Solve it with Data
A fourth-grade team says, “Nothing works with this student.” The school psychologist combines classroom observations, work samples, screening results, family input, and progress-monitoring data to define the problem and determine the next intervention.
What is Domain 1: Data-Based Decision Making?
(Multiple sources of data are being used within a problem-solving process to make a decision about a specific student.)
A teacher has a promising classroom intervention, but it is difficult to use consistently. The school psychologist meets with the teacher to simplify the plan, practices the steps with them, and schedules brief check-ins to support implementation.
What is Domain 2: Consultation and Collaboration?
(The psychologist’s primary intervention is helping another adult implement a plan effectively.)
Universal screening shows that many second graders have weak phonemic-awareness skills. The school psychologist works with reading staff to select an evidence-based instructional intervention and monitor students’ academic growth.
What is Domain 3: Academic Interventions and Instructional Supports?
(The target is an academic skill, and the response involves instruction and academic intervention.)
Three schools in the same district use completely different processes for identifying and supporting struggling students. The school psychologist helps develop common team structures, referral pathways, decision rules, and implementation checks across all three schools.
What is Domain 5: School-Wide Practices to Promote Learning?
(The psychologist is improving the design and implementation of a school-wide or district-wide system.)
A district’s overall discipline rate appears to be improving. The school psychologist disaggregates the data and discovers that multilingual learners and Black students are still removed from instruction at disproportionate rates, and then advocates for changes to the referral process.
What is Domain 8: Equitable Practices for Diverse Student Populations?
(The psychologist identifies differential access or outcomes and addresses the systemic influence of identity, culture, and context.)
A district is considering purchasing an expensive social-emotional curriculum. Before anyone clicks “Buy,” the school psychologist examines the supporting studies, considers whether the participants resemble the district’s students, and develops a plan to evaluate whether the program works locally.
What is Domain 9: Research and Evidence-Based Practice?
(The psychologist is evaluating research quality and planning a program evaluation, not analyzing an individual student’s needs.)
A student’s attendance plan keeps falling apart because the family, school, pediatrician, and community therapist are working from four different plans. The school psychologist brings the partners together to create one culturally responsive, coordinated approach.
What is Domain 7: Family, School, and Community Collaboration?
(The work builds a partnership across the family, school, and community systems.)
Several students returning from extended absences are experiencing anxiety that interferes with classroom participation. The school psychologist develops a brief skill-building group, measures changes in functioning, and adjusts the intervention based on student response.
What is Domain 4: Mental and Behavioral Health Services and Interventions?
(The psychologist is providing and evaluating a direct mental health intervention.)
After a serious community event, the school psychologist activates the crisis plan, identifies students and staff who need additional support, coordinates the immediate response, and assists with recovery planning.
What is Domain 6: Services to Promote Safe and Supportive Schools?
(The focus is on psychological safety and crisis response and recovery.)
An administrator asks the school psychologist to email a student’s complete evaluation report to a community provider without written authorization, explaining, “The parent already told us it was fine.” The psychologist pauses the request and consults applicable ethical and legal requirements before proceeding.
What is Domain 10: Legal, Ethical, and Professional Practice?
(The central task is to resolve an ethical and legal responsibility.)