When a parent or teacher has concerns about a child’s learning and/or behavior there are a number of actions that a school can take to address these concerns. The school psychologist is involved in many different ways to help schools and families address concerns regarding students. The following is a description of the typical process for how a school might address a concern, what a parent might expect to happen during this process and how a school psychologist might be involved. All parents have a right to participate in their child’s education. Click here to see what your Parental Rights are.

First, you and your child’s teacher will have a conference to discuss what the concerns are and plan a strategy that will be carried out at home and school to help your child. The teacher will then observe in the classroom to determine if the plan is working or having the desired effect. If it is working then the teacher and parent will continue to use the strategy and monitor your child’s progress. Many times when a parent and teacher collaborate, they are able to help children be successful and the assistance of the school psychologist is not necessary. We hope this will be the case your child; however; sometimes the strategic plan may not be successful and might need to be revised by the teacher and parent working together. Other times, no matter what the teacher and parent do, they are unable to pinpoint a specific strategy that is effective.

At this point, additional individuals from the school may be asked to help in creating a new plan to address your child’s needs. These individuals along with the parents compose a Student Support Team (SST). You may be invited to attend an SST meeting where additional strategies, ideas and resources will be discussed. The team will clarify the specific concerns, review the strategies that have already been tried and develop a new strategic plan. In addition to yourself and your child’s teacher other individuals who may be invited to an SST meeting include: other classroom teachers, special education teachers, school psychologists, school counselors, school administrators, social workers, or school nurses. Other individuals with certain areas of expertise that might be helpful in meeting the individual child’s needs may be asked to participate as well.

Data will be gathered regarding the academic or behavioral difficulty to help clarify the problem and aid in developing strategies that will be implemented. Once a plan is developed by the SST, it will be monitored and additional data will be collected to see if the plan is having the desired effect. Intervention monitoring can be done with specific assessments, through observation, or other forms of data collection to ensure that the intervention is helping the student be more successful with the specific academic or behavior difficulties.

Even though your child will continue to receive the support of the SST and assistance in the classroom, in some cases a decision might be made by the team (including you) to refer your child for a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation by the school psychologist. If this decision is made, a referral packet will need to be assembled by the members of the SST to provide the school psychologist with information regarding the nature of the problem and attempts that the team has made to help the child. Following the completion of the packet, you will be asked to sign a consent form so that the evaluation may take place. Since school psychologists have more than one assigned school and many children have needs, there are lists of students to be evaluated and this process does take some time. The typical timeline is less than sixty days from the time you sign the consent form. When the school psychologist is ready to begin evaluating your child, you will receive the Notification of Evaluation form to let you know that the process is getting underway. Once the evaluation is complete, it may be necessary for other evaluations or data to be gathered by other school personnel in specific areas of need.