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Methodology
Data Sources
The data for this study were 837 school-based mental health referrals completed
over 5 consecutive school years from August 2015 through May 2020. In most cases,
a school counselor using information provided by classroom teachers completed
the referral form. The district utilized the same referral form throughout the 5-year
period. The form consisted of demographic information, a checklist for identifying
Dr. Janna Brendle is an the reason for the referral, and an open-ended text box to provide details concerning
associate professor the referral purpose.
in the Texas Tech During this time period, two notable events occurred, including the enactment of
University College
of Education ESSA and the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. ESSA first states that districts
Special Education must use at least 20% of ESSA’s Title IV flexible block grant funds on efforts to
program. Her teaching increase “student mental and behavioral health, school climate, or school safety”
responsibilities (Castillo et al., 2019). Identifying the most prevalent needs in their school district
include the interested the administrators and school board trustees. Additionally, the advent of the
educational COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the school district providing instruction completely
diagnostician master’s
and special education online in March of 2020. The researchers chose to limit the outer time frame of the
doctoral programs. study to the end of the 2019–2020 school year to provide as much continuity to the
Her areas of expertise data set as possible while still acknowledging the changes initiated by ESSA.
and research focus The district supplied de-identified records of all school-based mental health
on assessment, high referrals and all demographic information acquired throughout the referral process.
incidence disabilities, The referrals followed a checklist and open-ended format and contained general
and intervention.
Janna.Brendle@ttu.edu demographic information such as overall number of referrals (variable 1), gender
(variable 2), and grade level (variable 3). The number of the referrals broken down
by reason for referral (variable 4) represented the fourth data set analyzed in the
study. Finally, the provision of any additional services—such as having a disability
requiring a Section 504 accommodation plan or receiving services in special
education (variable 5)—was also recorded. The researchers reviewed all referrals to
delete incomplete and duplicate documents.

Procedures
Ten consecutive school years of data from the 2010–2011 school year through
the 2019–2020 school year were collected from the individual school-based mental
health referrals. Each referral was downloaded to an external data-storage device
available only to the researchers. Ten years of data allowed for additional research
What is a years in case the results required more than the 5 consecutive school years initially
504
Accommodation chosen. Data were disaggregated in multiple ways utilizing a variety of quantitative
Plan? statistical methods.
The researchers generated checklists per school year to identify the variables
A 504 needed to answer the research questions. An Excel© Spreadsheet served to collect
accomodation all information. The researchers entered the data from each school-based mental
plan is an
educational plan health referral and performed secondary data checks to ensure data integrity. The
developed for a data analysis techniques utilized Microsoft Office Excel© and IBM SPSS©. The
student who has Excel© data analysis tool managed the data and calculated frequencies for the five
a disability but variables (number of referrals overall, gender, grade level, reason for referral, and
does not require disability status).
special education
services. Data Analysis
A causal-comparative quantitative research method comprised the data

22 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators