Policy Matters Blog
In This Section
NSPW Advocacy Action Day 2022
Last week, we celebrated another fantastic National School Psychology Week. This year's theme was Together We Shine, and shine we did!
It was a particularly busy week with the 2022 midterm elections taking place on Tuesday and Advocacy Action Day on Wednesday. In addition to NASP's federal action alert, 30 state associations participated by making a state-level action alert: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawai'i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming. This was an unprecedented number of states, and we are hoping to have even more states participate next year!
At the local level, we encouraged our members to reach out to their local school boards using tools in NASP's policy playbook. Because of this and all the NSPW action alerts, NASP advocates had the opportunity to participate in several actions throughout the week after voting for their local, state, and federal representatives.
While we are unable to quantify how many NASP members were able to vote in the 2022 elections, we saw impressive levels of engagement for such a busy week. School psychologists sent just under 2,000 messages to their elected officials across the country, and we engaged more than 300 new advocates!
Along with the incredible engagement through #NASPadvocates, a lot of our partners working in education and mental health showed their support for school psychologists. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona thanked school psychologists across the country and shared the work of the Department of Education to support school mental health services in a video address. Representatives Bonamici and Chu shared their gratitude and support of school psychologists in a video as well, and other members of Congress shared their support. Additionally, Representative Fitzpatrick once again introduced a resolution in the House acknowledging NSPW and the importance of school psychologists along with Representative Panetta. Our partners at the National PTA, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Sandy Hook Promise, the National Center for School Mental Health, the School Based Health Alliance, the American School Counselor Association, and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning also helped us celebrate the week.
As we all take time to be grateful and reflect on the past year, I recommend scrolling through the hashtags #SchoolPsychWeek and #NASPadvocates, as well as NASP's social media, to catch some of the highlights from last week! Thank you all for your participation and engagement in our advocacy efforts to help all children and youth thrive. We are excited to build on this momentum as we head into the New Year and the 118th Congress.