Research has consistently shown a greater likelihood of negative outcomes later in life for children with early-onset behavior problems. Understanding the educational outcomes for these children is essential information that can help educators and families to provide targeted interventions in an effort to positively impact these at-risk childrens school experiences. The current study used archival data and a causal comparative research design to examine the educational outcomes (academic achievement, suspension rates, retention rates, and dropout rates/failure to complete high school) for children identified as at-risk for early-onset behavior problems in grades 1 through 3 for a cohort of children in a large suburban Florida school district. Educational outcomes for students with early-onset behavior problems were compared to those of a comparison group of students not identified as having behavior problems in early elementary school. Additionally, the outcomes for students with early-onset behavior problems who received special education services and those who did not receive ESE services were compared. Results indicated that children with early-onset behavior problems were more likely to have been retained, suspended, and fail to complete high school when compared to their peers without early-onset behavior problems. They also had a lower high school grade point average. Among these students with early-onset behavior problems, those who received special education and those who did not were equally at risk for these negative educational outcomes.

Students who are removed from their regular classrooms for treatment in special education classrooms commonly exhibit positive behavior gains in those settings. Typically, however, the gains do not generalize and maintain when the students are returned to their regular classrooms. The present study initially provided six Behaviorally/Emotionally Handicapped elementary school students with a short-term resource room treatment to bring their behavior under the control of a combination of procedures emphasizing self-evaluation. Once acceptable levels of appropriate behavior were maintained with only minimal external reinforcement and students accurately self-evaluated their own work and behavior, generalization and maintenance of behavior gains were sought in subjects' regular classrooms. A multiple baseline across pairs of subjects design was used to examine individual subjects' behavior throughout the study. Analysis of the results of the study indicated that once self-evaluation procedures were extended into subjects' regular classrooms, subjects transferred and maintained high levels of appropriate classroom behavior in those settings. For four of the six subjects, all extratraining components were faded from use. Only two subjects required a modified form of the original intervention to maintain behavior gains in their regular classrooms.