What does a school psychologist do?
School psychologists are knowledgeable professionals whose responsibilities include identifying, addressing, and overcoming the educational and behavioral needs of school-aged children. They generally work in schools and focus their observations on children and youth who often face issues related to education, social relationships, decision-making, as well as managing emotions. They help families, counselors, and members of the community understand and solve these issues the children may encounter. Additionally, they provide comprehensive psychological services to help students achieve academic, behavioral, social, and emotional success.
School psychologist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real school psychologist resumes:
- Work alongside grade-level teachers and lead small math groups for both remedial and advance students.
- Lead small student groups addressing social skills, friendship-making, divorce, ADHD, organizational skills and homework completion.
- Provide brief evidence-base individual, couple, and group psychotherapy to veterans refer for mental health treatment.
- Provide individual and family interventions to geriatric patients in nursing home facilities for long term care and rehabilitation treatment.
- Participate on the weekly DBT consultation team.
- Motivate kids to stay in school and improve their social skills.
- Serve as field educator for first and second year MSW students.
- Coordinate the classes for all school levels k-12 for drug intervention.
- Examine and to develop scope and sequence of the mathematics curriculum.
- Provide supervision of interns and practicum students within APA accredit training program.
- Plan and implement IEP's; as well as, co-facilitating PPT's.
- Provide outpatient individual, couples, and group psychotherapy for active duty and discharge veterans.
- Provide a CBT group for anxiety and depression incorporating DBT skills, and interpersonal skills training.
- Collaborate with 5th - 8th grade math teachers and faculty to ensure student is receiving the appropriate level of support
- Provide supervision in cognitive-behavioral therapy to psychiatry residents.
School psychologist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 18% of School Psychologists are proficient in Professional Development, Mental Health, and Psychological Services. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Integrity, and Observational skills.
We break down the percentage of School Psychologists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Professional Development, 18%
Co-facilitated professional development session on integrating social-emotional learning into academic instruction.
- Mental Health, 13%
Designed and delivered presentations for school faculties to introduce new educational initiatives and to raise awareness of student mental health issues.
- Psychological Services, 7%
Provided psychological services for kindergarten through sixth grade students including assessment, individual counseling, teacher consultation and in-service training.
- K-12, 7%
Provided comprehensive school psychology services for students K-12 including psycho-educational assessment, intervention, counseling, and consultation with school staff.
- Crisis Intervention, 4%
Participated in crisis intervention meetings and evaluations, and presented recommendations for appropriate courses of action.
- Autism, 3%
Complete re-evaluations and functional behavioral assessments for children who are classified with emotional disturbance, autism, and specific learning disabilities.
"professional development," "mental health," and "psychological services" are among the most common skills that school psychologists use at work. You can find even more school psychologist responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a school psychologist to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "psychologists must examine the information they collect and draw logical conclusions." School psychologists often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "analyzed data collected in order to determine the effectiveness of bips created. "
Integrity. Another essential skill to perform school psychologist duties is integrity. School psychologists responsibilities require that "psychologists must keep patients’ problems in confidence, and patients must be able to trust psychologists’ expertise in treating sensitive problems." School psychologists also use integrity in their role according to a real resume snippet: "implemented integrity counseling and psychological evaluation. "
Observational skills. school psychologists are also known for observational skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to school psychologist responsibilities, because "psychologists study attitude and behavior." A school psychologist resume example shows how observational skills is used in the workplace: "administered psycho-educational assessments and wrote psychological reports.collected observational information on students.consulted with paraprofessionals, teachers, and students parents/guardians. "
Communication skills. A big part of what school psychologists do relies on "communication skills." You can see how essential it is to school psychologist responsibilities because "psychologists must have strong communication skills because they spend much of their time listening to and speaking with patients or describing their research." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical school psychologist tasks: "facilitated intake assessments, telecommunication crisis and interventions with faculty, parents, and staff consultations. "
Interpersonal skills. Another common skill required for school psychologist responsibilities is "interpersonal skills." This skill comes up in the duties of school psychologists all the time, as "psychologists study and help individuals, so they must be able to work well with clients, patients, and other professionals." An excerpt from a real school psychologist resume shows how this skill is central to what a school psychologist does: "created interpersonal trauma clinic to treat veterans with interpersonal trauma, including mst, childhood abuse and domestic abuse. "
