Well then, I am obviously preaching to the choir.
My education is also in Behavioral Science. Ten years ago I ran a program called "the alternative classroom" where I worked with behavioral problemed kids. I got the detetions and suspensions, as well as kids with longer term behavioral problems. At the time, ADD & ADHD had become the new buzz words and most of my kids were on ritalin. Unfortunately, pediatricians were prescribing them like candy and upping the dosages when the meds didn't work as well. As I am sure you know, middle school is the beginning of puberty and ritalin has an opposite effect on an adult. So many of these kids who should have never been on ritalin in the first place because their problems were emotional & environmental and not ADHD anyway, were en masse turning into little speed demons as they were hitting puberty. Trying to get these parents to take their kids to a specialist in ADD & ADHD to be properly diagnosed & medicated was like pulling teeth. Most of the parents seemed to literally just want that "magic pill" to make the kid behave so that they didn't have to work so hard at parenting. I never had a problem I couldn't handle with the kids, but it was the parents that drove me right up the walls!
Yes, I know well the problems with working with children with these issues. I'm well aware that instead of "parenting" parents want to find some magic cure for the behavior problems created by not implementing appropriate boundaries at an early age. I have worked with quite a number of these kids on meds for a disorder they didn't have. Unfortunately, we haven't learned much since then. The two new "buzz" words in public education are Emotional Disturbance and Autistic Like. Many children are now being prescribed anti-depressants and anti-psychotic medication to address behavior problems. It just doesn't work. And the pulling of teeth in having parents obtain the proper diagnosis in many cases involves trying to pull them from a chicken. By the way, I work with elementary, middle school, and high school age students (having four schools for which I am responsible). Three of my schools are "under-achieving" schools. I get to work with the same type of students that you described from your program.