Special Education Services: A Manual of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines

D.3 School Psychology Services

Purpose
School psychology services are district-based, non-categorical educational and mental health services designed to support students, school personnel and parents in enhancing academic, adaptive and social skills for students.

Description of Services
School psychology services play a supportive role in the identification, assessment, planning, implementation, reporting and evaluation process described in Section C. Developing an Individual Education Plan.

The school psychologist

• provides collaborative consultation,
• may assist with pre-referral interventions,
• provides psycho-educational assessments for students referred by the school-based team,
• provides ongoing collaborative planning ,
• may contribute to the design and evaluation of the IEP, and
• may provide inservice training in the area of assessment.

• consultation with teachers, parents, students and community agencies regarding the nature of students' strengths and needs, their educational implications, and ways to enhance learning and interpersonal relations; and
• collaboration with school-based and/or district personnel to gather classroom-based data, design or implement instructional strategies, and design and implement behaviour management interventions.

Informal/formal assessment and evaluation
When the school-based team decides it is necessary to gather additional information in order to provide appropriate instruction, a referral for psycho-educational assessment may be in order. This step is taken only after there has been considerable pre-referral assessment and pre-referral intervention. Emphasis on school-based problem solving should lessen the number of referrals for testing.

Informal assessment services include systematic observation, file review, interdisciplinary consultation, interviews and assessment to determine academic skill development, strengths and weaknesses in learning processes and social/adaptive functioning.

Formal psycho-educational assessments serve diagnostic and planning functions for students with special needs and may include assessment of cognitive functioning. These assessments should provide information that assists teachers and parents to better understand the nature of the special need, developmental factors and educational, social, emotional and career implications. Assessment information should be used for planning and goal setting, selecting teaching and behaviour intervention strategies, and evaluation.

Assessment findings are summarized in a written report that is shared with the parent/guardian, the school-based team and, when appropriate, the student. Parents have to be informed as to how the report will be made accessible to others working with the student. (References: Appendix H.11 Student Records: Use and Management; Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.)

Other services
Psychologists can assist school and district staff in providing inservice training for professional and teacher assistant staff (e.g., behaviour management, observational techniques/data gathering), and participate or assist in program evaluation and research activities.

Access to School Psychology Services
School districts should establish procedures for teachers, students and parents to access these services, establishing protocols for informed, written consent in the case of interventions and assessments, and for protecting the confidentiality of reports. Such procedures should be designed to ensure equity of access for all students.

Personnel
School psychologists should have experience in the education system with knowledge of instruction and assessment, ideally with teacher credentials. In order for their work to be effective, they need experience with students and teachers. The collegial relationship between school psychologists and teachers is important for the role they play in schools and districts.

A school psychologist should have the following qualifications:

• registration with the College of Psychologists, with special training in school psychology; or
• a Master's degree in school/educational psychology or a related field with a focus on school psychology and qualifications that meet the standard for membership in the British Columbia Association of School Psychologists.

School districts should ensure thatemployees carrying out psycho-educational assessments meet these qualifications. When the services of a psychologist are contracted, that person should meet the requirements for registration by the College of Psychologists as established in bylaws under the Health Professions Act.

Qualifications of test administrators
The ministry supports the principles set forth in Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests and Ethical Standards for Psychologists, 1999, published by the American Psychological Association and adopted by the Canadian Psychological Association.

Educational and psychological tests are generally categorized according to levels of training required of the test administrators (See Appendix H.5 for guidelines related to the training of persons administering psychological tests).

School districts should ensure that personnel administering tests have appropriate levels of training or are supervised by school psychologists with appropriate levels of training.

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