Collaboration Activities and Competencies of Special Educators Serving Students with Behavior Disorders

Abstract

The role of collaboration has been emphasized as a critical component in the delivery of a comprehensive system of services for students with behavior disorders (BD). A survey of 476 special educators of students with BD was completed (a) to describe the frequency of collaborative interactions between these educators and school and community agency personnel; and (b) to describe the teachers' current level of skill for the 32 identified collaboration competencies. The data from 259 responses suggested that these educators interact the most often with their special and general education colleagues and perceive themselves to be of average skill level for a majority of the identified competencies. Implications for preservice and inservice training are discussed.