Carla Cumblad

A Comprehensive Community-Based Approach to Serving Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Recent reports about the mental health status of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders, the limited availability of related services, and a lack of collaborative practices indicate a need to consider how services are provided to these individuals and their families. In this paper, the needs of this population and the costs of providing services are presented. Then the issues that are essential to developing a comprehensive, community-based approach to serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders are discussed.

Homework Practices of General Education Teachers

The purpose of this study was to survey the homework practices of general education teachers who teach students with disabilities. A national sample of 441 elementary, middle, and senior high teachers were asked about their homework practices, including their use of adaptations for students with disabilities. The results highlight homework practices and adaptations that are used frequently and perceived by teachers as helpful for students with disabilities. Also discussed are the differences in practices and adaptations across elementary, middle, and high school teachers, as well as the instructional implications of the identified homework practices for students with disabilities and their general education teachers.

Homework A Survey of Policies in the United States

Homework is a key area of concern in our nations public schools, as well as a central element of collaboration between home and school. The purpose of the current study was to survey the policies of a national sample of school districts concerning homework. Specific foci of the survey included whether a homework policy had been instituted, if modifications were made in the policy for students with disabilities, the types of homework, the length and frequency of assignments given, and specific communication mechanisms between home and school. A total of 550 surveys were mailed, with a response rate of 48.5%. The results indicated that only 35.2% of school divisions did have a policy on homework, with 64.4% of those policies including modifications for students with disabilities. Findings in terms of frequency and amount of homework assigned, as well as home-school communication mechanisms, are highlighted. The results are discussed within the context of policy development and instructional implications.Homework is a key area of concern in our nations public schools, as well as a central element of collaboration between home and school. The purpose of the current study was to survey the policies of a national sample of school districts concerning homework. Specific foci of the survey included whether a homework policy had been instituted, if modifications were made in the policy for students with disabilities, the types of homework, the length and frequency of assignments given, and specific communication mechanisms between home and school. A total of 550 surveys were mailed, with a response rate of 48.5%. The results indicated that only 35.2% of school divisions did have a policy on homework, with 64.4% of those policies including modifications for students with disabilities. Findings in terms of frequency and amount of homework assigned, as well as home—school communication mechanisms, are highlighted. The results are discussed within the context of policy development and instructional implications.

Personal, Family, And Service Use Characteristics Of Young People Served By An Interagency Community-Based System Of Care

In order to create a more functional system of care, agency administrators, direct service providers, the young people served, their parents, and advocates worked together to assess local needs and existing service features, and to plan required changes. This article presents data on some personal and family characteristics and patterns of service utilization of the young people served in this system of care. These data include the childs age, gender, race or ethnicity, learning characteristics, psychiatric status, and adjudications; parent marital status and employment, living arrangements for the child, and family history of risk factors; and the childs history of services and placements. Some relationships within the present data and between the present data and those of other system-of-care descriptions are discussed.

Developing comprehensive, individualized community-based services for children and youth with emotional and behavior disorders: Direct service providers' perspectives

Increased attention to the plight of children and youth with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) and their families has led to innovations in the manner in which these individuals are served. Two such innovations have been the development of public systems of comprehensive, community-based care and individualized wraparound services. This study was part of one communitys attempt to merge these two innovations and provide individualized wraparound services to children and youth with EBD through the auspices of public agencies. Direct service providers were surveyed to gather their input into how such services could best be developed and implemented. The survey focused on existing barriers to providing services and specific service priorities for system development. Methods and results are presented. Implications for the local system and future research needs are discussed.

Needs assessment of community-based services for children and youth with emotional or behavioral disorders and their families: Part 2. Implementation in a local system of care

In a previous article, rationale and procedures were presented for a model needs assessment of community-based services for children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families. In this article, the authors describe initial needs assessment planning activities, examine the implementation of the proposed model, provide a general overview of the results, and review how the community that conducted the assessment used the information to identify system development priorities and action plans. Quantitative data are provided on the population demographics and parent and direct service provider surveys. Qualitative data are presented on the semistructured interviews with key stakeholders and direct service providers.In a previous article, rationale and procedures were presented for a model needs assessment of community-based services for children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families. In this article, the authors describe initial needs assessment planning activities, examine the implementation of the proposed model, provide a general overview of the results, and review how the community that conducted the assessment used the information to identify system development priorities and action plans. Quantitative data are provided on the population demographics and parent and direct service provider surveys. Qualitative data are presented on the semistructured interviews with key stakeholders and direct service providers.

Behavioral Characteristics of Children and Youth at Risk for Out-of-Home Placements.

Currently, the interagency, community-based system-of-care model for serving children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and their families enjoys hegemony among professionals in mental health and related fields. The widespread adoption of the model has been based largely on its intuitive appeal, potential economic advantages, and identified shortcomings of previous practices. Recently, increasing emphasis has been placed on the need to expand upon the empirical foundation for the system-of-care model. Precisely identifying the specific characteristics of the individuals for whom system-of-care services are intended or provided is a necessary first step to knowing what works for whom under which conditions. Several investigators have identified general demographic characteristics associated with this population. The present study extended existing research by identifying the specific behaviors in which children and youth with EBD engage that put them at risk for placements outside their homes and/or communities and, therefore, make them candidates for community-based, system-of-care services. Descriptive data are provided for identified behavioral risk variables. Underlying structures among these behaviors are identified using factor analysis. Implications for service provision and future research are discussed.

Children and Adolescents Network: A Community-Based Program to Serve Individuals with Serious Emotional Disturbance.

Summary The prevalence and outcome data on children with serious emotional disturbance indicate that a significant number of them experience severe mental health, social, and educational problems. These problems are very costly to the child, the family, and the community both socially and financially. While many schools and communities have opted to serve these children in restrictive, out-of-community settings, other communities have developed comprehensive programs to serve these children. The Children and Adolescents Network of DuPage County (Project CANDU) is a program providing comprehensive services to children with SED and their families. The project is based on several components essential to the development of a community-based system of care, including interagency collaboration, target population, principles of care, a needs assessment, individualized care services, and comprehensive evaluation. The rationale for each of these components and how they were implemented, data on the children and fa...

Direct Intervention to Modify Attitudes toward the Handicapped by Community Volunteers: The Learning about Handicaps Programme.

Attitudes of nonhandicapped peers are crucial to the successful integration (mainstreaming) of handicapped students into regular or main school classrooms. Research has consistently shown that nonhandicapped students are not widely accepting of their handicapped classmates. Several intervention programmes aimed at the modification of negative attitudes are reported in the literature, most of which were carried out by professionals. This paper describes a unique programme, planned and implemented by community volunteers which purpose was to facilitate the development of positive attitudes toward the disabled. The programme was implemented over one semester in five public schools. Five classrooms were assigned to the experimental condition and six to the control condition. Findings indicated that the training was effective in significantly improving the attitudes of the experimental group subjects as compared to the control group subjects. The paper discusses variables which contributed to the success of th...

Personal, family, and service utilization characteristics of children served in an urban family preservation environment

Over the past few years, the number of children referred to and placed into the child welfare system has grown at an alarming rate. The growth has taxed the child welfare systems ability to provide reasonable services and to systematically investigate the outcome of these services. The need to develop a comprehensive data base on who receives child welfare services and the outcomes of these services has been raised by several leading professionals and organizations. The purpose of this article is to describe the personal, family, and service utilization characteristics of children who received services at a family preservation environment in an urban setting. Descriptive data are presented on 269 children who received services in this setting between 1991–1994. Results are discussed in terms of previous research, and implications for service delivery and future research efforts are offered.