Position Statements

Summary: The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is committed to ensuring that all children receive an appropriate public education, irrespective of race, culture and background, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or educational need. NASP maintains that all students learn best in inclusive environments that implement high quality, science-based instruction.

Summary: NASP supports the use of multi-tiered problem solving strategies to address the behavioral, social, emotional, and academic needs of all students. Problem-solving models provide needed supports to all students in inclusive environments when problems are first identified. When supports are provided in the general education environment, students have continued exposure to science-based core instruction.

Summary: NASP supports equal access to education and mental health services for all youth within public, charter, and private schools. Aggression and intimidation violate the right of students to receive equal educational opportunities and subsequently reduce academic engaged time. Failure to address bullying in the school setting perpetuates an environment that is unsafe and not supportive of academic achievement, social–emotional development, and mental health. NASP believes that school psychologists are ethically obligated to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to learn and develop in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, aggression, violence, and abuse.

Summary: NASP promotes effective mental health and educational services of all youth. To effectively accomplish this task, NASP is firmly committed to increasing the number of culturally and linguistically diverse school psychology students, practitioners, and trainers in school psychology programs. NASP believes that efforts to recruit culturally and linguistically diverse school psychologists can take many forms. Essential actions include, but are not limited to, the use of established recruitment procedures known to be successful with culturally and linguistically diverse individuals, membership assistance in recruitment efforts, the development of graduate programs in geographic regions with large numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse residents, and the use of research to develop more effective recruitment strategies.

Summary: NASP strongly believes that all school psychologists must be aware of how to meet the needs of students with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and their families, as well as how to contribute to efforts to prevent viral transmission. In addition, NASP believes that services to prevent HIV in youth must be broadly designed to address all aspects of healthy adolescent development, and include efforts to keep children and teens in school (Pettifor et al., 2008).

Summary: NASP is committed to enhancing the academic, behavioral, and social competence of all students across the span of schooling from early childhood through matriculation to postsecondary settings. The goal of enhancing student competence cannot be accomplished by schools or educators alone, and requires multitier systems of support (MTSS). Families are essential in this endeavor. Thus, NASP supports partnering between families and educators to accomplish shared goals for student competence.

Summary: NASP recognizes that school psychologists are uniquely suited to promote best practices in assessment. Assessment is the process of gathering information to guide educationally relevant decisions. The process and products of assessment contribute to defining problems, identifying student assets and needs, determining current levels of the student functioning, estimating the rate of progress toward well defined goals, evaluating and recommending services to accelerate learning, and evaluating program outcomes (Ysseldyke et al., 2007).

Summary: NASP supports that all youth have equal opportunities to participate in and benefit from educational and mental health services within schools regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Harassment, lack of equal support, and other discriminatory practices toward LGBTQ youth violate their rights to receive equal educational opportunities, regardless of whether the discrimination takes the form of direct harassment of individuals or is directed at the entire group through hostile statements or biases. Failure to address discriminatory actions in the school setting compromises student development and achievement. NASP believes that school psychologists are ethically obligated to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity for the development and expression of their personal identity in a school climate that is safe, accepting, and respectful of all persons and free from discrimination, harassment, violence, and abuse. To achieve this goal, education and advocacy must be used to reduce discrimination and harassment against LGBTQ youth by students and staff and promote positive social–emotional and educational development.

Summary: NASP is committed to advocating for the rights, well-being, and educational and mental health needs of all students. These positive outcomes for children and youth are only possible in a society that guarantees equitable treatment to all people, including children and youth. NASP firmly believes that regardless of race, all students are entitled to an education that affirms and validates their cultural identity and nourishes their resilience.

Summary: NASP fully supports and encourages improvements in the education of and service delivery to students who are deaf or hard of hearing and their families. NASP supports having only qualified personnel conduct assessments of students who are deaf or hard of hearing to ensure access to effective instruction. Achieving this goal involves ongoing professional development for school psychologists who serve students who are deaf or hard of hearing. It is essential that all school psychologists understand that each student’s culture and individuality must be respected and integrated into all school psychological services.

Summary: Supervision of educators is essential to school improvement and student success. Through professional supervision, the practices of administrators, teachers, and support personnel are observed, monitored, and evaluated to ensure implementation of appropriate and up-to-date services. The roles and functions of school psychologists are summarized in the NASP Practice Model and related documents (e.g., NASP position statements). Supervision serves to protect the public and improve educational outcomes (Sergiovanni & Starratt, 2007). Therefore, it is essential that all school practitioners have access to knowledgeable professional supervision.

Summary: The purpose of this position paper is (a) to summarize existing National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) policy, state and federal mandates, and approved federal graduate education standards as it applies to the necessary use of the title “school psychologist” by specialist- and doctoral-level school psychologists; and (b) to summarize the critical need for continued use of the title “school psychologist” among specialist- and doctoral-level school psychologists as they meet the daily behavioral, academic, and social–emotional needs of the students they support.