Position Statement on Employing
School Psychologists for Comprehensive Service Delivery
The National
Association of School Psychologists supports policies and practices that
enhance the education and development of all students through the organized
delivery of comprehensive school-based psychological services. NASP further
recognizes that such services can be delivered in a variety of ways without
compromising the rights and needs of students. However, in most situations,
the most cost-effective, professionally accountable services will be those
delivered by school psychologists employed by the school district.
In its 2000 Guidelines
for the Provision of School Psychological Services1, NASP
promotes school psychological services that "are provided in a coordinated,
organized fashion and are delivered in a manner that ensures the provision
of a comprehensive and seamless continuum of services..." (Unit Guideline
1). In addition to these professional guidelines, the federal mandates
of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) require that
the evaluation and placement of students with disabilities is comprehensive,
multi-faceted and determined by a multi-disciplinary team. This process
stresses the need for educational specialists from multi-disciplinary
perspectives to work with each other in the educational environment and
to gather input from numerous sources, including observation of the student
within the learning environment, consultation with school personnel regarding
educational performance, consultation with parents and individualized
assessment of the student's skills.
During times
of economic crisis and personnel shortages, school districts may consider
alternatives to employing their own school psychologists, such as contracting
out for specific services or general staff reductions. The increased availability
of third-party reimbursement may make arrangements with private providers
more attractive. NASP is concerned about staffing policies that are detrimental
to the best interests of the child, family and school system as a whole.
Therefore, it is essential that administrators and policymakers understand
the nature and potential limitations of these options and the importance
of maintaining professional standards in order to make cost-effective decisions
that do not sacrifice the quality or availability of services to students.
Independent
contracting for school psychological services includes a variety of arrangements,
such as privatization and subcontracting through other public agencies.
Some school districts have implemented contracts with agencies or individuals
which shift the delivery of services from the public to the private sector,
or may contract services through public cooperative (intermediate) units,
or may supplement or supplant school-based services with "co-located" services
of community agencies.
NASP does not
oppose the provision of comprehensive school psychological services
through intermediate educational agencies or community providers, as long
as such services do not supplant the services of district-employed school
psychologists. In fact, NASP recognizes that such alternatives often represent
the most viable means of insuring appropriate, comprehensive services.
Further, NASP recognizes that the provision of limited contractual services
(such as for a specific service) may augment available district resources
and contribute toward the delivery of comprehensive services overall. However,
NASP opposes independent contracting if it compromises the delivery of comprehensive services
as required by professional standards and federal law and if contracting supplants or decreases the
availability of comprehensive services delivered by district-employed school
psychologists (Unit Guideline 7).
Both NASP and the American Psychological Association
recognize the specialized training in school psychology as different from
the training in other specialty areas, such as clinical and industrial
psychology. As stated in NASP's Guidelines (7.7), "persons providing contractual
psychological services are fully credentialed school psychologists..." The
independent contractor who is not a trained school psychologist may be
a skillful clinician but may lack essential knowledge, expertise and experience
to gather appropriate data in the school context and to facilitate a collaborative,
comprehensive approach with the other members of the educational team.
School psychologists employed by school districts:
- Offer cost-effective services
including early prevention, intervention and wellness activities which
can eliminate the need for many costly evaluations and placements;
- Are readily
available to school personnel, students and the community for
crisis prevention and intervention services;
- Understand
school issues from a systems perspective;
- Are
sufficiently familiar with the students, staff, legal requirements and
policies of the school system to facilitate communication
and defuse potentially dangerous or adversarial situations;
- Provide
accessible mental health services to children and families,
including evaluation, group and individual counseling, and consultation
with the family and school staff regarding mental health and educational
issues;
- Provide
a wide range of services not easily or cheaply purchased
via private contracts, such as reviews of records; consultation with parents
and school personnel; ongoing, systematic classroom observations; inservice
training; program planning and evaluation; and participation on multidisciplinary
teams.
Contractual services may be appropriate in limited
circumstances in which an outside contractor supplements the regular
services of the district's school psychologists or provides comprehensive services
which are otherwise unavailable or impractical. Such circumstances include:
- Specific
situations where specialized training and experience beyond
what is typically available in the school district are required in order
to provide appropriate service to the student or district, such as with
low incidence disabilities or the provision of clinical home-based services
through shared funding;
- Situations
where a very small district is unable to support the funding
of a full-time psychologist and must seek an alternative arrangement
such as contracting through an independent provider or intermediate agency;
- Situations
where a personnel shortage creates a temporary need
to obtain services from available sources such as private providers;
- Situations
where a second opinion or outside service is warranted
due to conflict between family and school regarding a school-based service.
Psychologists hired under independent contract
to provide services in the schools should have at least the same preparation
and credentials and should be expected to practice within the same
professional and ethical standards as school-employed psychologists.
Any contractual agreement should meet the standards established by NASP
(Guidelines for the Provision of School Psychological Services, 2000,
Unit Guideline 7, "Contracted and Independent Provider Services")
and insure that:
- The
welfare and best interests of the student are the primary concern of the
service provider;
- The
amount, range and quality of psychological services are increased, not
decreased;
- Due
process rights of students are upheld; and
- The
agreement does not result in any loss of legitimate employee rights, benefits
or wages.
NASP urges school administrators and school board
members to consider the legal, educational and long-term financial ramifications
of any shift of services away from the school district, and to seek more
cost-effective models of service delivery that do not decrease the availability
of school-based psychologists. NASP further urges school psychologists
to work with administrators, collective bargaining units and professional
associations to help develop strategies for the delivery of cost-effective
services that enhance educational outcomes for all students while maintaining
their rights as employees
Finally, NASP urges school psychologists and other
educators to empirically evaluate the cost-effectiveness of current and
proposed models of service delivery and to establish ongoing program evaluation
of all providers of school-based psychological and mental health
services.
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1 Guidelines for the Provision of School Psychological
Services. National Association of School Psychologists, 2000.
- Original statement adopted by the NASP Delegate
Assembly, April 18, 1993.
- Revision adopted by the NASP Delegate Assembly
(April 10, 1999)
- Revision adopted by the NASP Delegate Assembly
(July 18, 2004)