This paper explores the school psychologist's role in the academic and psychosocial development of students identified as gifted and talented via curriculum. Given the school psychologists' assessment expertize, they can inform the identification to service placement process for students, including advocacy for curricular and instructional…

Students living in foster care are at risk for experiencing many challenges in school, spanning domains of social-emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning. They are twice as likely to be absent from school and to have received and out-of-school suspension and up to three and a half times more likely to receive special education services.…

Child maltreatment remains a relevant issue for school psychologists. This special issue was designed to provide school psychology practitioners, researchers, and other school personnel with current, empirically sound information about child maltreatment. This introduction provides context for the articles in this volume, including definitions of…

Many college students display academic and social-emotional needs that are not being addressed by extant university supports. School psychologists who work in postsecondary settings and have expertise in providing psychoeducational services may be uniquely positioned to help many of these students. However, few school psychologists currently work…

Disciplines involved in the development and/or provision of services in school mental health have recognized the promise of evidence-based practices in meeting the growing unmet mental health needs of children, adolescents, and families in this country. As a result, School Psychology has strongly emphasized the development and dissemination of…

Group counseling is an effective intervention when working in a school setting. In this article, the authors discuss the different kinds of groups offered in schools, types of group interventions, strategies to use in forming groups, and how to collaborate with others in the school. Because leading groups in schools is a specialized skill, the…

Response to Intervention (RtI) has brought about many changes in the way educational services are being provided to students who are at risk of school failure. Schools are seeking strategies that will be beneficial to more and more students, including those students whose instruction is primarily in the core, or Tier 1. Nesting proven,…

Within an RtI problem-solving context, assessment and decision making generally center around the tasks of problem identification, problem analysis, progress monitoring, and program evaluation. We use this framework to discuss the current state of the literature regarding curriculum based measurement, its technical properties, and its utility for…

Providing individual and group counseling has become an identified role for school psychologists working in the school setting. There is an extensive research base that highlights positive outcomes and supports the use of a variety of counseling methods when working with children and adolescents. However, there may exist a host of other outcomes,…

Many school-aged children have experienced the cruelty of bullying. The impact and effects of bullying have been described extensively in scholarly literature. Unfortunately, the impact of bullying has also made contemporary headlines with the recent rash of school shootings and other forms of school-based violence. The current body of students…

Traces the inception and implementation of school-based health centers in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County (NC) school system. Discusses the challenges that arose during implementation, along with the opportunities to enhance the provision of comprehensive services for children. Notes that SBHCs provide an opportunity for school psychologists to…

To advance the role of school psychologists in mental health prevention and wellness activities, in this article we describe (a) a social ecological theory for guiding school-based prevention research, (b) the role of schools in the development and prevention of depression, (c) a continuum of school-based support for meeting the needs of children…

Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), particularly when diagnosed prior to the age of 13, is considered to be especially rare and severe. This article provides an in-depth look into its symptomatology, general course, long-term functioning, diagnostic criteria, and methods of assessing the disorder. It also includes discussions of the various…

Describes a project that involved school psychology students in doing applied research. The possible impact of such a plan on creating cooperative research opportunities, on providing training in applied research, and on influencing the school's perception of the school psychologist's role is considered. (Author/JAC)

Studied the effectiveness of consultants as change agents in an elementary school by using undergraduate education majors in the classroom to conduct behavioral projects, and using graduate students as mini-consultants. Teachers were enrolled in a course for college credit and salary increments. Recommendations for would-be consultants are…