Training the Next Generation of School Psychologists to Deliver Evidence Based Mental Health Practices: Current Challenges and Future Directions

School psychologists are uniquely positioned to support the delivery of evidence-based mental health practices (EBMHPs) to address the overwhelming mental health needs of children and youth. Graduate training programs can promote EBMHPs in schools by ensuring school psychologists enter the workplace prepared to deliver and support high-quality, effective services. Despite the remarkable growth of effective interventions to address a range of mental health problems, more work is needed to develop and adapt existing graduate training curricula to address this pressing issue. Using a problem-solving framework, we sequentially identify and analyze current challenges in training the next generation of school psychologists in EBMHPs. These challenges include how EBMHPs are packaged and structured, researchers' limited understanding of how culture affects efficacy, and continual shifts in evidence-based practice designations. These challenges provide a basis for the adaptation and future direction of training in EBMHPs. System-level changes and adaptations to professional practice standards are also discussed.