Comprehensive School Psychologists

• Introduction
• Program Overview
• Principal Testimonials
• MTSS Team Member Testimonials
• Program Outcomes
• Program Outcome Progress Data
• Students Served
• Top 5 Services Provided
• Priority Services
• 22-23 End of Year Comprehensive School Psychologist Report

Dear PPS Leaders,

We are excited to share that we were awarded a Federal US Department of Education School Based Mental Health (SBMH) grant to expand the comprehensive school psychologist program to all PPS' school designated as Title I at the time of the grant award. The comprehensive school psychologist program provides additional school psychologist time in schools to provide culturally affirming and inclusive MTSS and mental health services. This program has been funded through the Student Success Act for the last three years in seven of PPS' K-5 and K-8 schools including Boise-Eliot/Humboldt, Cesar Chavez, Lent, Rigler, Rosa Parks, Scott and Sitton. Through this $5.5 million dollar five year grant we will scale up the comprehensive school psychologist and Comprehensive School Based Dialectical Behavior Therapy programs. This grant will provide full time school psychologists from diverse backgrounds to provide culturally affirming inclusive services to all twenty-five schools over the duration of the grant. For the 23-24 school year, we will be adding Faubion, Grout, James John, and Woodmere. This newsletter provides an overview of the program and 22-23 end of year report.

Comprehensive school psychologist services have supported both of the primary goals of the Student Success Act: meeting students’ mental and behavioral health needs; and increasing academic achievement and reducing academic disparities for, students of color; students with disabilities; emerging bilingual students; and students navigating poverty, homelessness, and foster care; and other students that have historically experienced disparities in our schools. Since the inception of the program, schools have continued to accelerate learning and provide additional differentiated supports for students. As a result of this work, six of the seven comprehensive school psychologist program schools are no longer designated as comprehensive supports for improvement (CSI). During the 22-23 school year, comprehensive school psychologists provided 8,293 total occurrences of Tier II and III interventions or services, 87.5% of these services were provided to students who have been historically underserved.

The impact of the pandemic and ongoing racial injustice crises have intensified the unmet mental health needs of students. The Department of Education, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association all recommend increasing mental health services in schools to address this crisis. (Department of Education, AAP-AACAP-CHA Declaration of a National Emergency). Though only 16% of youth who need services receive them, 80% of those who receive services do so in school. Staffing school psychologists, who are existing school based qualified mental health professionals, assists in meeting this need.

The comprehensive school psychologist program has maximized school psychologists' time in schools in order to provide preventative services at all three tiers of a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to better meet student needs. Positioning school psychologists to provide preventative services assists with increasing MTSS implementation in schools and disrupts the current patterns in PPS of disproportionate special education identification and discipline of Black, Indigenous, Students of Color and Multilingual students.

Many professionals help to support students’ positive mental health at all tiers; including comprehensive school psychologists, social workers, counselors, nurses, other specialized instructional support personnel and community partners. School psychologists are uniquely trained in the provision of both core academic and social emotional and mental health evidence-based practices at all three tiers of MTSS. School psychologists are also especially skilled in program evaluation to determine effectiveness of services as well as the provision of inclusive services for students with disabilities that are consistent with special education law.

The comprehensive school psychologist program has positioned school psychologists to collaborate with their teams to provide coordinated student services. Collaborative student support teams composed of these roles, who bring different training and experience, ensures comprehensive and effective delivery of services across tiers. (PPS Successful Schools’ Student Service Provider Framework). We are grateful to partner with so many dedicated student service providers to improve conditions for students who have been historically underserved and marginalized.

Warmly,

James Loveland, Senior Director of Student Success and Health

Kristin Irwin NCSP, School Psychologist on Special Assignment

• An additional 0.4 FTE in seven K-5 and K-8 CSI schools to provide preventative MTSS student services funded by the Student Success Act
• $5.5 million dollar five-year SBMH grant to scale up the program to Title I schools
  
• Supervision of school psychologist intern or practicum students

Principals noted the following benefits to their school communities:

• Our AMAZING school psychologist is a true leader. She has a vision for educational equity and inclusion that she puts into practice each day. She works with building leaders, teachers, and students so that each of us can reflect and grow our practices. Students build skills and fade scaffolds over time.
• Taking on the SIT Facilitation and linking and bringing together different departments for student services and evaluations. [This program] is crucial.
• I appreciate her leading our SIT teams and being communicative. It makes the SIT process go faster and smoother.
• Additional perspective and expertise added to our decision making and particularly to our SEL and SIT teams. The added availability and potential to benefit from the additional support throughout the week around data tracking, FBA/BSPs, etc.

• The impact of the school psychologist services on behavior, actions, policies, or practices in our school community is beneficial in highlighting areas of strengths and areas to continue developing.
• Our school psychologist has been able to incorporate her specialty into more schoolwide systems and address the needs of gen-ed students, eliminating the need for higher level intervention or referrals for evaluation.
• Our school psychologist is a great listener. She also provides different perspectives on a problem and listens to possible solutions with an open-minded approach that benefits all team members. She supports our school's communication with families, and her vision to improve our school in supporting our students in accessing services is commendable.
  
• I appreciate our school psychologist's analytical, data-based approach. She is very no-nonsense about interventions, accommodations, and cultural context.
• Our students of color and historically underrepresented families in our community deserve access to the high-quality services provided at their school by our highly qualified and culturally competent school psychologist.
• School Psychologists ARE NOT School Counselors ARE NOT School Social Workers. They have VERY different skill sets and work together to meet the wide variety of academic AND non-academic needs appropriately.

• Increase MTSS Fidelity including Tiered Foundational Reading Instruction & Assessment
• Reduce Disproportionate Special Education Identification
• Reduce Disproportionate Discipline
• Increase MTSS and mental health services and school psychologists from diverse backgrounds

The comprehensive school psychologist program is in its third year of implementation. Implementation science indicates it takes 2-4 years under optimal conditions to implement a program and realize progress towards program outcomes (NIRN).

While it has been a challenging time to implement a new program, we are very excited about the progress in all program outcomes. Additionally, program schools have made more progress in all outcome areas when compared to all PPS schools.

• During the 22-23 school year, comprehensive school psychologists provided 8,293 total occurrences of Tier II and III interventions or services
  

• 45% of comprehensive school psychologists identify as racially diverse

• 100% of comprehensive school psychologists from diverse backgrounds retained

• 80% of school psychologist interns identify as racially diverse

• 60% of interns are bilingual (2 Spanish/English, 1 Chinese/English)

• 18% of comprehensive school psychologists are bilingual Spanish/English

• 60% of newly selected comprehensive school psychologists identify as racially diverse

During the 22-23 school year 87.5% of services were provided to students who have been historically underserved

• Check in Check Out
• SEL Tier II Group
• Individual Counseling
• Attendance Support/Family Student Outreach
• Tier III Foundational Math

Principals identified the following top six priority comprehensive services:

• Individual Student Counseling

• Providing Tier II interventions

• Facilitating/participating in MTSS teams

• FBA/BSP

• Tier I SEL/PBIS Function Based Classroom Strategies

• Staff consultation

Principals identified the following as a top priority school psychologist practicum or internships student service:

• Individual Student Counseling

The 22-23 End of Year Report includes the purpose of the program, student services provided, demographics of students served, principal testimonials, and baseline data for program outcomes.

We appreciate feedback about the report structure and content, feedback survey. If you have any questions, please reach out to Kristin Irwin, School Psychologist on Special Assignment, kirwin@pps.net.