GUIDING PRINCIPLES ACROSS ALL OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN, FAMILIES,
AND SCHOOLS
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Currently, and for the foreseeable future, we are faced with a shortage of school
psychologists that threatens our capacity to meet the needs of children in schools. While the
profession must increase efforts to recruit and retain professionals in our field, such
strategies alone will be insufficient and inadequate to increase our capacity to meet the
imminent needs of children, families, and schools. As a result, changes in school
psychology practices and service delivery will be required to use the resources we have
to maximize the benefits to the children and schools that we serve.
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Prevention and early intervention will be necessary to achieve positive outcomes for
children, families, and schools.
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Evidence-based practices will be necessary to achieve positive outcomes for children,
families, and schools.
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In order to be effective, school psychological services must demonstrate respect for and
understanding of diversity factors for children, families and schools, including factors
related to cultural, individual, and role differences (e.g., age, gender or gender identity,
cognitive capabilities, developmental level, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion,
sexual orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status).
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Change will be facilitated by using electronic tools for communication. High quality
resources may be collaboratively developed and disseminated.
ISSUES/OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN
Improved academic competence and school success for all children
 Increased academic competence for all students
 Increased academic competence for students with diverse needs and backgrounds
 Increased academic competence for students with disabilities
 Improvements in children’s readiness for learning
 Improvements in children’s early literacy and reading
 Increases in graduation rates
 Increases in attendance rates
 Increases in test scores
 Decreases in disciplinary rates
 Decreases in drop-out rates
 Increases in occupational success after school
 Decreased rates of referral for special education
 Decreased rates of referral for early intervention
 Decreased disproportionate placement of children and youth from culturally and
linguistically (ethno-linguistically) diverse backgrounds in special education
 Increased parent confidence in schools because of children’s academic success
Improved social-emotional functioning for all children
 Increased social competence for all students
 Increased social competence for students with diverse needs and backgrounds
 Increased social competence for students with disabilities
 Improved problem solving and coping skills to deal with stressful situations at
home and school.
 Improved social skills with peers, teachers, and families
 Increased positive behaviors
 Increased student resilience
 Enhancement of factors (both internal and external) that contribute to children’s
resilience
 Enhanced mental health status
 Increased psychological well being and safety
 Increased used of social-emotional learning strategies
 Reductions in incidents of school violence
ISSUES/OUTCOMES FOR FAMILIES
Improved parenting skills and increased ability of families to support students
 Increased parent/family skills to promote healthy development.
 Increased capacity for parents to provide for their children through advocacy and
problem solving
 Increased educational and psychological resources for families to develop as
healthy families with healthy children.
 Increased parent training to deal with developmental issues, compliance issues,
knowledge of children's abilities and disabilities, and support for their children's
learning.
 Increased numbers of parent training programs offered in schools conducted by
inter-disciplinary teams, including school psychologists, lawyers, social workers
and educators.
 Increased parent training in positive and effective parenting skills, including
training for parents who come from diverse cultures and those who speak limited
English
 Increased support for positive parenting practices
Enhanced family-school partnerships and parental involvement in schools
 Increased parental support for/involvement in children's education through
collaborative problem solving and coordinated prevention/ intervention efforts.
 Increased family connection to school
 Increased participation of parents as partners with schools in the learning process
 Increased family involvement in multiple systems of support and services,
including schools
 Increased parent satisfaction with schools and with partnerships with school
personnel
 Increased parental knowledge about their importance in their children's education
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Increased opportunities for positive involvement of all families and family
members
Improved quality of home-school partnerships
Increased parental advocacy for schools
Increased communication and collaboration between families and schools regarding
children’s education and other services within the school and community.
Increased school collaboration and communication with all families at all levels
Increased school collaboration and communication with families from culturally,
economically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds
Increased school collaboration and communication with families of children with
disabilities
Increased home-school notes, homework help, parent-teacher conferences, parentpsychologist consultation, and IEP attendance and participation
ISSUES/OUTCOMES FOR SCHOOLS
More effective education and instruction for all learners
 Increased quality of appropriate and effective instructional practices, regardless of
special education eligibility status, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic, and other
factors
 Increased use of early identification and prevention programs using empirically
proven techniques (e.g., Direct Instruction, CBM) to maximize academic success
(especially in early literacy/reading)
 Improved teaching practices using empirically supported programs and reduced
gaps between school programs and efficacy data (e.g. more effective teaching
practices, effective school climate, methods of teaching reading, retention, violence
prevention, etc.)
 More accurate and effective education and special education planning, based on
needs rather than current categorical models.
 Increased strategies and programs to meet the needs or learning styles of lower
level students (slow learners, ESOL, etc.)
 Enhanced instructional practices that address diversity issues
 Increased effective use of positive behavior interventions through the understanding
and application of functional behavior assessment.
 Decreased reliance on high-stakes tests, and increased reliance on other variables
that take into the ecologies that impact the child’s learning and success (e.g., highschool success/performance, individual persistence, culture, motivation, reasoning
skills, creativity, interpersonal skills, writing skills, and prior achievement).
 Improvement in measures of academic achievement that guide effective instruction
 Improved identification of educational needs, with greater specificity in
interventions, so as to strengthen the link between intervention and need identified
 Increased general education classroom opportunities and resources for children with
learning difficulties, employing pre-referral models and a significant increase in
school consultation services.
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Increased data-based decision making and interventions with data based case
management and follow up, directed toward academic functioning and mental
health of all students, by all school personnel
Improved services of school personnel to address a range of student
needs/backgrounds in academic, social, emotional development in both general
education and special education, which would facilitate more flexible pedagogy to
meet their students needs.
Increased child and family services in schools that promote health and mental health and are
integrated with community services
 Greater child and family access to quality comprehensive health and mental health
services through the public schools, including availability of services beyond the
school day
 Increase availability of and access to a broad range of mental health and support
across school and community agencies
 Increased access to reliable school and community-based prevention and
intervention health services that address developmental needs of children and
families
 Increased access to services for young children that reduce the likelihood of
developing more severe pathologies
 Increased access of family-centered services through schools/community agencies
(not "simply treat the child" model)
 Increased school and community mental health services to support needs of
culturally, linguistically, educationally and intellectually diverse learners
 Increased early identification of at risk behaviors of children and adolescents
 Increased preventive, proactive, systemic interventions that support children’s
healthy development (both academic and emotional)
 Expanded programs that integrate health, mental health, safety, and school success
 Redesign of programs to become more outcome/solution oriented.
 Increased interagency collaboration to eliminate service redundancy and service
provider silos
 Increased evidence of safe, caring climates with connected/involved students in the
a significant percentage of the nation's schools
 Increased attention given to the social –emotional needs of children in schools,
including increased opportunities to make children and youth feel that they "matter"
in order to create a greater sense of autonomy, competence and self-esteem
 Increased identification, availability, coordination, and use of effective and efficient
mental health support services, including school psychological services
 Increased use of ongoing formative and summative program evaluations of the
effectiveness, efficiency, costs, and benefits of school psychological services (e.g.,
evaluations have limited benefits and high cost, indirect services (consultation and
in-service training have low costs and broader benefits)
 Increased use of alternative funding sources to allow school psychologists more
time to engage in early intervention and prevention practices.
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Increased clinical training for school psychologists who tend to be the frontline
mental health professionals in the schools