Services for Emotionally Disturbed Students

Emotional disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance:

        a)       An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors;

        c)        Inappropriate types of behaviors or feelings under normal circumstances;

        d)        A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression;

        e)     A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. The term includes schizophrenia. 
                The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

The program for emotionally disturbed students is located in two learning centers, MCLC and MCLC-W. Students in these classes are identified as emotionally disturbed by an evaluation team made up of employees of the students’ home school district. This process puts the students on an IEP for special education services. Sometimes students come from an ED classroom in their home district; other times, they have been served as cognitively delayed or learning disabled. When their behavior becomes the primary difficulty, they are referred to our ED program.

Because our ED classrooms serve very difficult students, the staffing pattern in our learning centers is one teacher and one assistant in each classroom. There is a floating assistant for every building. The floater is called to help out when students cannot be controlled by the classroom staff alone. Some students are so physically aggressive that they pose a danger to themselves or others. In this event, a one-on-one assistant is assigned to the student at an additional cost to the district. This decision is made at an IEP meeting with a home school representative and the parent(s) present. In addition, the students receive physical education and art instruction from specialists in those areas. They also receive speech therapy as specified on their IEP. Because of the nature of the students in the program, mental health therapy is a mandatory part of their services. The Montgomery County ESC contracts with South Community Mental Health Center for the therapy. Each student receives weekly group and individual therapy. Many students also see a staff psychiatrist for psychotropic medications. The cost of therapy and the psychiatrist is billed to Medicaid whenever possible. A school nurse oversees dispensing the medications at school. Students are referred to us by the home school district.