Our Mission

The mission of the Department of Psychological Services is to provide quality, broadly based psychological services to the entire school district through a comprehensive service delivery system. To meet this end, the department has targeted the following needs/goals: To encourage programs and provide services that result in prevention of mental health and educational difficulties.

To maximize the impact of psychological services by emphasizing indirect services to large populations of students considered at risk for emotional/behavioral interference with their education and to the families of those students

To provide direct services to small targeted groups of students who are determined to be in most extreme risk of school failure due to emotional/behavioral factors, to the families of these students, and to staff who are responsible for their education.

To coordinate with and compliment the community health and educational system through participation in local, state, and national professional and service organizations.

The Department of Psychological Services plays a significant role in the development, implementation, training, and on-going operation of preventative programs such as…

Provision of teacher, counselor, and administrator in-service training in areas related to the psychological needs of staff and students.

Development and implementation of a crisis intervention policy which involves the education of administrators, counselors, and teachers regarding the need for advanced preparation for crises and applying the district plan in every building.

Emphasis of suicide prevention as a district priority. Efforts include in-service training for school staff and administrators on assessment of lethality. The policy and methods for early detection of suicidal behavior have been distributed to every teacher in the district.

The Department of Psychological Services emphasizes the use of indirect services including…

Consultation with teachers in programs such as PPCD (early childhood), Pre-Kindergarten, Life Skills, and Adaptive Behavior(AB)/ACCESS classes. Consultation also is available to help planning for students with Autism, Traumatic Brain Injury, Tourette’s, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, and Conduct Disorder.

Liaison with outside agencies and practitioners to ensure continuity of care as students move between the school and hospitals, private therapy, juvenile justice system, and other school districts.

The Department of Psychological Services provides direct services to at-risk students, their families, and district staff through…

Provision of regularly scheduled individual and/or group counseling as well as on-going case management for students identified as having an emotional disturbance.

Administration of comprehensive psychological evaluations for the purpose of qualifying students under Texas Education Agency (TEA) criteria for handicapping conditions such as Emotional Disturbance or Autism.

Intervention in crisis situations that necessitate emergency response to assist students seriously affected by the situation.

Presentation of parent education/training workshops for those parents dealing with their children's poor grades, emotional disturbance, Autism, ADHD, or adolescence.

Diversity Mission Statement

The Need for Diversity

Department environment and culture

The program ensures a welcoming, supportive, and encouraging learning environment for all individuals, including interns and staff from diverse and underrepresented communities. The program takes steps to maintain an atmosphere that promotes the success of all staff and interns. Program climate is reflected in the development of staff, training supervisors, and interns, as well as in district-wide service provision. These efforts are bolstered by didactic and experiential training that fosters an understanding of cultural and individual differences as it relates to professional psychology.

Culturally competent supervision and training

We support and challenge each other’s understanding of our own biases and experiences through dialogue, discussion, readings and speakers.

The department acts to ensure a supportive and encouraging learning environment appropriate for the training of individuals are diverse and the provision of training opportunities for a broad spectrum of individuals. Further, the program avoids any actions that would restrict program access on grounds that are irrelevant to success in graduate training, either directly or by imposing significant and disproportionate burdens on the basis of the personal and demographic characteristics set forth in the definition of cultural diversity. In addition, we recognize the importance of individual and cultural diversity as a foundational component imbedded throughout the supervisory process. This is accomplished through a collaborative working relationship between the supervisor and supervisee as well as in each of our competencies of professional practice.

Cultural competent service provision

Our highly skilled and interdisciplinary staff develop evidence-based interventions tailored to each individual’s unique background and needs by working with students and community partners. When conducting evaluations, we strive to ensure our evaluations use evidence-based assessment tools striving to ensure cultural sensitivity and fairness. Psychological service providers consider the validity of a given instrument or procedure and interpret resulting data, keeping in mind the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the person being assessed. Psychological service providers are aware of the test's reference population and possible limitations of such instruments with other populations. We believe that effective consultation is dependent upon our understanding of the diverse populations we serve and our ability to work with individuals from varied cultures.

Systematic, Coherent, and Long‐Term Efforts to Attract and Retain Interns and Staff from Diverse Backgrounds

The program has made systematic, coherent, and long‐term efforts to attract and retain interns and faculty/staff from diverse backgrounds into the program. The program has made and continues to make systematic, coherent, and long‐term efforts to attract interns and staff from different ethnic, racial, gender, and personal backgrounds into the department. It reviews its success with these efforts and makes changes as appropriate. The program must demonstrate systematic and long‐term efforts to recruit and retain faculty/staff who are from diverse backgrounds.

Community Outreach

The department strives to enhance our community’s appreciation of diverse perspectives and to increase awareness of the value of cultural differences. Our department is dedicated to actively expanding our understanding of the role of diverse experiences and backgrounds in the lives of individuals and in our community. With over 100 languages and dialects spoken in the district and the majority of students from culturally diverse backgrounds, the department strives to integrate cultural understandings of macroscopic and microscopic approaches. We accomplish these goals through community outreach programs, including but not limited to periodic district and school-based parenting classes, parenting workshops (offered in multiple languages and at a reduced fee), participation in the district health expo, and the provision of diverse resources for parents. We also collaborate with district stakeholders, families and the community at large to gauge needs and solicit feedback.