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Legal and Ethical Guidelines in School Psychology

Understand the legal and ethical considerations in school psychology, including IDEA compliance, disciplinary procedures, LRE evaluation, NCLB mandates, ethics codes, child abuse reporting. Enhance your knowledge to provide effective support to students.

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Legal and Ethical Guidelines in School Psychology

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  1. Merrell, K.W., Ervin, R. A., & Peacock, G. G. (2006). School psychology for the 21st century: Foundations and practices. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Chapter 6: Legal and Ethcial School Psychology

  2. Some more about IDEA • IDEA • Children ages 3 to 21 • Child Find: ensure children with disabilities are identified, located, and evaluated • Provides procedural safeguards • Parents have right to be present at all meetings • Right to an independent evaluation • Right to consent to assessment and/or services • Right to mediation, due process hearing, civil law suit • Discipline: • Suspended no more than 10 days in one school year • Alternative education setting: no more than 45 school days • Manifestation determination hearing determines if behavior due to disability, if so, then all regular discipline procedures are available

  3. Litmus Test for LRE (Case Law) • Is general classroom experience comparable in benefits to special education experience. • Must consider nonacademic benefits of interactions with others in general education. • Must consider the effect of child on others in the general education classroom. • Cost of mainstreaming to the general education classroom. • Has school made reasonable efforts to accommodate needs in general education classroom.

  4. No Child Left Behind • Testing Mandatory • Grades 3-8: Reading and Math • Elementary, Middle, and High: Science (at least once each level) • 95% of all students must participate. • 1% of all students can use an alternative assessment • Highly Qualified Teachers (100% certified) • Districts with high risk student populations are at higher risk of not making AYP and thus higher penalties.

  5. Ethics Codes and Result Reporting • Computer-generated reports to clients • Don’t use basic computer-generated results for tests as a standalone report. • Don’t allow a computer to make diagnostic decisions for you (multiple data sources). • Don’t provide overly technical language (as is often provided in computer-generate reports) to clients. • Recommendations should accompany the results. • Be wary of “fill-in-the-blank” reporting.

  6. Child Abuse and Neglect • Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act as Amended by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003. • Definition of child abuse and neglect: • “At a minimum any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caregiver, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm” • Does not generally require certainty. Usually “reasonable cause” is sufficient.

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