and Treatment of Children, 19, 286-289. Woodcock, R. W., & Johnson, M. B. (1989). Woodcock Johnson psychoeducational test battery-revised. Allen, TX: DLM Teaching Resources. 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