Problem-solving skills. Another skill commonly found on school psychologist job descriptions is "problem-solving skills." It can come up quite often in school psychologist duties, since "psychologists need problem-solving skills to collect information, design research, evaluate programs, and find treatments or solutions to mental and behavioral problems." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day school psychologist responsibilities: "provided focus based individual and group therapy to adolescents in the areas of substance use, behavioral modification and conflict resolution. "
The three companies that hire the most school psychologists are:
- ProCare Therapy1,618 school psychologists jobs
- Soliant822 school psychologists jobs
- AlphaVista Services197 school psychologists jobs
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Compare different school psychologists
School psychologist vs. Educational diagnostician
School performance is assessed through surveys, students' conduct, and a curriculum check. This work is assigned to an educational diagnostician. After students' behavioral and cognitive development, they check for delays and report them to appropriate personnel. They regularly communicate with parents and guardians to appropriately manage the child. On the budgetary aspect, educational diagnosticians are also tasked to allocate money to the school's different processes, such as research and events. They record these students' milestones and report them to parents.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a school psychologist are more likely to require skills like "mental health," "psychological services," "crisis intervention," and "autism." On the other hand, a job as an educational diagnostician requires skills like "dismissal," "state laws," "state board," and "assessment findings." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Educational diagnosticians tend to make the most money working in the government industry, where they earn an average salary of $51,946. In contrast, school psychologists make the biggest average salary, $70,749, in the education industry.On average, educational diagnosticians reach higher levels of education than school psychologists. Educational diagnosticians are 13.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 7.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.School psychologist vs. School counseling internship
A school counseling internship is a student program where an intern is assigned to help school counselors deal with students' social and emotional development or educational needs. School counseling interns must aid their school counselors in developing a comprehensive school counseling program and adjusting schedules for their students. They help maintain student records and monitor their students' graduation status while guiding all students on caseload. School counseling interns also organize school-to-career guidance activities or bi-annual interactive training sessions for faculty members.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real school psychologist resumes. While school psychologist responsibilities can utilize skills like "psychological services," "autism," "behavior management," and "adaptive," school counseling interns use skills like "iep," "conflict resolution," "powerpoint," and "financial aid."
School counseling interns may earn a lower salary than school psychologists, but school counseling interns earn the most pay in the education industry with an average salary of $44,038. On the other hand, school psychologists receive higher pay in the education industry, where they earn an average salary of $70,749.Average education levels between the two professions vary. School counseling interns tend to reach lower levels of education than school psychologists. In fact, they're 17.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 7.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for school psychologists in the next 3-5 years?
Terry Pettijohn Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Gupta College of Science
School psychologist vs. Psychotherapist
A Psychotherapist's responsibility is to help clients who suffer from symptoms like depression, anxiety, and other behavioral problems. They work with individuals, couples, and families.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, school psychologists are more likely to have skills like "professional development," "psychological services," "k-12," and "autism." But a psychotherapist is more likely to have skills like "social work," "patients," "individual therapy," and "diagnostic assessments."
Psychotherapists earn the best pay in the professional industry, where they command an average salary of $67,081. School psychologists earn the highest pay from the education industry, with an average salary of $70,749.Most psychotherapists achieve a higher degree level compared to school psychologists. For example, they're 16.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 4.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.School psychologist vs. School psychological examiner
A school psychological examiner specializes in assessing the students' and faculty's psychological health. Among their responsibilities include conducting interviews and evaluations, performing background checks, addressing concerns, answering inquiries, and providing psychological support to students, faculty, and school staff. They may also respond to crises, conduct interventions, maintain records, and refer clients to other services as necessary. Moreover, a school psychological examiner must coordinate with other professionals in addressing psychological issues and concerns, resolving situations to maintain a safe and healthy learning environment for everyone.
Types of school psychologist
Updated January 8, 2025
