Districts Implementation of Active Shooter Drill Policies

High-profile school shootings provoke public outcry and calls for policy responses to gun violence in schools. However, policy makers face pressure from diverse stakeholders with distinct agendas, and in some areas, there is little empirical research to guide policy makers’ decisions. Active shooter drills are one such example of a hotly debated policy response in need of further study. As a preliminary step to filling this research gap, this mixed-methods study investigated how school districts in Florida have implemented active shooter drills following legislation passed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. We analyzed school safety specialists’ perceptions and reports of drill procedures and their alignment with best practices. The majority of the districts surveyed aligned with Best Practices established by the National Association of School Psychologists and National Association of School Resource Officers. Implications for future research and considerations for the implementation of active shooter drills are discussed.

School psychologists’ supporting American Indian students on the path to academic success: a community cultural wealth approach

Purpose This study involves a content analysis of research published from 2000 to 2018 about American Indian students with the principal aim to identify investigations addressing the supportive factors that contribute to student academic success. Secondary aims involved better understanding the parameters of the investigations, such as sample tribal affiliations and journal outlets. Design/methodology/approach Out of 6,341 total articles published in PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO and Education Resources Information Center over the time period, 86 articles covering the pre-school to college age years were identified, almost evenly distributed between pre-college (n = 42, 48.8%); and college age samples (n = 44, 51.2%). The 86 articles account for a mere 1.4% of all published articles over the 19 year period. A community cultural wealth approach (Yosso, 2005) was used as a framework for understanding the myriad of strengths students bring to their school experiences and was used as a lens for interpreting the study findings. Findings When disaggregated, the most common supports for pre-college age youth were culturally-sensitive schooling, personal/intrinsic qualities along with family and social support. For college age students, the most common supports were university personnel, community-based supports and student intrinsic factors. Further results, study limitations and implications are discussed. Originality/value This research is original.

Competency framework of school psychologists in Vietnam schools

A competency framework points out the requisite skills and knowledge of a particular occupation. A competence framework enables institutions to easily identify areas where remedial training may be required; thereby training quality and ultimately public safety could be improved also. This study was conducted to build up a competency framework for school psychologists in Vietnamese. 91 school psychologists, lecturers, and psychologists from Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong Province, Long An Province, Vinh Long Province, Can Tho Province in Vietnam participated in the survey process. The findings of our study showed that the competency framework for school psychologists in Vietnam includes three main components: (1) professional knowledge, (2) counseling skills, and (3) attitude and moral qualities.

Predicting Academic Alienation From Emotion Dysregulation, Social Competence, and Peer Relationships in School-Attending Girls: A Multiple-Regression Approach

School alienation (SA) refers to a collection of negative attitudes toward the social and academic realms of schooling consisting of cognitive and affective components. The current study was designed to examine whether emotion dysregulation, social competence, and peer problems predict school alienation. In this vein, 300 school-attending adolescents in Sarab were recruited and completed difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS), academic alienation questionnaire (AAQ), social competence test (SCT), and index of peer relations (IPR) measures, but 280 (M age = 16.35; SD = 0.82; 46% girls) completed data were gathered. The results of hierarchical multiple regression indicated that school alienation was significantly predicted by emotion dysregulation, social competency, and peer problems. In conclusion, our findings suggest that school psychologists and other clinicians design interventions to improve the students’ shortcomings in emotion regulations, social competency, and peer relationships domains.

Teaching Emotion Regulation: K-12 Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices across the Curriculum

Students can gain a range of skills and knowledge from interactions in schools, including emotional competencies such as regulation of emotions. Teachers are positioned to support students’ development of emotion regulation in the social context of school. We sought to determine K-12 teachers’ sense of responsibility, preparation, engagement, comfort, and approach to teaching students emotion regulation. The quantitative and qualitative data we gathered from 155 general K-12 classroom teachers revealed a sense of responsibility, low preparation, varied engagement, and low to moderate comfort. We found differences by grade levels, school location, and teacher education level. There was moderate alignment between how the teachers regulate their emotions and the emotion regulation processes they teach their students. We share implications for school psychologists and suggest multiple directions for future research.

Childhood diagnoses in individuals identified as autistics in adulthood

Background Autism is a developmental condition, where symptoms are expected to occur in childhood, but a significant number of individuals are diagnosed with autism for the first time in adulthood. Here, we examine diagnoses given in childhood among individuals that are diagnosed with autism in adulthood, to investigate whether the late autism diagnosis might be explained by misdiagnosis in childhood or diagnostic overshadowing. Methods Through the Danish National Patient Registry, we identified individuals diagnosed with autism in adulthood (N = 2199), as well as a control sample with no records of an autism diagnosis (N = 460,798) and calculated how many had received different psychiatric or neurological diagnoses in childhood. Results We found that most childhood diagnoses were overrepresented in those with an adult autism diagnosis, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, affective disorders, anxiety, and stress disorders were the most prevalent childhood conditions in this group. However, 69% of males and 61% of females with adult autism diagnoses were not found to have received any of the investigated diagnoses before 18 years of age, and most childhood diagnoses were given after the age of 12. Limitations Milder to moderate cases of psychiatric conditions that have been solely treated by family physicians or school psychologists may not be fully included in our dataset. The study is based on data from the Danish health care system, and further research is needed to assess whether the findings can be generalized to other countries. Conclusion A majority of those with an adult autism diagnosis had no records of having received any of the investigated diagnoses in childhood. In these cases, the late autism diagnosis is therefore unlikely to be explained by either misdiagnosis or overshadowing. This result is at odds with the prevailing notion that autistic symptoms tend to diminish with age. Therefore, further research is warranted to examine how and if early signs of autism may have manifested among these individuals, and how similar they are to autistic people diagnosed earlier in their development.

Collaborating with Specialized Instructional Support Personnel

This chapter explores collaboration with specialized instructional support personnel (SISP). It provides an overview of SISP members, including school psychologists, school resource officers, school counselors, and school nurses, and explores how school social workers can effectively work with other SISP. It demonstrates the vital importance of establishing trusting and productive working relationships with SISP in order to meet the diverse needs of students and cultivate a positive school environment. Components of interdisciplinary collaboration include trust, flexibility, interdependence, problem solving, and proactive planning. Such interdisciplinary collaboration benefits schools as well as enhancing partnerships with parents and the community. A case study highlights the importance of school social worker partnership and collaboration with SISP teams.

What do Support Professionals do in Schools? Construction and Validation of an Instrument for Assessing Whole-School Prevention and Promotion Strategies

Education policies worldwide have encouraged the entry and permanence of nonteaching support professionals in schools. During the last decade, Chilean regulations have allowed a massive incorporation of these professionals—mostly school psychologists and social workers—in publicly funded schools. However, there is scarce evidence regarding the actions of these professionals, including whether and how they align with whole-school approaches. In this study, we constructed and validated scales to assess professional practices aligned with universal prevention and whole-school approaches deployed by nonteaching professionals in schools. Participants were 329 professionals from municipal, private subsidized, and private Chilean schools. Psychometric properties were analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses for construct validation and with Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency. The results show that the instruments had adequate psychometric properties in terms of validity and reliability, allowing the assessment of four types of practices: individual socioemotional and academic support, group socioemotional and academic support, leadership practices, and interdisciplinary collaborative practices. We argue that these practices can be theoretically organized based on whole-school prevention and promotion strategies. Preliminary mean comparisons show that the most prevalent practice is through individual supports. We highlight the need to provide sound instruments that may allow comprehensive assessments of the actions deployed by nonteaching support professionals in whole-school improvement efforts.