School Psychologist: Getting started with Assessments

Oh Spring.  What a dichotomy for School Psychologists.  The weather is warm, you can break out bright colors and iced coffee, but at the same time, you are scrambling, trying to beat the federal timeline on the most popular time of the year for special education referrals.  While that  will probably never change, I have developed a system over the years, for organizing and keeping track of my evaluations.

I've finally developed a system that is pretty smooth, and allows me to balance multiple evals with once without going nuts.  Here is my system:

1.  Create a cover sheet for your folder you'll keep everything in.  This is what I use, and it's been super efficient for me for the past 3 years.  It has everything I need on it, including:

• Assessments I am doing
• PPT dates, due dates
• A way of tracking what assessments & observations I've done, and when I send them out/return them.

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Student Observation Checklist

Update:  Download it here from Google Drive!

This checklist is my most downloaded document on TpT.  My Observation Checklist has evolved over the past 3 years, and this is the first year I don't plan on making any changes to it for the upcoming year (so far!)

If you are a psychologist, social worker or counselor, chances are, you are always being asked to observe students in their classroom.  Sometimes it's teachers, sometimes parents, sometimes others in the school who ask you "Can you take a look at....?"

My first year, I loved getting into the classrooms to observe students, but I was SO disorganized with what to do with my observations when I finished with them.  I've developed this form over the years, and I use it all the time.

I use it for my observations for reports every time I do one, but also anytime an observation is requested.   I copy the form on some colored paper so it's easy to find, and when I'm done with it,  it gives me something physical to remind me to email or chat with the teacher, and file it away in the students' file.

There are several different sections:

• Genreal info. (name, time, date, area of concern & more)
• General behavioral observations
• Activity level/Classroom behaviors
• Affect/Mood
• Classroom relationships
• Observation notes (a version with lined notes, and blank one for time stamps)
• A wrap up section including areas of strength, barriers to success and suggestions/strategies (I write these down as I'm in the observation-isn't so easy to forget things a few hours later??)

This form is a definite time saver and helper in my school psych. life.  What do you use for observation?

Organization: Special Education Evaluations

Head on over to my TPT store for this FREE download that is one form I cannot test without.

This Testing Planning Form is the first thing I do when I get a new evaluation, or when I have an upcoming trieenial.  I print off this form, and staple it to the front of a brightly colored file folder.  I open the folder, and to the back, staple the Consent to test form.  I fill out the info. and viola!  A one stop shop for all of the info. you need-what tests you are doing, when they are due, and who you gave rating scales to and when.

It's a lifesaver!

Special Education Referrals and Meetings: Organization

One of the things I always used to say on interviews was that I was highly organized.  I thought I was, until I started working and realized that my organizational skills were only a fraction of what I needed to survive as a school psychologist.

One of my many jobs is case managing new special education referrals that come in to our school.  With multiple timelines, and multiple referrals at once, I found early on that if I didn't find a system for tracking these, I would be in the trenches faster than you can say "60 day federal timeline".  :)

I came up with a spreadsheet for tracking all referrals, and a cover sheet, I use for my own testing, that I am now on my third year of using (I don't like to share success of things until they have proven effective for a while).

You can find this (Freebie!!) download on my TPT store, or create one yourself.

Here's how and why this has proven a successful tool for me:

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