STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF

When I was in graduate school, I wondered why school psychologists are in such high demand. What I didn’t learn in school was that “the major cause of attrition in our field is due to a lack of support from administrators as well as inconsistent district policies, priorities, and role definitions posing barriers to the delivery of comprehensive and integrated services by school psychologists” (NASP, 2017). I can’t even begin to count the times I had cried to my colleagues and husband because I have felt these effects. I often find myself questioning why do I still practice in schools as this profession can be so invalidating.

Many of you school psychologists (nearly 15,000) are a part of the Facebook group, “Said No School Psychologist Ever” where we get ideas for new resources, seek advice on how to interpret data, share very relatable gifs, and seek social support from others. Psychs also use this to vent on how overworked they are, unsupported, and tired. Every day I see posts on people wanting to learn how to get out of the profession. My heart breaks for them.

This year, I have been exploring private practice life. I worked with one student, in particular, that was giving up so quickly, but I wouldn’t let them. “Talk through your process with me. I won’t accept you not trying.” Their reaction appeared as if no one believed enough in the student enough to push them. At one point, the student asked, “you sure you read my file?” I told the student that I read every single page of each student’s file. My job is to help identify what my students need at this time, regardless of their history. When it was time to go, I shook their hand and thanked them for working with me. The student’s eyes opened wide. The student thanked me for “actually listening” and “caring about them and their needs.” The student then told me, “there needs to be more people like you out there that believe in people like me.” My heart broke.

Whenever I take on new cases (within schools and in private practice), I meet with a team. I always seek the teacher’s input on my evaluation findings and including their feedback in the evaluation. Recently, I had a teacher become emotional because she has been a teacher for over 20 years and never knew what a psychologist is capable of doing. Of course, I assumed that I was doing something wrong, but I quickly learned that observing the student in his classes, including the entire team throughout the evaluation, and focusing on “student needs” has not been a common practice. They were saying, “Is this what it’s supposed to look like?” I had every teacher on this team send me an email thanking me for my time, attention to student needs, and not looking at one standard score to base my recommendations. I’m sure I am going to hear that I am disrupting the status quo or something after this meeting, but I am not sorry for listening to the teacher’s concerns, and I am not sorry for doing what’s best for the student.

Whenever I take on new cases (within schools and in private practice), I meet with a team. I always seek the teacher’s input on my evaluation findings and including their feedback in the evaluation. Recently, I had a teacher become emotional because she has been a teacher for over 20 years and never knew what a psychologist is capable of doing. Of course, I assumed that I was doing something wrong, but I quickly learned that observing the student in his classes, including the entire team throughout the evaluation, and focusing on “student needs” has not been a common practice. They were saying, “Is this what it’s supposed to look like?” I had every teacher on this team send me an email thanking me for my time, attention to student needs, and not looking at one standard score to base my recommendations. I’m sure I am going to hear that I am disrupting the status quo or something after this meeting, but I am not sorry for listening to the teacher’s concerns, and I am not sorry for doing what’s best for the student.

This is not the first time I come across these situations. I have worked on many teams where they share that they are so appreciative of my support throughout the evaluation, IEP, meeting, and paperwork process. I continue to have previous case managers from previous placements spanning back five years that still reach out for support and advice. But it is sad to me that this is not the norm.

I am not writing this for your sympathy. I know that there are many of you out there that stand with me. I know there are so many of you that feel defeated with our ridiculous workloads and unrealistic timelines. With the growing burnout of professionals in our fields which only leads to increasing shortages, I know how difficult your job can be. I want you to know that you are not alone.

I refuse to “look the other way” because it’s the easy thing to do. I refuse to lessen my standards just because an attorney or advocate is not involved in the case. I put in the same amount of attention and detail regardless of the circumstance. I refuse to do the bare minimum so I can be spread thin. That’s not what’s best for the student, and that’s not what’s best for my team. The number of times that I have heard to “not collect so much data” or “maybe you don’t need to collaborate so much” or “maybe you don’t have to send a rating scale to all of the student’s core teachers” or (my favorite) “there are neuropsychologists, and then there are school psychologists. You’re up here (neuropsychologist), but it’s okay if you are down here (school psychologist)” literally makes me ill.

The message you send me is that working as a team, making DATA-based decisions, or being thorough is not the standard to aspire to be. This message is that this is not appreciated or valued. This message implies that our students don’t deserve our attention.