Quality of Mental Health Care for Students in Special Education – Kataoka, Miranda

The Network evaluated the quality of mental health care given in schools to students in special education. Special education students with mental illnesses have their mental health care legislatively mandated through Individual Education Plans. But is their mental health care appropriate? This project evaluated special education students’ mental health needs and the extent to which their care was appropriate for their diagnosis. The project also examined the capacity of school clinicians to provide evidence-based care. The project found a mismatch between the symptoms that school clinicians reported and the diagnoses found by using a standardized semi-structured interview, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). School clinicians tended to under-recognize children’s internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and depression. However, they did recognize externalizing behaviors. The project found that the most frequent types of treatment given in schools were educational support and behavior therapy (mainly for externalizing behaviors), followed by social skills therapy and general therapy. Only 15 percent of students with anxiety or depression received the treatment of choice tailored to each disorder, behavioral therapy.

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Last modified: June 1, 2006
©2006 MacArthur Foundation Network on Mental Health Policy Research
Last Revised: June 2006