Role of the school psychologist - Perceptions of school staff

School psychologists often report that; they would like to reduce their inv olvement in assessment activities in favour of an increase in other service delivery roles. Surveys of teachers and administrators reveal that they do not; want a reduction in assessment services. Rather, they want more schoo l psychology services of all kinds. In this study, 522 school staff from a suburban southwestern school district in the USA were surveyed regarding th e importance of nine school psychology services. School staff gave 'very im portant' ratings to six services: assessment, special education input, cons ultation, counselling, crisis intervention and behaviour management. School -community liaison and parent education roles were rated as 'fairly importa nt' and staff development was considered to be 'somewhat important.' School staff also wanted a school psychologist to be available on a daily basis a t their schools. These results are discussed in terms of the 'paradox of sc hool psychology' and the skills required of school psychologists who wish t o deliver diverse school psychological services.