SURVEY OF NATIONALLY CERTIFIED SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS’ ROLES AND TRAINING IN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

A randomly selected group of Nationally Certified School Psychologists (NCSPs; n = 817) were mailed the 42-item School Psychopharmacology Roles and Training Evaluation (SPRTE) which inquired about their caseloads, practice roles as proposed by DuPaul and Carlson (2005), and prior training in psychopharmacology. A modified Tailored Design Methodology (TDM; Dillman, Smyth, & Christian, 2009), involving four mail-based contacts, was used to yield a 74% survey return rate (n = 607). Of the returned surveys, a 72% (n = 548) usable response rate was obtained and used in the present study. Consistent with prior literature, nearly all (99.6%) school psychologists reported serving at least one student taking psychotropic medication. Primary direct servicerolesincludedmonitoringbehavioralresponsetopsychotropictreatment(28%),monitoring treatment side-effects (23%), and developing psychotropic treatment goals from direct assessment measures (14%). Primary indirect service roles included providing behavior management consultation to teachers of students taking medication (96%), implementing adjunctive psychosocial supports (87%), and providing assessment data to physicians for diagnostic purposes (84%). Despite differencesin established psychopharmacologicaltraining standards, actual practiceroles and training received did not differ between NCSPs from APA-accredited programs and those from National Association ofSchoolPsychologists (NASP)-approvedprograms.Implications forschool psychopharmacology practice, training and research are addressed. C � 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.