Special Education

What is a School Psychologist?

Richard Dirmeyer, Supervisor
(757) 283-7850 x.10528

Erika Boerger Daniel
Coordinator
(757) 283-7850 x.10414

School psychologists provide a variety of services that promote student success and improve school support systems, including:

Consultation and Collaboration

Give healthy and effective alternatives to teachers, parents, and administrators to address difficulties in learning and/or behavior
Help others understand child development and how it affects learning and behavior
Strengthen working relationships between educators, parents, and community services
Work with teachers to support effective, individualized instruction
Participate in assessment and eligibility teams to determine a student's most appropriate educational placement

Assessments

Conduct psychological evaluations to assess abilities, learning strengths and weaknesses, and emotional/social functioning
Design and implement curriculum based assessments
Conduct functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) to drive the design of Behavior Intervention plans (BIP)

Interventions

Utilize a problem-solving framework to identify and address learning and behavior problems that interfere with school success
Provide counseling, social skills training and mentoring for students struggling with social, emotional and behavioral problems.
Help families and schools deal with crises such as death, illness, or community trauma
Assist with development and implementation of individualized academic and behavioral interventions (i.e. through the Child Study process)
Monitor and collect data to determine intervention effectiveness

Prevention

Design programs for children at risk of academic failure
Provide parents and teachers with the skills to cope with disruptive behavior
Implement school-wide prevention programs that help maintain positive school climates