I firmly believe that we are neglecting the emotional well-being of our nation’s youth. We, as school psychologists, understand that while the IQ of our students has increased about a third of a point every year, the emotional health of our students has deteriorated dramatically over the past three decades. According to the Surgeon General’s report, one out of every five children needs mental health intervention in order to be successful in school. It is an alarming fact that more teenagers died from suicide than from cancer, birth defects, AIDS, pneumonia, influenza, and

In May 2008, 41 school psychologists in Miami-Dade County Public Schools received notice that they would no longer be employed as school psychologists for the county school system. In addition, it was feared that 80 school psychologists would also be let go. As a result of this action, I was asked to serve as a spokesperson for the county’s school psychologists and to help mobilize all our resources to have this decision reversed. In the article that appeared in the NASP Communique, I highlight how we were able to come together as a community and

Recently I have been offering presentations and workshops on effective alternatives to retention. I think it is a national disgrace that we are retaining so many children when the empirical evidence has shown it has such a deleterious impact, both academically and psychologically, on students. Educators need to understand that retaining a child is not only an educational decision but a social- emotional one as well. Due to the