While the issue of contractual services looms as an area of growing importance, the problems and concerns surrounding comprehensive psychological services grow ever more complex. Consider the following cases. She is reading two years below grade level, and teachers have reported poor impulse control, a poor attention span and inadequate behavioral controls. Interpersonally, she does not accept responsibility for her behavior and has been physically aggressive toward her teachers, often erupting with a string of verbal obscenities when emotionally upset. Cassandra comes from a broken home, lives with her mother, and has a history of physical abuse.
Mother is described as cold and distant toward the daughter and can be emotionally abusive.
The home environment is less than ideal, with little discipline, and the mother is employed in a position without health insurance. Robert has been receiving special education and related services since the second grade. He displays bouts of depression, has made one known suicidal gesture involving superficial lacerations on his right wrist, his facial expressions are often flat and withdrawn, and he has a history of school truancy. He has a legal history for possession of illegal narcotics, and has displayed behavior in school suggestive of drug and alcohol use. In terms of family history, his adopted mother is a teacher, the father a professional, and his adopted brother and sister are both excellent students, with no history of special education.