Classroom Management in Special Education Classrooms and Resource Rooms

Many students with high-incidence disabilities such as learning disabilities (LD), emotional disturbances (ED), mild mental retardation (MMR), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD; American Psychiatric Association, 2001) benefit from traditional classroom management procedures as described elsewhere in this Handbook. However, due to limited problem-solving skills, impaired relationshipswith teachers andpeers, and anoften longhistory of school failure (Coie & Jacobs, 1993; Lane, 1999; Lane & Wehby, 2002; Walker & Severson, 2002), these youngsters typically require additional supports to meet teachers’ expectations of student behavior (Lane, Pierson, & Givner, 2003). If general and special education teachers are not equipped with the proactive and reactive strategies to better manage student behavior, they often are left to confront acting-out and noncompliant behaviors that are disruptive to the classroom setting (Colvin, 1993, 2002).