Differentiating emotionally impaired from socially maladjusted students

This paper addresses the issue of whether serious emotional disturbance in children can be distinguished reliably from social maladjustment. Educational authorities at the local, state, and federal levels have expressed concern over the inclusion of socially maladjusted youths in special education programs for the seriously emotionally disturbed. For multidisciplinary teams to enforce the exclusionary clause of PL 94–142, which denies socially maladjusted students services for the seriously emotionally impaired unless it is determined that they are seriously emotionally disturbed, practitioners must be able to distinguish between these two conditions. The literature on taxonomies of childhood psychopathology was reviewed and a set of items based on research and clinical experience was developed to differentiate between these two groups. These items were submitted to eight school psychologists. Eleven items met the criterion of agreement by at least six of the eight psychologists. Implications for school psychologists are discussed.