Stay at Home Technology for School Psychologists

This week our guest post comes from Jason Basinger, a nationally certified school psychologist in the Salt Lake City School District. In this article, Jason provides insight into teleheath and how it can help school psychologists provide services in a distance learning environment.

 Stay at Home Technology for School Psychologists
by Jason Basinger, MS, EdS, NCSP

School psychologists have always had a unique role in the school setting. The structure and intensity of our daily work schedule varies drastically each day, depending on the task at hand. Our responsibilities and focus on assessment and intervention are often not addressed through district policy or school provided trainings. Now, with public schools on soft closure due to COVID-19, school psychologists must consider how telehealth practices can help them provide services in a stay-at-home environment. 

Telehealth services are often synonymous with videoconferencing technologies such as Teams or Zoom, but more broadly, telehealth encompasses any technology that facilitates services provided from a distance. Some behavioral and adaptive assessment tools have rating scales that can be emailed to teachers, parents, and students and completed online (BASC-3, Conners-3, ASRS, etc.). Prior to COVID-19, school psychology telehealth services were already becoming more common, especially in areas that have limited access to service providers. It is now a more pressing concern—how do school psychologists use telehealth practices in an environment with distance learning? 

Research has identified and supported the use of telehealth in school psychology for a variety of tasks. Videoconferencing can be used for conducting problem identification interviews, problem solving consultation, and functional behavior assessment; developing behavior intervention plans; delivering or training teachers in behavior and academic interventions; supporting teacher-conducted preference assessments; and providing in-service professional development. Within a telehealth model, offering parent training, mindfulness strategies, and treatment for anxiety have all been studied and considered appropriate for individual therapeutic services. In comparison to traditional services, studies have found that telehealth services are comparable in effectiveness and are less expensive. Telehealth services also reduce work travel time, and, in some cases, are actually more acceptable to clients than face-to-face interactions. 

However, there are limitations to telehealth practices, particularly for psychoeducational assessments and situations involving suicide risk. Currently there are no viable research studies that support options for administering these specific types of assessment.

At the University of Utah Technology in Training, Education, and Consultation (U-TTEC) Lab, Dr. Aaron Fischer studies technologies that can facilitate school psychology services from a distance. The lab uses HIPAA and FERPA compliant Zoom accounts to engage with teachers at a distance, completing functional assessments and problem identification interviews. In response to the lack of telehealth administration options for cognitive and academic assessments, Dr. Fischer commented that “I [think] it will change with time, but we need people to really dedicate themselves to this work and figure out technology hardware and software to make the experience more immersive for both individuals [the person conducting the assessment and the person being assessed].”

Acknowledging that every district and school has unique needs, it would necessitate that each school psychologist educate themselves on how telehealth practices can be used to help their school population. In some cases, it may make sense to continue using telehealth technologies even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. Consider the following readings: 

Fischer, A. J., Schultz, B. K., Collier-Meek, M. A., Zoder-Martell, K. A., & Erchul, W. P. (2018). A critical review of videoconferencing software to support school consultation. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 6(1), 12–22. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2016.1240129

Fischer, A. J., Collins, T. A., Dart, E. H., & Radley, K. C. (Eds.). (2019). Technology applications in school psychology consultation, supervision, and training. New York, NY: Routledge.

Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., Richardson, B., Lewis, V., Linardon, J., Mills, J., Juknaitis, K., Lewis, C., Coulson, K., O’Donnell, R., Arulkadacham, L., Ware, A., & Krug, I. (2019). A randomized trial exploring mindfulness and gratitude exercises as eHealth-based micro-interventions for improving body satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 95, 58–65. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.028

Rees, C. S., & Maclaine, E. (2015). A systematic review of videoconference-delivered psychological treatment for anxiety disorders. Australian Psychologist 50, 259–264.

Reese, R. J., Slone, N. C., Soares, N., & Sprang, R. (2012). Telehealth for underserved families: An evidence-based parenting program. Psychological Services 9(3), 320–322.

Romani, P. W., & Schieltz, K. M. (2017). Ethical considerations when delivering behavior analytic services for problem behavior via telehealth. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice 17(4), 312–324.