For as long as there has been special education, there has been racially based disproportionality in identification and placement coupled with the concern that some students may be inappropriately identified as disabled. This is especially true for Black students in the categories of emotional disability (ED) and mild mental retardation (MR),…

Four fourth-grade boys participated in an anger management group using "Seeing Red: An Anger Management and Peacemaking Curriculum for Kids" facilitated by a school psychology intern and her supervisor (J. Simmonds, 2003). The group met for 30 min weekly for a total of 14 sessions. Lessons consisted of practicing skills and strategies related to…

The goal of this case study was to describe the cross-cultural consultation experiences of school psychology graduate students as they progressed through a semester-long school-based consultation course. Graduate students enrolled in a consultation course completed both quantitative and qualitative assessment measures. The course instructor used…

Social media has permeated almost every aspect of the lives of anyone who utilizes the internet. Teachers and students are no exception. Students are most likely to use social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. This research focuses on best practices related to augmenting school curriculum to utilize these tools to increase student…

This is a commentary on the article, "Childhood Leukemia Survivors and Their Return to School: A Literature Review, Case Study, and Recommendations" by D. Scott Hermann, Jill R. Thurber, Kenneth Miles, and Gloria Gilbert in this issue (2011). This article addresses issues related to the compatibility of the suggested practices with contemporary…

Identification of children for special education and related services is governed by federal and state education law, specifically the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA was reauthorized in 2004 and the attendant regulations were published in 2006. The reauthorization includes several significant changes, most notably about…

The Concept of Health Locus of Control (HLOC) indicates the personal belief of an individual about who or what affects his/her health. This approach emphasizes the importance of individual responsibility for health, especially in the school years which represent a "critical period" for students to adopt healthy behaviours and lifestyles.…

The number of children and adolescents using prescription medications is continually climbing. The preceding articles have offered discussions on a multitude of areas within this subject matter. This article will serve to summarize some of those points raised with particular emphasis on where we go from here in terms of training and professional…

School psychologists must have a solid understanding of how to evaluate psychological trauma. In their line of work, they have found that the PREPaRE model of school crisis intervention provides important guidance when addressing this issue. Specifically, the PREPaRE model argues that school psychologists need to conduct a needs assessment before…

In an effort to understand how schools are coping with incidents of peer victimization, this study explored the types of related interventions currently being offered by public schools in Northern California. School psychologists' perceptions of the importance of the available interventions were also examined (N = 96). The interventions reported…

Currently, more than two thirds of school-aged children with mental health needs do not receive treatment. By exploring the numerous barriers that limit children's access to mental health care, the authors argue that school psychologists have a key role to play in supporting comprehensive mental health services for children. This article provides…

The school, playground, and neighborhood often come to mind when one thinks about bullying that occurs among children and teens. However, given the significant role technology plays in the lives of today's youth, the potential of these media to function as a venue for social interaction that includes victimization, or cyberbullying, also needs to…

Response-to-intervention (RTI) as applied in several California school districts was investigated by analyzing responses to questionnaires completed by 190 school psychologists representing 142 school districts. This analysis targeted the depth and breadth of RTI in these public K-12 school districts. A majority (80.7%) of the respondents…

This study examines whether the Comer (1996) placement model process reduces the overrepresentation of certain student groups into high-incidence disabilities programs. High-incidence disabilities are those disabilities which require an extensive degree of "professional judgment" by the teacher in determining whether or not a disability exists…

A theory-based approach was used to investigate the relations among Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) initial skill status in the fall of first grade, NWF growth across the school year, and end-of-year oral reading fluency and reading comprehension (RC) skill. Hypotheses were anchored to Perfetti's verbal efficiency theory and the role of automaticity…