School Psychologist

School Psychologist

The School Psychologist is directly responsible to the Director of Pupil Personnel and/or the Assistant Director Pupil Personnel Services and works in liaison with the building principals. The psychologist is expected to provide a full range of school psychological services. He/she will devote his/her efforts toward improving the educational experience of those students with emotional, behavioral and learning disabilities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conducts psychological evaluations to assess intelligence, educational development, perception, and sensory-motor skills and social-emotional skills of students.
• Prepares interpretive reports from psychological assessment in a style that is lucid to other concerned professionals.
• Confers directly with administrators, teachers, parents and students regarding his/her findings, and offers appropriate recommendations to benefit a student referred for a psychological evaluation.
• Provides individual and/or group psychotherapeutic counseling to students in his/her assigned buildings.
• Assists/consults teachers in the development of more effective behavioral management programs in the classroom.
• Participate actively in case evaluation team conferences and offer constructive suggestions for assisting referred students.
• Contacts and cooperates with personnel of medical and community agencies in seeking services for the welfare of referred students.
• Conducts periodic re-evaluation of students as needed and/or as requested.
• Maintains a confidential file of case records on all students who have been evaluated.
• Serves as a resource person concerning learning handicaps for teachers and other school personnel.
• Participate and/or assist in in-service training programs for school personnel.
• Attends schedule staff meetings and committee meetings as needed.
• Keeps abreast of new developments in the field.
• Prepares and submits required reports concerning his/her program of services to the Director of Pupil Personnel.
• Interprets the school psychological services to teachers and parents.
• Maintains a daily log of activities.
• Assists in developing and writing individualized educational programs (IEP) for those students evaluated.
• Performs other related tasks as may be assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Education and Experience: Bachelor's Degree or higher. 5 year's experience preferred.
• Must possess a valid Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) certification as a School Psychologist.
• Must possess a high degree of tact, diplomacy and confidentiality.
• Must be detailed oriented with good organizational skills.
• Must be proficient with computers.

Other Specialized Skills That May Be Required:

• Medicaid billing
• Response to Intervention involvement
• Supervision of Psychologist and Counseling interns
• Crisis Intervention participant
• Member of the Crisis Intervention Teams
• Conduct Functional Behavioral Assessments/Behavior Intervention Plans
• Conduct classroom observations
• Type, copy all reports/clerical work
• Pull and transport student files from central office to building-based team meetings
• Conduct manifestation determinations
• Assist parents (Behavior management instruction, SPED info/education, referrals to community resources)
• Review outside psych evaluations for TEAM

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee must be able to work in a variety of physical positions, including, but not limited to, sitting, standing, stretching, and walking. The employee is regularly required to talk and/or hear. The employee is frequently required to use hands handle or feel. The employee must be able to do physical activities such as, but not limited to, lifting and/or moving up to ten (10) pounds, and occasionally lift items slightly over ten (10) pounds. The use of a step stool may be required to reach the top drawer of a filing cabinet as necessary. Specific vision abilities include close vision.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The duties listed above are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed and is not a comprehensive listing of all functions and tasks performed by positions in this class. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related or logical assignment to the position.