Imagine it’s your first day of second grade. You’re feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness as you walk to your classroom. You walk into the wrong one and are greeted with stares from third graders. You quickly turn around and leave the room when you accidentally bump into someone. You look up, and a smiling face greets you, radiating immense warmth, and asks if you’re lost. You nod your head, and tears begin to well in your eyes. This person reassures you and asks you to take a deep “whale breath” before walking you to your classroom and then gives you a high five.

The School Psychologist Shortage

That person is a school psychologist, and our country needs more of them. In November, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) celebrates National School Psychology Week, which recognizes the essential roles they have within schools and communities. The role of school psychologists is so essential that NASP, the American Psychological Association (APA), and even former President Joe Biden have all called attention to the shortage of school psychologists in this country. Experts recommend that schools have one school psychologist for every 500 children, yet the national average is more than 1,000 students to one school psychologist. Despite all this, the profession of school psychology continues to be diminished by other branches of psychology, as well as misunderstood or unknown to lay people.

Think of a school psychologist as a special education teacher, administrator, counselor, and advocate all in one. School psychologists administer psychological assessments; facilitate individual and group counseling; perform interventions; participate in collaborations between schools, communities, and families; engage in consultation; advocate for systems-level changes; and more. School psychologists are known to “wear different hats” due to the broad range of skills that they employ on any given work day. Their strengths and talents know no bounds.

School Psychology’s Origins

The official practice of school psychology emerged in 1896 when Lightner Witmer opened the first psychology clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. Witmer, considered the founder of both clinical and school psychology, created this clinic to develop remediation plans for children presenting with learning, attention, and behavioral problems in school. Many of the children assessed in his clinic met criteria for what is now understood as dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and intellectual disability. The children assessed in his clinic were referred to by teachers, parents, and other school-based professionals.

In his clinic, Witmer and his multidisciplinary team of physicians, social workers, and other professionals worked to diagnose children’s presenting problems through the “clinical method.” This method involved a referral system, testing, review of records, and treatment, which more closely resembled “modern school psychology than it would be to today’s practice of clinical psychology.” Witmer even discreetly implied that the “clinical psychologist” was in fact a “school psychologist,” thus prompting the graduate level of instruction in psychology to be tailored to school teachers and psychologists who work in the schools.

The most important work of this lifetime is raising, educating, and supporting our country’s children, and school psychologists are fully capable of meeting their academic, developmental, behavioral, and psychological needs. Moreover, as schools continue to be unfortunate sites of shootings, bullying and harassment, and in rare instances, suicides, school psychologists remain uniquely capable of responding to these crises and emergencies. They are specifically trained on how to handle crises in uncertain situations, conduct threat assessments, and de-escalate situations. However, even with the abundance of training that they have, school psychologists endure the misperception that their training is somehow less rigorous than that of their colleagues in clinical or counseling psychology.

School psychology students are less likely to secure APA-accredited doctoral internships, which, in part, is attributed to internship directors’ unwillingness to review applications from school psychology students. One potential reason for this unwillingness is the misperception that school psychology students lack preparation in counseling and mental health interventions. This is surprising, considering that the curriculum in clinical, counseling, and school psychology is more similar than it is different.

Furthermore, school psychology graduate students are not only trained to understand school systems and special education law, but they also gain knowledge in clinical and counseling psychology. School psychology graduate students learn about developmental psychopathology, mental disorders, counseling theories, and therapeutic interventions, which form a solid foundation in understanding human functioning.

For quite some time, schools, particularly those in rural areas, have grown accustomed to supporting the needs of students without school psychologists. This is risky territory given how high the stakes are. So how could this issue be solved? For now, the best approach is to encourage prospective applicants to clinical and counseling programs to apply to school psychology programs. If a qualified applicant is interested in working with children, supporting children’s social and emotional learning, being an advocate, and working with families, you are urged to consider this field!