ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the reader with a description of what school psychologists actually do. It discusses the practice of school psychology is like trying to describe the practice of farming, law, architectual engineering, or nearly any other profession. Efforts to understand the behavior of school psychologists are comparable to efforts to explain any human behavior. The practice of school psychology is determined in part by the expectations that school personnel and parents hold for the behavior of school psychologists, and in part by social, political, economic, and educational factors. Different school psychologists practice differently because they hold different perspectives and have had different kinds of training and experiences. School psychologists choose to be employed in different settings, and personnel in the settings choose to employ different people as school psychologists. Most school psychologists have been trained as professionals and are capable of working as professionals rather than as technicians.
