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Emotional Behavioral Disability

Grant Opportunity: Enhancing Social and Emotional Skills in Students with IEPs (ES3) Three Year Grant

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Special Education team will begin accepting applications for the Enhancing Social and Emotional Skills in Students with IEPs (ES3) Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) discretionary grant on February 26, 2024.

The goal of the ES3 Three Year grant is to provide public school districts with the structures and processes to identify and support the beliefs, skills, and systems needed to improve academic and functional outcomes for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). This is done through direct, ongoing support and a prescribed action plan. The focus population for this grant is students with IEPs that present with significantly divergent social and emotional learning needs. This may include students identified for special education as having autism, an emotional behavioral disability, an other health impairment, or other students with IEPs with social and emotional disability-related needs. This goal is achieved by enhancing existing district-level initiatives with the support of embedded coaching to improve outcomes for students with IEPs. Districts receiving this grant are directly supported by a statewide coordinator and dedicated district coordinator who will guide district and school based teams through coaching, training, and resources to implement evidence-based improvement strategies to support the growth of both students and educators. Selected districts will be awarded three years of grant funding based on meeting grant activity requirements. Four grant awards are available.

The deadline to apply for this grant is midnight on April 26, 2024.

Application Instructions:

Questions regarding the ES3 Three Year Grant may be directed to Eva Shaw at eva.shaw@dpi.wi.gov.

Definition in State Rule: Emotional Behavioral Disability

Emotional behavioral disability means a condition in which a child demonstrates frequent and intense observable behaviors, either over a long period of time or of sudden onset due to an emerging mental health condition which includes a diagnosis by a licensed mental health professional, which adversely affects the child’s educational performance. The behaviors shall occur in an academic setting in school, in a non-academic setting in school and in the child’s home or community. PI 11.36 (7)(a), Wis. Admin. Code.

Incidence and Disproportionality

Incidence

For the 2022-2023 school year, 10,041 students (1.2%) of total public school enrollment (822,804 students) were identified as having an emotional behavioral disability. The 10,041 students with emotional behavioral disability made up 8.2% of all students with IEPs (122,187). In Wisconsin, IEP teams are not required to identify secondary or tertiary impairment areas and are only required to submit a “reporting” disability and may also report an “other” disability category. Thus the number of students identified as having an “other” disability category of emotional behavioral disability is not reflected in this data. To view additional data including district level information, go to the WI DPI public WISEdash portal.

Disproportionality

In Wisconsin, like many other states, we see district data demonstrating race-based patterns of identification for emotional behavioral disability. Specifically, districts have identified American Indian, black, and multi-racial students more than their peers as having an emotional behavioral disability. As an equity issue, we strongly encourage all districts to disaggregate their special education data to ensure evaluation practices and procedures are culturally responsive and address bias when conducting and analyzing assessments used to make eligibility decisions. Go to the DPI Culturally Responsive Problem Solving web page for more information.

Emotional Behavioral Disability Criteria

Emotional Behavioral Disability Criteria

§300.304 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) outlines two purpose of special education evaluations (i) Whether the child is a child with a disability; and (ii) The content of the child’s IEP, including information related to enabling the child to be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum (or for a preschool child, to participate in appropriate activities). The disability category criteria IEP forms only assist IEP teams with (i) and are not sufficient in completing an evaluation and developing a student’s IEP. To ensure compliance with implementing a full, individual, and comprehensive evaluation, go to the Wisconsin DPI Comprehensive Special Education Evaluation web page.

Worksheets and Guidelines

Other Special Education Resources


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