Home-School Collaboration and Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: An Examination of School Services

The treatment for childhood emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is of significant concern within society. The research literature has frequently noted that parental involvement in the treatment of childhood EBD has a positive impact on outcomes in both school and community-based supports. The current study examined the relationship between parent involvement and school services received for children with emotional and behavioral needs. Parents of children with EBD were recruited from one large and two small on-line support groups. Results suggest that parents who reported satisfaction with school teams were more likely to receive research-based services and had a higher rate of school and community partnerships than those who were not satisfied. Relationships were found between the parent satisfaction with the schools and quality of communication, the severity of child behavior, and the level of parent stress. In general, parents in the current sample reported more services that were delivered in less resistive education settings, and were provided earlier, than other literature reports. Results are discussed, along with implications for school-based practice for children with EBD and school-community-parent partnerships