I interviewed Dr. Linda Vandaveer, a school psychologist with the Simi Valley Unified School District, on February 4, 2016. I saw her at Katherine Elementary School, and she also works with two other schools in the district. I found the interview enjoyable and interesting.
At Katherine Elementary School Dr. Vandaveer has her own portable where she can test students. Her desk is in one corner and there was a kidney-shaped table with a few chairs close by. Other than a couple filing cabinets the room was fairly sparse and the walls were bare
At student can be referred for special services by a parent, teacher, or principal. A studentstudy team is then set up to evaluate the child. The team includes the school psychologist, who is the coordinator of the team, the principal, the child’s teacher, the special education teacher, speech specialist, upper and lower grade teacher representatives, and the parents. The parents can also bring other people, including a therapist.
The school psychologist then assigns individuals in the student study team to perform certain tests. The psychologist does four hours of testing broken up over a couple of days, the speech specialist does around two hours of testing, and the special education teacher spends around three hours testing the child. The teacher and parents provide information about the child. The information gathered includes intellectual function, visual motor integrations, behavior rating scales, parent and teacher reports,
Following the interview conducted with a school psychologist, I was able to obtain a sense of Mrs. Montgomery’s basis for her practice, including her target clients, assumptions and values, goals and various roles of consultation, counseling, intervention and program evaluation (Sandoval, 1986). Mrs. Montgomery may be characterized as a school psychologist who places particular emphasis on the need to improve the student and systems’ capability.
The Special Education team for learning disabilities will test the student. These students have shown signs of continuous problems with interventions in place. Psychologist, psychiatrist, and any other testing will be conducted with parental consent have evaluated the student. Parents will be mandated to attend all assessment evaluations and the team shall review the findings for referral back to tier two or upgrade student to tier four for special educational services based on educational or problematic behaviors.
The role of the TSS in the school is to enhance the classroom experience of the child who would be unable to benefit from educational opportunity due to severe emotional psychiatric and behavioral difficulties a TSS works in the community and school, the purpose of having a TSS in the school is to primarily work with a child’s mental health treatment and is reliable to follow as dictated in the treatment plan to interact with others children to support the development of socialization skills and peer relationships. developing a collaborative relationship with the teacher
The school psychologist then assigns individuals in the student study team to perform certain tests. The psychologist may do four hours of testing broken up over a couple of days, the speech specialist does around two hours of testing and the special education teacher spends around three hours with the child. The teacher and parents provide information about the child. The information gathered include intellectual function, visual motor integrations, behavior rating scales, parent and
| |all of their special needs students to the Foundation |and available resources; strategies are then selected |
The Parent Information Center on Special Education outlines eligibility and the assessment progress as “Once all the evaluations are completed, the diagnostic team develops a written summary of the test results into an (Evaluation Team Report/ETR). Next,
Kristen Hurd is the licensed school psychologist for Springfield School District. Her role in special education is to perform psychological evaluations for students in the district. She identifies students who may need a 504 plan and performs screenings for every student. Her direct responsibility of meeting the needs of students with exceptionalities is to identify the student’s disabilities. Once the disability is determined, Kristen can make recommendations to the teaching staff while providing support to them. In addition, she will also provide support for the family. One of her biggest roles in the district is to coordinate any Manifestation Determination Hearings that may arise during the school year. Along with coordinating the hearings, Kristin also manages the other crisis staff in an emergency situation.
I chose the position paper School Psychologists Involvement in Assessment. This position statement interests me as I am pursuing my school psychometry certification because it provided detailed information pertaining to the roles and responsibilities of the school psychologist. Additionally, it addressed outlined their involvement in the assessment process with school-aged children to determine best practices, strategies, and interventions ensuring students success.
