Organizational and teacher belief influences on students referred to special education

Since the inception of the 1974 Education for all Handicapped Children legislation, the number of students referred to special education has been steadily rising. Recent educational initiatives including; No Child Left Behind and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act have brought greater attention to how schools identify and educate students' with academic and behavioral issues. Students attending middle school, in particular, present a unique challenge to educators both pedagogically and professionally. Teachers working in middle schools are at times presented with students whose needs exceed their expertise and the resources of the mainstream classroom. Under these circumstances, the teacher has the discretion to either alter the classroom environment for that child or initiate a process that could potentially have him/her placed in a special education setting. This raises the question as to what factors influence this determination and potential removal of a child from a mainstream classroom.; This study tested the hypothesis as to whether factors beyond the students' own needs influence a teacher's decision to make a referral to special education. Middle school teachers in an urban school district were surveyed regarding their perceptions of their organizational climate and beliefs about student behavior in order to explain any variances in the number of teacher reported referrals of students to special education. The findings of this study show that teachers' own beliefs, school organizational climate and teachers' background characteristics were related to this decision. The variance in teacher reported referrals of students to special education was mostly attributed to teachers' use of intervention strategies for misbehaving students, teachers' beliefs about students with academic and behavioral problems and their perception of the cause of a student's behavior. Organizational factors of school leadership and discipline climate, as well as teacher background characteristics of education level and years of experience, showed a limited relationship to teacher referrals. These findings are particularly relevant in showing the need for and possible focus of professional development and training for teachers in the current environment of increased accountability, greater inclusion of children with special needs in the general classroom, as well as limited resources.