As school psychologists, our role is to support the learning, behavior, and mental health of all children. Whether in a general education classroom or Exceptional Children's (EC) classroom, we strive for our students to gain and generalize skills that will allow them to be successful academically, behaviorally, socially, and emotionally. In order to do so, we work very closely with parents, teachers, administrators, and support staff to facilitate home, school, and community collaboration.
While we wear many hats, one of our major responsibilities is to conduct comprehensive evaluations. These assessments and reports help the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team decide if a student has a disability that negatively affects their educational performance to such a degree that they require special education services. Evaluations are multidisciplinary and depend on the referral concerns; therefore, they will be different for every child. They may include measures of cognitive, academic, social/emotional, and adaptive skills in addition to assessments that would be conducted by related service providers (such as speech/language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists). The goal of these evaluations is to create a complete picture of your child so that together, as an IEP Team, we can make the best determination regarding placement and services.