Adrianne White and Dr. Melissa Allen, Counseling and Special Education
Because of the media’s focus on recent incidents of school violence, there is an increased awareness of the need for effective crisis prevention and intervention in our public schools. In order to learn more about current training needs for crisis intervention, a survey was conducted with 350 randomly selected, nationally certified school psychologists (81% return rate). Although school psychologists are seen as the primary personnel to assist in crisis situations, minimal university training is provided to prepare them for this role.
In order to gain current information about training needs for school crisis intervention, psychologists were randomly selected from the 1999 Directory of Nationally Certified School Psychologists. Research assistants made several attempts to reach each of the 350 school psychologists by phone. For those who chose to participate in the study, three options were provided: (a) a ten-minute phone interview, (b) an e-mail survey, or ( c) a survey mailed via regular mail. Approximately 25% of the interviews were completed by phone. Approximately 25% were completed by e-mail and the rest (50%) were completed by regular mail. Of the 284 completed surveys (81% return rate), 274 were considered valid for the purposes of this research. Surveys were excluded if the school psychologist completing the questionnaire reported never practicing in the school setting.
A 21 question survey was developed to probe practitioners’ perceptions in four basic areas related to school crisis intervention: (1) perception of academic training and practicum/internship experiences in the area of crisis intervention, (2) types of crisis intervention training provided and accessed in the field, (3) familiarity with school crisis plans and affiliation with crisis teams, and (4) suggestions to university program directors for future academic training in the area of crisis intervention. A copy of the questionnaire is included in the appendix.
The questionnaire was designed to be completed in 10 minutes. Therefore, in order to keep the questionnaire brief, only 13 crisis topics were included: suicide, creating school district crisis plans, dealing with the media during a crisis, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sexual abuse, physical abuse, grief and death, terminal illness, violence and aggression, gangs, weapons and gun control, drug abuse, natural disaster, and “other.” Acknowledging the possibility of crisis topics not listed in the questionnaire, participants were given the option of “other” when crisis topics were listed.
Respondents reported practicing as a school psychologist for an average of 16.8 years (SD = 7.6 years). Seventy-one percent of the participating school psychologists were female (29% male). The average year reported for graduation from college training was 1983 (SD = 8.4 years). Forty percent reported having received a masters degree, 32% a specialist degree (or a masters + 30 hours), and 28% a doctoral degree. This information reflects the current membership of NASP as indicated by information gathered in a May 1999 survey. It appears that the sample is representative of school psychologists currently employed in school settings.
Twenty-two percent of the school psychologists reported working in rural school districts, 40% in suburban school districts, and 25% in urban school districts. Approximately 13% reported working in combined rural-suburban or suburban-urban areas. Although there were a wide variety of responses, the average number of students served per school psychologist was 1,699 children (SD = 1,608).
Thirty-nine percent of the school psychologists reported having some type of experience or training related to crisis intervention prior to graduation. Twenty-three percent of the school psychologists reported having academic coursework related to crisis intervention. Although only about 5% of school psychologists reported having a specific class designated for crisis intervention, 15% reported having crisis topics mingled in with other course work. Very few (3.3%) reported learning about crisis topics in seminars or workshops during graduate training.
School psychologists indicated how well academic course work prepared them to deal with school crises on a 1 (not at all prepared) to 5 (very well prepared) scale. On the average, they reported feeling less than adequately prepared to deal with crisis situations (M = 2.4, SD = .873). Fifty-eight percent reported feeling minimally prepared or not at all prepared. Only 8% (2% of the total sample) reported feeling well prepared or very well prepared to deal with school crises. Seventy-seven percent of the total sample who reported not having academic coursework pertaining to crisis intervention did not respond to this question.
In conclusion, although there are always difficulties in facing and carrying out change, it is imperative for those involved in the academic training of school psychologists to carefully and thoroughly evaluate the current needs of schools in the area of crisis prevention and intervention. After evaluating the needs, university program directors will be better equipped to make informed curriculum decisions that will ultimately improve the quality of services for schools and more specifically for children and families.