Faculty Publications

Increasing School-Based Mental Health Services with a “Grow Your Own” School Psychology Program

Document Type

Article

Keywords

“Grow Your Own”, School psychology shortage, Re-specialization, School-Based Mental Health Services

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Contemporary School Psychology

Volume

26

First Page

22

Last Page

33

Abstract

There is a nationwide shortage of school psychologists, and while NASP has recommended ways to increase recruitment and retention, the research on recruiting and retaining school psychologists, especially in high-need areas, is limited. Teacher education researchers have begun to address teacher shortages through “grow your own” training programs, but the research on these programs is also limited. A team of university school psychology faculty and regional education agency administrators developed a “Grow Your Own” school psychologist re-specialization training program to support recruiting and retaining school psychologists in rural areas. It is difficult for rural education agencies to recruit young professionals to their area, but it may be possible to recruit professionals currently living in the area to school graduate training programs. The partnership between the university school psychology training program and the regional education agencies addresses the school psychology shortage in one Midwestern state by recruiting special education and related educational professionals to school psychology. A focus of this program is to place more mental health professionals (i.e., school psychologists) in rural schools, therefore addressing the deficiency of mental health services in these rural areas. The partnership and the program are described, as are opportunities and challenges that the team has experienced to date.

Department

Department of Educational Psychology, Foundations, and Leadership Studies

Original Publication Date

1-21-2021

DOI of published version

10.1007/s40688-020-00348-z

Link to Full Text

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