This paper reports on the development of a scale to identify a child's emotional and behavioral skills, competencies, and characteristics, the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: A Strength-Based Approach to Assessment (BERS). The BERS is a 52-item scale that identifies strengths in five areas: interpersonal strengths, family involvement, intrapersonal strengths, school functioning, and affective strengths. This paper describes development of norms for children without disabilities as well as for children with emotional or behavioral disorders, results of factor analyses, studies of the scale's concurrent and construct validity, and reliability studies. The paper suggests that the BERS is suitable for five uses: (1) to identify children with limited emotional and behavioral strengths; (2) to target goals for an individual treatment plan or individual educational plan; (3) to identify strengths and weaknesses for treatment; (4) to document progress in a strength area as a consequence of specialized treatment or services; and (5) to measure strengths in research and evaluation projects. (DB)