School-Based Consultation Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Year: 2024

Issue: Vol. 40 Issue. 2

Title: School-Based Consultation Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Citation: Kaiser, L. T., Villareal, J. N., Barrett, C. A., Newman, D. S., McIntire, H., & Gerrard, M. K. (2024) School-Based Consultation Training During the COVID-19 Pandemic. School Psychology Training and Pedagogy, 40 (2), 44-53.

Abstract: School-based consultation is critical for student-, teacher-, and systems-level change, yet few studies describe the process by which preservice school psychologists are trained to engage in consultation. With the numerous educational challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, graduate trainers were faced with preparing students for the consultant role with limited in-person instruction and potential field placement barriers. The current study describes consultation training during the 2020-2021 school year from the perspective of 63 school psychology graduate students in their first consultation course. Results suggested that nearly half of participants engaged in teleconsultation, and that 41.3% of participants were engaged in in-person consultation in schools during their training. Trainees indicated having access to several supervision strategies with more frequency than described in prior research. We considered these results in the context of prior research, described implications for consultation training during the pandemic, and considered directions for post-pandemic consultation training and research. 

Keywords: school consultation; school psychology training; supervision

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