School Psychology
School Psychologists play a supportive role in the identification, assessment, planning, implementation, reporting and evaluation process for students.
The school psychologist may provide consultation to help school-based teams (SBTs), individual teachers, and parents/guardians understand the learning profile of students with diverse learning needs and plan accordingly. For some students, the school-based team, in collaboration with the school psychologist, will determine that a referral is warranted for a psychoeducational assessment.
The school psychologist’s role in completing student assessments is to:
- complete comprehensive psychoeducational assessments for students referred by the school-based team to gain further understanding of the students cognitive, adaptive, academic, behavioural, and social-emotional functioning, and to identify barriers to student achievement.
- diagnose and/or designate specific learning difficulties such as "Specific Learning Disorder," "Intellectual Developmental Disorder” following Ministry of Education and Childcare guidelines.
- recommend interventions and adaptations, modifications and/or accommodations that may be implemented by students, parents/guardians, teachers and/or district staff to the benefit of the referred student.
- interpret assessment results for students, parents/guardians, and teachers by means of a written report accompanied by a post-assessment meeting.
Through the process of collection and interpretation of data, a plan is developed to provide intervention techniques that focus on the student’s individual strengths and needs.
School psychology services are accessed through the school-based team (SBT) process.