Facilitating the inclusion of students with EBD into general education classrooms

This article reports the outcomes of a 3-year project examining the impact of an experiential inservice program and consultation processes in facilita ting the inclusion of students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) into general education settings. A total of 25 school districts were rando mly assigned to one of three conditions. Participants from one group of dis tricts received an intensive experiential inservice program followed by 6 t o 8 weeks of on-site consultation to help implement specific intervention s trategies learned through the inservice for enhancing inclusionary practice s for students with EBD. Participants in the second group also received the in-service but their consultation was delayed by 6 to 8 weeks, during whic h time they were instructed to also implement the interventions for targete d students. The third group served as a wait-list control. Results showed t hat immediate implementation of the consultation process was needed for dis tricts to implement learned interventions effectively. Overall. the project underscored the importance of consultation and support services to general education staff for enhancing effective inclusionary practices for student s with EBD.