Early Contacts with Child Welfare Agencies Or

special education programs often do not act as a protective factor for students with emotional and behavioral disorders because contact with these agencies is not suffi ciently early, comprehensive, or coordinated across agencies. A study by UW–Madison education professor Kimber Malmgren and colleague Sheri Meisel supports a large body of research that identifi es early childhood as a critical developmental period when emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) can be prevented or ameliorated. Youth with EBD who are involved with multiple service agencies experience multiple risk factors in childhood. These risk factors include academic and behavioral problems, experience with abuse and neglect, high rates of mobility, and parental incarceration. These characteristics have been consistently associated with negative school and community outcomes that extend into adulthood. Children and adolescents with EBD often have multiple and intensive needs that reduce their ability to function in a variety of settings. These overlapping needs make collaboration critical among the public agencies that serve youth with EBD. Thus, many state and county agencies coordinate efforts and combine resources to create care systems and other programs to serve these youth. Malmgren's study focused on a special education program, a child welfare agency, and a juvenile justice agency in a northeastern U.S. suburban school district. The study's interagency focus provides an important systemic perspective to understand the characteristics of youth at risk for EBD and their trajectory toward identifi cation and receipt of specialized public services. For most youth, behavior problems were cited as a reason for the initial referral for special education services. Only 5.6% of the students in the study were initially referred for special education on the basis of academic problems alone. An additional 22.5% were initially referred into special education because of a combination of behavioral and academic diffi culties. More than half of youth in the study were labeled EBD when they were fi rst determined eligible for special education. The average age of these youth at initial identifi cation was 11.4 years.