Doctoral Study in Special Education with an emphasis in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

The UNL Special Education Department offers a Doctoral Degree with an emphasis in emotional and behavioral disorders. The doctoral program offers $18,000 stipends, tuition remission, and health care insurance for all full-time students. Apply now for openings in the 2009-2010 academic year.

This doctoral program is designed to prepare a cadre of 8 individuals (2 cohorts of 4 students each) to assume leadership positions in the education of children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The program addresses a need that is viewed at the local, state, and national levels as especially critical. The program's key features are mastery of competencies, extensive field experience, a sound instructional model, and comprehensive doctoral course work. The doctoral students master four major competencies (teacher training, applied researcher, interagency collaboration, and law and policy) built around over 60 specific activity areas needed for leadership in the education of students with EBD. Extensive field expeiences are provided through internships in ongoing research projects and local and state education and human service agencies. The features of the instructional model include modeling and demonstration, supervised practice, and independent practic,. all under the tutelage of competent university faculty. The university course work requires that students enroll in courses in special education, school psychology, education administration, and research and statistics. The core faculty for the doctoral program include: Michael Epstein, Ed.D., Alex Trout, Ph.D., Kristin Duppong Hurley, Ph.D., and Annette Griffith, Ph.D.

University Resources and Internship Placements are Excellent

The UNL Doctoral Program requires a significant amount of field-based experience. Doctoral students are required to conduct applied research with community agencies and to provide staff development training for teachers and staff in these settings. It is our belief that the educational and mental health agencies and programs available in Nebraska represent a unique opportunity to prepare leadership personnel in the area of emotional and behavioral disorders. The UNL Doctoral Program is currently involved in a unique research partnership with Boys Town. Boys Town is one of the largest service organizations in the United states for children and youth involved in child welfare services. There are several on-going projects currently underway at Boys Town. These include:

Family-Centered Academic Reintegration Intervention Model. The aim of this four-year Institute of Educational Sciences funded study is to develop and collect preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of an aftercare model for adolescents with high-incidence disabilities reintegrating into the home and school setting following a stay in out-of-home care. Three evidence-based components will be combined and integrated: Check & Connect, Common Sense Parenting, and a Self-Management homework intgervention. Directed by a family consultant, the intervention will address the primary factors that affect the negative long-term academic outcomes of this population: school dropout, poor parental support and home-school communication, and low levels of homework completion. Services will be offered to approximately 130 children with ED and their families.

Assessing Quality of Treatment Implementation and its Relationship to Youth Mental Health Outcomes. There is a growing call for heightened attention to services research in mental health interventions serving youth and adolescents. While evidence-based programs can be effective in tightly controlled clinical trials, replicating the results in routine practice settings is hindered by limited or poor adoption of evidence-based practices. Thus, it is crucial to understand how well a program was implemented to have any confidence regarding the effectiveness of the intervention. This National Institute of Mental Health funded study seeks to examine the psychometrics of comprehensive treatment implementation measures administered at Boys Town residential group homes. It will also begin to assess how well the key treatment ingredients were implemented by practitioners and examine if any core components are essential to successful behavioral and emotional outcomes for youth.

Boys Town In-Home Program for Families. This program, which serves families and youth with ED referred by schools or child welfare agencies, was designed to help keep the family unit together, improve the emotional and behavioral functioning of the child, and maintain positive family functioning, thus preventing an out-of-home placement for the youth. This is accomplished by a highly-trained professional that works one-on-one with the family to address the behavioral needs of the target child and family. A key component of this program is collaboration with the local schools, both in referring at-risk youth and working with the family to implement treatment plans. The goal of this research project is to examine the pre to post outcomes of youth and families in the program, focusing on identifying for whom the program works for and the conditions under which the program is successful.

Boys Town Academic Studies. A comprehensive series of studies are underway to evaluate the academic, behavioral, and school related risks of children and youth with and at-risk disabilties entering out-of-home care. During the project, several research questions will be addressed. First, we will examine the academic, language, functional academic, behavioral and mental health characteristics of children at the time of entry to a residential program. Then, to determine program effects, follow-up data will also be collected one year after arrrival to the Boys Town program. These follow-up data will allow for the evaluation of specific gains made during treatment, and for the evaluation of several related questions such as differences across specific subpopulations of children in care (e.g., special education populations, youth with ADHD) and predictor variables (e.g., co-morbid diagnoses) that may impact academic growth. We expect to have complete comprehensive data sets on approximately 320 children and youth in residential care.

Examining the Use of Psychotropic Medication with Youth in Out-of-Home Care. The use of psychotropic medications for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders has been on the rise. Many youth entering out-of-home care are prescribed one or more psychotropic medications. This line of research seeks to examine the usage rates of psychotropic medication for youth in out-of-home care, best practices for monitoring treatment and adverse effects, as well as effective practices to reduce the usage of psychotropic medication with youth.

There have also been opportunities for several doctoral students to pursue studies for dissertation projects with families and youth involved with Boys Town. Some of the recent dissertation topics have included:

Transition Studies Evaluation. The primary objective of this research project was to assess youth on skills related to transition readiness as they depart to Boys Town.

Common Sense Parenting Evaluation Study. The goal of this research study was to evaluate Common Sense Parenting, a behavioral parent training program, for families of youth with or at-risk of developing ED.

Risk Profiles of Children Entering Residential Care: A Cluster Analysis. The purpose of this study was to identify whether academic and behavioral clusters can be identified in children in residential care and whether identified clusters differ on demographic (e.g., number of previous placements), critical events (e.g., court involvement, previous abuse) and mental health variables.

For an application and more information, contact: Dr. Michael Epstein, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, 202 Barkley Memorial Center, Lincoln, NE 68583-0732. Or call 402-472-5472, e-mail mepstein1@unl.edu