African-American Males and Serious Emotional Disturbance: Some Personal Perspectives

Abstract

With numbers that exceed their proportions in the general school population, African-American males are the number one candidate for placement in programs for students with serious emotional disturbance (SED) and thus experience the poorest school outcomes. Much attention has been given to disproportionality, which continues to be a thorny and intractable issue. This brief article urges educators to focus more attention on appropriate and successful interventions within a continuum of educational services for this population.