Families’ Engagement and Perception of Social-Emotional/Behavioral Services in Schools
摘要
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) emphasizes mental and behavioral health service as an important domain within the field and practice of school psychology (NASP, 2020). This is an important role for school psychologists as the social-emotional and behavioral health needs of students are on the rise. Although a variety of social-emotional and behavioral services are offered at schools across tiered systems of support, there is limited information on how families engage with the services offered at their child’s school or their perception of how important these services are. This pilot study investigated families’ engagement and perception of social-emotional and behavioral services in schools. A total of 67 participants were included in the study, with majority identifying as white, non-Hispanic or Latinx, monolingual, and female. Participants were from 12 different states across the U.S. representing all four regions of the U.S. Results indicated that over 50% of families reported that their child participated in universal social-emotional/behavioral programming at school. Families’ most common engagement with services took the form of working with school staff to address concerns and participation in the IEP process. Families reported working with multiple school personnel for all services they participated in. Families’ perception of the most important social-emotional/behavioral services offered in schools were individual and school-wide crisis intervention. Implications and future research are discussed.