Shunting aside kids with EBD once again
Why would we tolerate disrespecting some kids with disabilities?
Over on Medical Motherhood, Shasta Kearns Moore posted “Indiana Moms Win Injunction Against Loss of Caregiver Pay: Plus: Children in mental health crisis wait days in emergency rooms, worsening their condition; New report shows family caregivers under increasing strain” on 17 August 2025. This is, as is often the case for Med Moms, an excellent article, so read the entire thing.
Let me, though, for the moment focus on the part about children in mental health crisis. This part of the post covers an often-overlooked problem: Kids with emotional and behavioral disorders (and their families) frequently do not receive important services. We do so much to keep from helping kids with EBD—shunting them aside, resisting identifying them, treating them as if they have some shameful disease, and on an on…it’s such a mistake.
And it’s not that we haven’t known about this resistance to helping them. The late Jim Kauffman and his colleagues reminded us of this repeatedly during Jim’s career (Kauffman, 1988; Kauffman & Badar, 2018; Kauffman et al., 2007; Wiley et al., 2014) and what those concerned about special education—educators, public policy makers, psychologists, and others—might do to overcome the problem (Kauffman & Badar, 2013; Nelson & Kauffman, 2025).
Kids who need help are not going to go away if we just ignore them. Groups like the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Division for Emotional and Behavioral Health (of the Council for Exceptional Children), the Children’s Mental Health Resource Center, and others1 are in the public sphere advocating for these kids. Let’s support them and amplify their efforts.
References
Kauffman, J. M. (1988). Strategies for the nonrecognition of social deviance. In R. B. Rutherford, C. M. Nelson, & S. R. Forness (Eds.), Bases of severe behavioral disorders in children and youth (pp. 3-19). Little, Brown.
Kauffman, J. M., & Badar, J. (2013). How we might make special education for students with emotional or behavioral disorders less stigmatizing. Behavioral Disorders, 39(1), 16-27.
Kauffman, J. M., & Badar, J. (2018). The scandalous neglect of children’s mental health: What schools can do. Routledge.
Kauffman, J. M., Mock, D. R., & Simpson, R. L. (2007). Problems related to underservice of students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Behavioral Disorders, 33(1), 43-57.
Nelson, C. M., & Kauffman, J. M. (2025). Preparing Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders for Inclusion in the “Mainstream”: How Can We Do It Better?. Exceptionality, 1-12.
Wiley, A. L., Kauffman, J. M., & Plageman, K. (2014). Conservatism and the underidentification of students with emotional and behavioral disorders in special education. Exceptionality, 22(4), 237-251.
Footnote
Please identify other organizations, both in the US and elsewhere on Earth, that advocate for kids with EBD. Subscribers, please drop a comment.