If a parent believes that their child is in need of special education services, a written request must be sent to the Child Study Team and it is treated as a formal referral. School district personnel, such as a child’s teacher, may suspect, through classroom observations, that a child may have a disability and can make a referral to the child study team. Within 20 calendar days of receiving a referral, the complete child study team must hold a meeting with the parent and the student’s teacher to determine if an evaluation is warranted and the scope of that evaluation. Typically learning, psychological, and social assessments are ordered. Additional evaluations that may be ordered include speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychiatric, and/or neurological assessments. If the parent attends the initial determination meeting and evaluations are warranted, the parent can sign consent at that time or refuse. The school district has 90 calendar days to complete the evaluations, and if eligible, develop and implement an individualized education program (IEP). If it is determined that evaluations will not be conducted, recommendations may be made with respect to interventions or services to be provided in general education. The child study team must inform the parent in writing of the decision to evaluate at least 15 calendar days before conducting the evaluation. If the parent refuses, the school district may request a due process hearing before an
When I got there, I walked into the room and headed straight to a table at the back of the room. The table sat surrounded by bookshelves that were set up in a wide U shape that wrapped around the table. While I sitting I noticed the table had six chairs and the shelves were full of learning activity materials and other items that would lead one to believe the table was there for group activities and learning. There where top and bottom cupboards along the right wall with a counter with a student filing system. Along the left there were bottom cupboards with a fish tank on the counter. That was also lined with windows for allowing natural lighting in the room. In the from left corner the teachers desk sat at an angle to face the center of the class. The student’s desks were pushed together in four tables of four, and one table of five. The tables were all angled and staggered in a way that every student could see the front of the room. It was a great set up to create an interactive atmosphere among the students.
Inside of the classroom there was a different objective I observed such as three calendars, three tables, a cabinet, 15 pack backs on the shelves and glitter. There were 2 flags, four plants and children sitting and lunch set. There were wood blocks, children pictures, pencil and crayons. There was hand paint, one clock and three rugs. There was three teachers and one with it an apron on.
The role of a School Psychologist is vital to our education system. A School Psychologist has the privilege of working closely with teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, and most importantly, children in order to ensure their educational needs are being fully met. While some schools might primarily focus on academics, development on the whole child is so much more than that. I find the role of a school psychologist one that advocates for the success of a child, including their social and emotional development, even when no one else does. For that reason, I have gained interest in the field of school psychology and aspire to become an advocate for children. I have been fortunate enough to work with children of various ages, backgrounds, and cultures since I was 16. I grew to love the way children think and viewed the world and have always enjoyed guiding youth. However, I also felt
In the first chapter it talks about the targeting population served through interactive teaming. These targeting populations include those who are at risk students and the students having difficulty with school failure as well as the groups of school age students who are currently identified having special needs or placed in special needs programs or including students in regular education classrooms with related services. One of these programs is the students of special education programs within this program as stated in chapter one in the book there are 4 disability categories account for the majority of students from 6-21, including these specific learning disabilities as in
Throughout the years, schools have had to take on much more responsibility than just making sure that students are learning the material. Schools are now facing new challenges such as violence in schools, children that may be mentally or emotionally challenged, and basically being a caretaker for hundreds of kids, 365 days out of the year. With the new challenges, comes more responsibility and accountability which means adjusting accordingly. This is where the job of a school psychologist is of upmost importance. In the past, the role of the school psychologist has been solely to work with mentally challenged children. However, with the constantly changing demands that schools are facing, school psychology has broadened the field by transitioning from working with students individually to putting more focus into evidence-based work with families, classrooms, home-school partnerships, consultation and etc. (cite). The role of a school psychologist includes working with students, teachers, and other staff to help students excel academically, maintain healthy social relationships, manage emotions, exhibit healthy behavior and overall, create a supportive learning environment. They may also work with families, community, and school administration to make sure that students are in a safe school climate and explore ways to improve student success (American Psychological Association, 2016). School psychologists have had to broaden their training and expand their reach and
In RTI, assessment is made to determine the results of data-based instruction for the student and communicated to parents before the referral is made for formal special education assessment.