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Madison Metropolitan School District

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School Psychology

Information for Parents

School psychologists serve many roles in the Madison Metropolitan School District. We can be found observing classrooms, working on targeted skills with groups of students, testing in the one-on-one setting, and any number of other functions within a school. Parents can expect school psychologists to:

  • Work directly with students, teachers, and families as part of the Student Services Team

  • Participate in school-wide, systems-level work

  • Hold problem-solving meetings to address concerns for individual students

  • Provide social/emotional/behavioral interventions for individual students or small groups of students

  • Conduct special education evaluations and collaborate with special education staff

  • Serve as 504 plan coordinators, along with school nurses

  • Communicate with outside service providers (therapists, psychiatrists, other clinicians)

  • Support pro-active strategies to promote student safety and wellness

  • See below for more information on the role of school psychologists in MMSD, and thanks for visiting!

Melanie Salgado
Student Services Coach: School Psychologist Support
mjsalgado@madison.k12.wi.us

Staff Only Page

School Psychologists as Members of Pupil Services Team

The school psychologist is a core member of the school’s integrated pupil services team: This team works collaboratively, in partnership with teachers, administrators, families, and community organizations, to design and deliver a comprehensive, coordinated and customized system of student supports.  The primary purpose of this team is to create environments that maximize opportunities for learning and ensure that all students develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to achieve personal success as a college, career, and community ready individual.

As a member of the pupil services team, the school psychologist is an advocate for educational equity, promotes the healthy development of the whole-child, and is a leader of systemic change within their school community.

Elements of Integrated Pupil Services Team

  • Data-based decision making for planning, delivery, and evaluation of our programs and services

  • Communication, consultation, and collaboration with students, families, staff and community partners

  • Advocacy and leadership to enable each student to be a healthy and successful learner

  • Adhering to professional standards that are respectful, confidential, individualized, developmentally appropriate, and culturally competent

  • Staying current with professional learning to maintain and develop competency reflecting evidence-based best practice

School Psychologist Roles and Responsibilities

Interventions and Instructional Support to Develop Academic Skills

  • Support the implementation of multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to inform school-wide systems level change in academics across Tiers I, II, and III
  • Inform instructional practice across all levels: School-based Leadership Team (SBLT), teacher teams, and Student Support and Intervention (SSIT) to influence core instructional practices, intervention selection/design, and individual student need
  • Assess students and engage in collaborative practice to inform Individual Education Plan (IEP) development for academic success (e.g. LEA representative, progress monitoring)

Interventions and Mental Health Services to Develop Social and Life Skills

  • Support the implementation of MTSS to promote student engagement, including collaboration with outside agencies and direct service delivery of social/emotional curricula at Tiers I, II, and III
  • Support student social/emotional and adaptive skills development to promote success via: SBLT, teacher teams, and SSIT
  • Assess students and engage in collaborative practice to inform IEP development and Tier II service delivery for social/emotional and behavioral success (e.g. Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), Behavior Education Plan (BIP), related service delivery)

School-Wide Practices to Promote Learning

  • Serve as a data resource: provide data for collaboration, analysis, and/or inform decision-making on the school-wide level with SBLT, teacher teams, and SSIT to inform the implementation of MTSS
  • Participate in other school-wide practices such as: Behavior Education Plan (BEP) implementation, Positive Behavior Support (PBS) team, Social/Emotional Learning Standards (SELS) instruction, and teacher professional development

Preventive and Responsive Services

  • Promote resilience and mitigating risk factors in mental health to promote learning
  • Assess needs, develop, and implement plans to promote student safety and crisis prevention/response
  • Collaborate to generalize student skill development across varied environments
  • Collaborate to conduct violence risk assessment (VRA), suicide risk assessment (SRA), alcohol and other drugs (AOD), FBA, and transition plans

Family-School Collaboration Services

  • Support positive relationships among school, families, and the community
  • Support the implementation of MMSD’s Family and Commity Engagement (FACE) standards