Due to the emotional and social burden on Americans stemming from firearm injury and death, school psychologists (SPs) must be equipped with an understanding of risk factors that could lead to students engaging in gun violence. SPs are ideally situated due to their training and expertise in promoting healthy development in children and youth, as…

There is probably no more difficult aspect of school-based mental health practice than navigating assessment, prevention, and postvention related to youth suicide. Although many schools follow best practices and respond appropriately, there are important lessons to be learned from cases that resulted in litigation. This article reviews key cases…

Bullying is associated with many adverse outcomes, including increased risk of substance abuse, delinquency, suicide, truancy, mental health problems, and physical injury, as well as decreased academic performance; even those witnessing bullying in school are at an increased risk of experiencing negative mental health effects (Rivers et al., 2009)…

Given the high number of immigrant youth in the United States that are from Latinx backgrounds and given that these youth are at risk for experiencing traumatic events during their migration, it is critical for school mental health providers to understand how to best serve this population. To do so, they must first understand how the unique…

February 14 marked the 1-year anniversary of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and April 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the tragedy at Columbine. Much progress has been made over the last 20 years in the understanding of threat assessment, crisis preparedness, and the importance of increasing…

Depression is among the most common mental disorders in the United States. Its diagnosis is often related to impairment of functioning across several domains, including how an individual thinks, feels, and participates in daily activities. Although depression has a relatively high prevalence among adults, the rate is alarmingly higher among…

In the everyday bustle of high school life, a student can have wounds--physical or emotional--that often go unnoticed. A lot of issues affect adolescents of all backgrounds. Two particularly serious issues among U.S. high school students are suicide and self-injury. This article discusses what school mental health professionals can do about…

School psychologists must have a solid understanding of how to evaluate psychological trauma. In their line of work, they have found that the PREPaRE model of school crisis intervention provides important guidance when addressing this issue. Specifically, the PREPaRE model argues that school psychologists need to conduct a needs assessment before…