school psychologist

kiwi strawberry

Tue, Aug 26 2014, 1:16 am

Not a good field to go into at all, and has been so for several years already. After I got my BA in psychology and wanted to go for school psychology, several school psychologists advised me against it. The state changed a lot of requirements regarding who can do testing, which affected many school psychologists including those who were working for many years. I have a good friend who is a school psychologist and she does not have any jobs. She officially works for 2 agencies but neither give her substantial work at ALL. Another good friend's husband is a school psychologist and he just recently changed careers. I might be able to put you in touch with some school psychologists if you are interested.

Hatzlacha.

kiwi strawberry

Tue, Aug 26 2014, 1:17 am

Most of the people who I know who are/were school psychologists went to Touro. Also want to add that if you are bilingual (think Spanish) then you would be much more in demand and that might change your prospects significantly.

amother

Tue, Aug 26 2014, 3:19 am

Unfortunately, while the field is very interesting in theory, it's really a very narrow niche. It used to be that each school had a school psychologist who was in charge of counseling, psych/ed testing, assessments, behavioral modification plans. Nowadays it's generally that psych testing is done by a PhD/PsyD, Ed testing by a special ed teacher, counseling by a social worker, etc.. Therefore, generally you have 1 school psychologist per several schools - and that's public schools. Many yeshivas employ social workers as the full-time counselors instead of school psychologists as well. And since the job market is declining in this area, most people remain in their positions "forever". See, as a school psychologist, all you can do is work in a school. Therapists (speech, ot, pt and social workers) can work anywhere - agencies/home care, nursing homes, hospitals and clinics. That's a major limiting aspect for school psychologists (agencies, etc. basically only hire PhD school psychologists at this point). Unless you go for your PhD or PsyD... then you have many more doors open to you including private practice.

As a school psychologist who went back to school for a second career due to the difficult job market and job prospects, I of course understand how intriguing the field is - but maybe try to find a field that is similar with broader job prospects.