Issues in Identification and Service Delivery for Students with Conduct Disorders: The “Nevada Solution”

Abstract

Nevada has more than its share of social problems. Often people move to Nevada with the dream of getting rich quick, getting into the entertainment business, or finding easy jobs through the gaming or mining industries. What these people may find instead are low paying jobs with no security and few benefits, a boom or bust economy dependent on the price of copper, gold, and silver, rural isolation or the high cost of urban living, and few social services. Rural and urban communities are burdened with phenomenal growth rates, high transiency, and limited financial and human resources. These problems are reflected in statistics: Nevada is among the nation's leaders in population growth, teen pregnancy, high school dropouts, suicide, and alcoholism. It is not surprising that the social problems found in Nevada are also reflected in the schools. Histories of students with behavioral disorders often reveal poverty, family disinte gration, abuse, neglect, drug use, crime, and/or gang affiliation. These students present Nevada's schools with serious problems. Integral to an understanding of the procedures used in Nevada to differentiate and provide services to students with behavioral disorders is to realize that there are three Nevadas. Over half of the population of the state resides in Las Vegas's Clark County. The Clark County School District is the 20th largest in the United States and offers a comprehensive range of programing for students in special education including alternative education programs. It was largely this school district's problems with student crime, gang activity, and serious discipline problems that provided the impetus for a change in Nevada's definition of emotional handicaps. Nevada's second largest population center is 450 miles to the north. The largest of the several school districts in this area is Reno's Washoe County. While not able to match Clark County in numbers of programs, Washoe County School District provides a continuum of services for students with handicaps and has some alternative education settings. Washoe County also has the only conduct d/sorder programs specifically for elementary and middle school students meeting criteria for conduct disorders and ineligible for services as emo tionally handicapped. The third Nevada is made up of the 14 rural counties. These districts contain small towns and vast remote areas. It is not uncommon for neighboring towns to be 100 miles apart. In many schools, special education services are provided to all students by one teacher, regardless of the students' handicapping conditions. Few if any alternative programs exist for students found ineligible for special education. These districts, however, are often extremely flexible and creative in meeting the needs of individual students. In the past, students with serious behavior problems were often referred to special education and placed in programs for the handicapped. While removing these difficult pupils from the mainstream educational setting, this solution created problems of its own. E. J. Kelly has been a vocal proponent in Nevada for excluding students designated as conduct from special education services. Kelly (1988) catalogs problems of combined behaviorally disordered programs to include minimal therapeutic benefit and maximal intimidation and fear for both special class teachers and the legitimately handi capped . . . excusing or condoning of on-campus felonies through spurious 'handicapped' designations . . . soaring teacher burnout and attrition rates, etc. (p. 2). Although Kelly's position has found wide acceptance within Nevada, his conclusions are controversial and disputed by others in the field (e.g., Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders, 1987; Smith, Wood, & Grimes, 1988).