Citation

Strein W, Hoagwood K, Cohn A. J. Sch. Psychol. 2003; 41(1): 23-38.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Society for the Study of School Psychology, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0022-4405(02)00142-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Concerns regarding American schools and mental health services for children abound, including inadequate educational achievement, school violence, over-referral to special education and disproportionate placement of minorities into special education, under-utilization of mental health services for children, and a poorly coordinated system of child mental health services. All of the above concerns share two common attributes: (a) they are statements regarding populations, rather than specific individuals; and (b) they are best addressed by changing system-wide elements of psychological service delivery. We argue that, although conceptualizing school psychology as primarily an indirect service specialty (e.g., J. Sch. Psychol. 28 (1990) 203) has advanced our thinking about effective service delivery, conceptualizing school psychological services from a public health perspective will provide an even broader framework that can increase both the efficacy and efficiency of school psychologists' work.