If you didn’t catch the first post in this series, check out this post about graduate school advice.  I was fortunate to gather a bunch of amazing advice from School Psychologists all over the country.

In general, if you’ve read this blog before, you probably know that I LOVE the career of School Psychology.  I love sharing about my role, but I often get questions from future students around the country asking about my role.  I feel lucky to be able to share here today the answer to this question I asked 17 other School Psychologists around the U.S.!

“What do you spend most of your days as a School Psych doing?”

“Typing paperwork and sitting in meetings (I have between 75-90 eligibility meetings per year, plus a variety of other types of IEP and problem-solving team meetings). Otherwise I’m testing students or analyzing student data.” -Kelly, Illinois (Pre-K-4)

“I spend the majority of my time doing student evaluations, completing paperwork/reports, participating in IEP meetings, and consulting with teachers. In my position, we serve as pseudo-special ed coordinators for districts who don’t have their own, so we do a lot of fielding coordinator-type questions.” -Hannah, Illinois (Pre-K-8)

“I work in a Title 1 school with a high needs population. I spend a majority of my day working with kids on IEP goals, in our Signifant Support needs room, or handling crisis. I am also our SpEd team lead, so I am working on IEPs and some case management duties.” -Ana, Colorado (K-5)

“Most days are split between counseling and conducting assessments. Lately it’s been about 60% counseling and 40% assessing.” -Amanda, California (6-8)

“Assessment, putting out fires, consulting with staff and administration advocating for students” -Jen, California (High School)

“Observations, testing, and consult with school staff and teachers” -Sydnee, Idaho (Elementary & High School)

“The majority of my time is spent completing evaluations. I seem to spend a lot of time in meetings (Student Assistance Program, Child Study, Data Review, PBIS committee, IEP, etc.) A small portion of my time is spent counseling students. That is the part I’d like to increase.” -Jennifer, Pennsylvania (EI to 6)

“70% of my time is dedicated to providing direct instruction in social skills to students receiving special eduction. I consult with IEP teams regarding social and behavioral interventions and track student progress. 30% of my time is spent completing overflow psychoeducational evaluations. These activities primarily occur across five elementary school buildings in a suburban district of about 6,000 students.” -Samantha, Pennsylvania (K-5)

“Observations, testing, and consult with school staff and teachers” -Monica, New Jersey (Pre-k-8)

“I counsel students as per their IEP mandates. I also spend a lot to time consulting with teachers on various behavior management strategies, reviewing data, implementing behavior interventions and writing FBA’s/BIP’s. As well as managing and review the progress the school wide PBIS program. On a biweekly basis I go into the classrooms and implement our social emotional curriculum that goes along with our PBIS values.” Jasmine, New York (Special Education School)

“Every day is different! In my role, I am responsible for conducting evaluations (cognitive / academic /social-emotional), counseling both IEP and informal students, conducting FBA/BIPs, conducting risk assessments, helping to implement RTI. It is a lot for one person!” -Diana, New York (K-4)

“Direct IEP services (counseling, social skills), crisis intervention, evaluations, attending meetings (IEP, 504, 3 year re-evaluation, and grade level/admin team)” -Erin, Massachusetts (K-8)

“Evaluations, counseling, and consultation. But mostly paperwork.” -Garbiela, Massachusetts (K-3)

“I am mainly evaluating but have make it a point to be available to consult for SSTs and PBIS. I also do informal check ins with students, almost like an intervention prior to referring them to mental health (we have an agency that does our district counseling).” -Steph, California (7-8)

“I spend about 15% of my time in meetings, 15% of my time conducting evaluations and writing reports, 50% of my time counseling, and 20% of my time working on special projects. Right now, I’m helping one of my principals on a recidivism project to better plan and prevent kids from returning to the alternative setting.” -Lindsey, Virginia (Pre-K-12)

“I conduct evaluations most of the time. I also get to counsel several kids per week and participate meaningfully in the RtI process at each one of my schools.” -Melissa, Tennessee (K-5)

“testing/evaluating, reporting, consultation” -Kayla, Kansas (K-12)