Assessing, understanding, and supporting students with ADHD at school: contemporary science, practice, and policy

Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit chronic behavior difficulties that deleteriously impact their academic and social functioning in school settings. These difficulties not only impair student performance, but also present significant challenges to teachers, school psychologists, and other school professionals working with this population. Although a voluminous ADHD research literature is available to aid our understanding, studies specifically focused on school-based functioning, assessment, and intervention are underrepresented. The articles in this special topic section directly address this gap by examining (a) the role of contextual factors (e.g., culture, gender) in determining teacher referral, teacher perception of symptoms and impairment, and impact of symptoms on academic performance; (b) the reliability and validity of measures that can be used to conduct school-based screening, identification, and treatment design; and (c) the degree to which school intervention plans are consistent with recommended best practice and research evidence. The results of these studies provide school psychologists with specific directions for advocacy and service delivery that will improve school outcomes for students with ADHD.