As it follows from the work of Yell et al. (2009), there is a set of diagnostic concerns that complicate the work of special educators and school administration on the way to meeting the special educational needs of EBD students. The first concern is about stigmas and ambiguity of terms in the definitions of EBD, lack of understanding what the inappropriate behavior is, how strong the inability to build social relationships and the learning disability should be to classify as EBD (Yell et al., 2009). It is even not clear what the sustainable period of time of the disorder occurrence means; hence, it is more appropriate to follow the proper classification of Yell et al. (2009) and consider the long period of time as more than 6 months, and the inappropriate behavior as the one that does not fit into any cultural, religious and ethical norms of the society at a given moment of time.

One more diagnostic concern is in the classification of students according to the type of disorders they have: here the instruments are the psychiatric classification (including anxiety disorders, mood disorder etc.) and dimensional disorders (externalizing and internalizing behaviors) 9Yell et al., 2009). However, the classification is also not ideal as the EBD students may show signs of several disorder types, and internalizing EBD behaviors may sometimes take the forms of suicide or violence, which is already the externalizing practice. Hence, it is hard to create a firm diagnosis for EBD students because of the changeability of their symptoms (Yell et al., 2009).

Challenges in teaching students with EBD are also multiple and require different competencies from the teachers. Since EBD students have the academic, language and social skills deficit, lower academic outcomes and intellectual abilities, it is hard for the educator to fit his/her mainstream educational competencies and pace of schooling with other children into their specific needs. Low rates of appraisal and lack of opportunities educators give to students play a decisive role in the emergence of their aggression. Hence, self-control, classroom management practices and training have to become the daily practice with students who have the EBD. Teachers have to adjust to the specific needs of students and give them proper instructional interactions, actively interact with parents and get actively involved in the collection of data on EBD students’ progress, developing special education programs and interpret EBD students’ results according to the assessment rules designed for them in order to provide these special needs students with adequate instruction and support (Yell et al., 2009).

Students with EBD represent a group of students with specific needs, and the whole school community (not only special educators) has to realize the need of early intervention and prevention in working with EBD students. The active involvement of parents in the prevention and intervention programs will help eliminate the domestic risk factor and create a comprehensive school- and home-based intervention plan. The participation of administration will help solve the major challenge of exclusion of EBD students from the mainstream zero-tolerance school policy.

The multifaceted attention to the different types of EBD, varying occurrences of anti-social behaviors and numerous causes of their occurrence will help solve the challenge of building the trusting teacher-student relationships that are vital for the introduction of self-management and self-control techniques for EBD students. Surely, there is much legal incongruence about EBD students, which mostly comes from ambiguity of terminology and vagueness of approach to them. However, there is a hope that the innovative definition will be accepted soon, which will eliminate the stigma and misinterpretation from the legal recognition of EBD students and will open new ways for primary and secondary prevention and intervention measures.

EBD student behavior is usually unpredictable and unexplainable, which constitutes the challenge for dealing with him or her and fitting their needs. However, a deeper investigation of roots and causes of EBD, extensive work on the improvement of EBD students’ classification etc. are likely to solve the problems. As it comes from the composition of the special education team, it is impossible to construct an effective intervention program in case such parties as the family, the teaching staff and the school administration are conflicting. Hence, they need to adopt a common strategy in meeting the educational challenges for EBD students.