Aisha Roscoe

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I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is the Sunday Story from Up First.

Across the U.S., there are more than 300,000 students categorized as emotionally disturbed students.

Emotional disturbance is a federally recognized special education category.

It's for kids who struggle not with learning or mobility, but with their behavior and emotions.

Like all kids with disabilities, students with the emotional disturbance label are guaranteed a free and appropriate public education.

It's baked into a law passed more than 50 years ago, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

These kids are also legally entitled to services and specialized help.

But there's a big question around whether the support they're getting is doing more harm than good.

This week on The Sunday Story, a look at one student who was categorized as emotionally disturbed when he was just a young child and what that has meant for the rest of his education.

Stay with us.

I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday Story.

I'm joined by reporter Lori Stern.

She spent years covering education and joins us now to talk about her long-term reporting on the disability category called emotional disturbance.

Lori, welcome to the podcast.

Aisha, it's great to be here.

So I know you have like a specific story to tell, but before we dive into it, can you just help us understand what emotional disturbance is?

At least to me, this isn't something I'm familiar with.

So if a school gives a child an emotional disturbance label, what kind of support does that child get?