Sustainable leadership practices are essential to the health of any association and should be seen as a priority to ensure continuity of services to its members. These practices are two-pronged: (a) creating, with intentionality, a leadership pipeline to recruit and identify new leaders, and (b) providing current leaders with the support needed to…

The NASP advocacy team and Government and Professional Relations (GPR) Committee have been working tirelessly to advocate for the profession, solutions to the shortages, school safety, and access to comprehensive school mental health services. This article provides a brief summary of the critical advocacy work that has occurred over the last…

In 2011, National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) launched its first online self-assessment tool to help school psychologists evaluate their own practices across the 10 domains outlined in the "Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services," also referred to as the NASP Practice Model. Since NASP…

Advocacy has been a core function and expectation of school psychologists for over 50 years (Oyen et al., 2020; Skalski, 2012). It can take many forms, from staying up to date on critical issues in research to writing letters to elected officials to communicate support for proposed legislation. Given that school psychology state associations…

NASP has long focused on efforts to remedy the shortages in school psychology and it has been a strategic goal of the organization since 2012. NASP, state school psychology associations, and individual school psychologists have devoted countless hours to examining the myriad variables that impact the shortages and to propose and enact solutions.…

Just as school psychologists have had to adapt to the evolving requirements to stay safe and protect students, so have the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and state associations. In February 2021, NASP held a virtual convention with over 9,000 in attendance. State associations have also made adjustments in response to this…

The May 2021 "Communiqué" article, "Professional Practice: Disruptive Innovation Defines Leadership Opportunities: Membership Engagement," explored how the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and state associations transitioned with disruptive innovation practices to support members during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

The author became involved with the Washington State Association of School Psychologists' (WSASP) legislative advocacy work in 2013. At the time, WSASP was not actively engaged in legislative advocacy work, and was the smallest of many clients of a lobbyist paid to represent their interests. In that year, the Washington State Legislature proposed…

According to a sample of National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) members surveyed in 2015, roughly 5% of the association's members serve as administrators in a school system (Walcott & Hyson, 2018). For many, this career path evolves from a school psychologist role to a system-level administrator role supervising school…

The Early Career Spotlight column aims to illustrate accomplishments, or problems that are overcome, by early career school psychologists. In each column, a different school psychologist or NASP leader is featured. This issue features questions and answers with Libby Malone, who works as a school psychologist for Denver Public Schools at West…

At the request of President Trump in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, a Federal Commission on School Safety was assembled to provide meaningful and actionable recommendations to maintain student safety in schools. This article summarizes the overarching points of the Commission's report and shares concerns raised the National Association of…

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and ASD are two common neurobiological disorders in school-age children. In fact, approximately 6.4 million children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD since 2011 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). More recent prevalence estimates suggest that five percent of all…

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Exposure Project (NASP-EP) began as an initiative of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Multicultural Affairs Committee (MAC), and specifically the African American Subcommittee, the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and High School Exposure Project.…

After more than 36 years as a teacher and school psychologist, the author decided that it was time for her to retire at the end of last school year (2011-2012). She spent her career as school psychologist trying to make a difference in the lives of the children and families that she served. But before she retired her WISC test kit, stopwatch, and…

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) established a policy in 1989 mandating a national study of the field every 5 years. The purpose of the studies was to generate a comprehensive description of the field of school psychology across the United States, as well as to allow for analyses of changes in the field over time. The first…