Evidence Based Training for SED/BD - School Psychology Program - Department of Educational Psychology

*This grant is currently not funded but examples of the work are available for your information*

Project Title:
Tough Kids: Training School Psychologists to be Experts in Evidence Based Practices for Tertiary Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance/Behavior Disorders (SED/BD)

This project trains eight University of Utah masters levels graduate students in School Psychology per year to provide evidenced based practices for tertiary level students with SED/BD. These students are referred as tertiary because they present the most resistant outcomes to school wide and at risk target interventions. Although required by law (i.e., NCLB and IDEA) and job demands to serve students with high incidence disabilities, research at the University of Utah has shown that a limited number of school psychologists have specific training in performing evidence based practices such as behavior/academic interventions, response to interventions applications, functional behavior assessments and designing effective classroom and home based positive behavioral supports for extremely disruptive tertiary students with behaviorally disordered and emotionally disturbance. Extremely disruptive high incidence behavior disorders also contribute to more teachers leaving the field of teaching in the first two years than almost any other variable in Utah.

Students selected for this program undergo extensive training emphasizing EBP interventions for tertiary SED/BD students and their families. Students participate in a Specialized EBP Seminar for SED/BD students. In addition students complete an intensive practicum experience including placement in a SED/BD classroom, social skills training practicum and a parent training practicum. Students also receive extensive training in PBS techniques, Functional Behavior Assessment, and Response to Intervention for academic and behavior problems. Students also provide a scholarly review monograph on one type of EBP intervention and develop an EBP manual on one intervention that can be used by educators in their settings.