Traditionally speech-language pathology, along with other educational and rehabilitation-based professions, has approached disability from a deficits-based or medical-model perspective with an aim toward normalizing or ameliorating a child's atypical behaviors or performance. However, an alternative perspective rooted in a social model of…

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.…

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including concussions, can result in a constellation of physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral symptoms that affect students' well-being and performance at school. Despite these effects, school personnel remain underprepared identify, educate, and assist this population of students. This article describes a…

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…

This investigation employed a participatory action research method involving school psychology consultants and educators to design and evaluate the impact of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports in a self-contained school serving students with emotional and behavioral disorders. The traditional practices of a universal…

A randomly selected group of Nationally Certified School Psychologists (NCSPs; n = 817) were mailed the 42-item "School Psychopharmacology Roles and Training Evaluation" (SPRTE) which inquired about their caseloads, practice roles as proposed by DuPaul and Carlson ([DuPaul, G. J., 2005]), and prior training in psychopharmacology. A…

Research indicates that school discipline policies and practices have a significant influence on both student and school functioning. The purpose of this article is to uncover how the ethical standards guiding the field of school psychology inform school decisions about discipline in a three-tiered approach. Various discipline approaches,…

In this article, we discuss conflict between law and science relative to the presumption in special education law that multidisciplinary teams and others identify the causes of problems giving rise to special education needs. First, we explain eligibility criteria, highlighting ambiguities therein and why criteria constitute a mandate for causal…

High-stakes tests have played an increasingly important role in how student achievement and school effectiveness are measured. Test anxiety has risen with the use of tests in educational decision making. Students with high test anxiety perform poorly on tests when compared to students with low test anxiety. School psychologists can play an…

Although school psychologists have been called on in recent literature to assume a leadership role in a collective and comprehensive effort to address students' mental health needs, many practitioners find that their professional roles continue to be narrowly focused on special education-related activities, such as individualized assessment…

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,…

Given the complex role of school psychologists, it is in the interest of stakeholders to identify characteristics related to student success in graduate training, which is suggestive of their effectiveness as practitioners. This study explores the relationship of personality traits and Emotional Intelligence (EI) to graduate students' performance…