Understanding Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Are We Paying the Cost of Borderline Ethics‪?‬

On this special occasion of celebrating thirty years of the TECBD Conference, I am honored to share my ideas with such a distinguished group of professionals and acknowledge their collective contributions to the field of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). My background for talking about these issues is a deep familiarity with the contributions of research on various topics such as early intervention and prevention, academic instruction, social skills training, teacher effectiveness, and positive behavior supports for students with EBD. However, rather than deal with any of those subjects in detail, I propose to engage in a process of clarification and reflection. Students with EBD often exhibit moderate to severe broad academic deficits in multiple areas as compared to their normative peers (Lane, 2004); they engage in aggressive acts and receive less positive attention by peers and adults. As a result, they are more likely to drop out of school, stay unemployed, engage in delinquent behavior, and have unsuccessful interpersonal relationships. Without appropriate educational services and social interventions, children with EBD are at significant risk for school failure and mental health and adjustment problems. However, it is difficult to overlook the fact that a substantial proportion of students with EBD are still deprived of services, partially due to professional uncertainty about what works in a specific context and how to implement what works in that context, or simply due to lack of resources. Special education policies such as, "inclusion for all" have been adopted despite research evidence or professional wisdom that does not fully support the use of these practices with all students with EBD. Additionally, some popular beliefs, such as segregating students with EBD in the self-contained settings without access to the general education curriculum continue without any scientific basis. Clearly, progress has been dismantled by policies that were preposterous. No contribution has been without limitation. Useful though the current knowledge is, much still remains to be discovered (Wood, 2004).