To determine the types of data used in identifying behaviorally disordered students, files of 45 elementary school students were reviewed during a 21-month period. This review shows that the majority of the identified data used by the staffing teams to make eligibility decisions were related to the behavioral and social aspects of the child. An important conclusion from this study is that appropriate and comprehensive assessment practices for identifying students with behavioral disorders appear to be lacking within some public school settings.
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