Leadership Specialization in Home-School Consultation and Support for Students with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SED)
This grant responded to state, regional and national needs to train school psychologists as consultants to parents and teachers of children with behavioral and emotional disabilities in the regular classroom. Its focus was on promoting the preparation of school psychologists and utilizing approaches to training related service personnel to benefit children and youth with behavioral/emotional disabilities. The project served to increase recruitment efforts and upgrade the capacity and quality of specialist level school psychological training.
The focus of the program was the development of a home-school consultation/SED specialization in the school psychology program at the University of Nebraska. The consultation specialization emphasized "conjoint behavioral consultation" (CBC), which coordinates services delivered by school psychologists, parents, general and special education teachers, and administrators and additional staff when appropriate. The project specifically promoted increased collaboration among school psychologists, families, special education, and general education to address the complex needs of students with behavioral/emotional disabilities.
This 4-year project was designed to recruit and train six school psychology graduate students per year (a total of 24 students over 4 years). Students were admitted into the Doctoral program in school psychology at the University of Nebraska, with a home-school consultation/SED specialization. As a part of their experiences in the program, students each year worked with five parents and teachers of children with SED in the regular classroom, benefiting up to 30 parents, teachers, and students annually and up to 120 parents, teachers, and students over the duration of the project.
This project was developed with careful and specific attention to Nebraska's Comprehensive System of Personnel Development Plan (CSPD), and it received vigorous support from the State Office of Education (SEA), the Department of Psychology, and numerous local schools who expressed a desire to participate in the project.
For additional information on this investigation, please contact:
Project Key Investigators: Susan Sheridan (PI)
