Improving Educational Outcomes in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Through Interagency Collaboration

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) demonstrate a significant array of neurocognitive impairments including deficits in intelligence, attention, processing speed, executive functions, language functions, visual-spatial abilities, memory, and academic achievement. Neuropsychological impairments in children and adolescents with prenatal exposure to alcohol follow a continuum from no identifiable effects at one end to pervasive impairments across areas at the other end (i.e., Spohr, Willms and Steinhausen 1993; Streissguth, Randels and Smith 1991). Due to the continuum of impairments, interagency collaboration was developed to address the special educational needs of the children. The current paper has several purposes: (1) to allow school district staff who were offered an opportunity to share their perspectives and expertise on FASD and special need issues facing their students diagnosed with FASD; (2) to identify the school and social challenges faced by students diagnosed with FASD; (3) to describe the collaborative interagency program and potential impact on classroom ecology; and (4) to determine if the interagency collaboration had an effect on intervention practices of educators within the classroom.