Township High School District 211: Palatine High School and Hoffman Estates High School
Background: School psychology has played an important role in District 211 since well before the advent of P.L. 94-142. The district has long appreciated the contributions school psychologists make not only in addressing the educational needs of students with disabilities but in facilitating the education and development of all students. The district employs 16 school psychologists in its five high schools and two therapeutic day schools. School psychologists have important and varied roles in District 211. They provide many clinical/counseling services in addition to the psychodiagnostic, special education-related, and other duties often performed by school psychologists. They also, however, have significant oversight responsibilities, including chairing IEP meetings, serving as the local education agency representative at those meetings, consulting with parents and staff members as to special education, mental health, and child protection laws, policies, procedures, etc. School psychologists provide a wide array of services including consultation, counseling, assessment, crisis intervention, prevention, in-service training, program development, research, etc. District 211 is committed to training school psychology interns as a contribution to the profession, to its future practitioners, and to the students and families that will be served by those District 211 trains. We welcome the opportunity to make this contribution, and we take seriously our obligation to provide a thorough and rewarding training experience.
Positions/Program: Two full-time, 12-month psychologist intern positions will be available for the 2009-10 school year. The intern’s primary placement will be at Palatine High School or Hoffman Estates High School. The intern will also serve as a member of the Specialized Assessment Team (see below) and will serve a 20-day elementary/middle school rotation within the local elementary district.
Student Services Department: The Wellness programs and Problem-Solving Teams at Palatine High School and Hoffman Estates High School are the primary vehicles through which the three psychologists, two social workers, ten counselors, school nurse, and counseling and psychologist interns facilitate all referrals for three-tier interventions, individual or group counseling, support and education groups, full and individual evaluations, Section 504 Plans, classroom-based training sessions, peer counseling, peer mediation, and other services. The Wellness program is also used to promote program evaluation and development, to facilitate and coordinate school-wide in-service trainings, and to facilitate weekly collaboration of team members with regard to literature reviews, creative interventions, etc. Wellness team members use the weekly meetings to insure that interns are provided with referrals of students in need of individual, group, and other interventions, including initial full and individual evaluations. Such referrals are screened to insure that the intern has the opportunity to work with students from a variety of socio-cultural backgrounds and with a variety of exceptional characteristics, psychological or other difficulties, etc. The intern will have the opportunity to use a variety of psychodiagnostic instruments and techniques and to utilize a variety of pre-referral interventions and other strategies. Student Services Department personnel provide counseling and support group services to hundreds of students each semester. The intern will serve as a co-therapist for one or more groups that might address themes such as depression, chemical education, loss, anger management, social skills, post-hospitalization, sexuality, aggression intervention, or others. There are many opportunities to provide consultation to teachers, administrators, and other faculty members. The intern will become involved in the continuing development of our RTI programs and will have a variety of experiences facilitating interventions within all three tiers.
Specialized Assessment Team: The intern will be a member of the Specialized Assessment Team (SAT) that coordinates the triennial re-evaluations of all District 211 students placed in public and private therapeutic day schools and residential facilities. As always, cases are assigned to the intern based on the learning potential presented due to the interesting nature of the diagnostic questions, the array of clinical, educational, and legal issues posed by the case, etc. In order to afford interns the opportunity of being supervised by psychologists with different styles and orientations, the supervision of SAT cases may be provided by psychologists other than the intern’s primary supervisor.
Peer Consultation/Training Opportunities: Interns are provided with a variety of opportunities to develop their skills. Members of the Specialized Assessment Team, including psychologist interns, meet on a monthly basis to share literature, ideas, and expertise related to assessment, intervention, prevention and research. In addition, all of the District’s psychologists meet monthly to address issues related to procedural, diagnostic, legal, ethical, professional, and other matters. Doctoral and specialist level interns and practicum students meet twice a month during the first semester and once a month during the second semester for group supervision and a seminar series that addresses special education policies and procedures, psychodiagnostic assessment, suicide assessment and crisis intervention, how to write IEPs, BIPs, and psychological reports, and other topics that may be of interest. Interns attend selected community-based seminars and workshops and professional association conferences during the course of the year.
Supervision: The intern is provided with a minimum of two hours of individual supervision per week. Typically, particularly early in the internship, the amount of supervision is far greater than two hours per week. Ample opportunities exist (and occur) for additional supervision, collaboration, and interaction during the course of the typical week. Additional supervision and collaboration also occurs with other psychologists working in the same setting.
Extracurricular Activities: Interns have the opportunity to become involved in a variety of sports, clubs, athletics, and other activities. There are ample opportunities to become involved in clubs or activities on a voluntary basis. There also are opportunities to earn additional income coaching, sponsoring a club or activity, or chaperoning an activity.
Additional Information:
- Approximately 29% of the population at Palatine High School and 52% of the population at Hoffman Estates High School represents students from a racial/cultural/ethnic minority. Incomes in the community vary greatly among families. More than 25% of the student population at both schools qualifies for the Free/Reduced Lunch Program. The ESL population at Palatine High School has more than doubled since the fall of 1991.
- A typical work week includes an even balance between assessment, intervention and consultation. A day may consist of: 1 hour of individual therapy, 1 hour of group therapy, 1 hour of supervision, 1 hour of consultation during a Problem-Solving/Student Review team meeting involving student service staff members (counselors, social workers, psychologists, an administrator and school nurse), 2 hours of assessment and report writing, and 2 hours chairing or participating in IEP meetings.
- As noted, the intern will become part of the District 211 Specialized Assessment Team (SAT). Psychologists assigned to the SAT conduct and/or coordinate the re-evaluations of the 80 students in our two therapeutic day schools and those of the 120 students placed in therapeutic day schools within our special education cooperative, private therapeutic day schools, or residential treatment facilities. Beyond providing the intern with the opportunity to have experience in evaluating students with significant behavioral, emotional, cognitive, medical, or other disorders, SAT cases provide opportunities to interact and collaborate with inpatient, outpatient, residential, child protection, advocacy, and legal personnel.
- In addition to spending four days/week at Palatine High School or Hoffman Estates High School, the intern has the opportunity to participate in a twenty-day rotation in a local elementary (early childhood through junior high school) district. There are opportunities to be involved in an innovative elementary school as they transition to an RtI model and have an IASPIRE (Illinois Alliance for School-based Problem-solving & Intervention Resources in Education) grant. The intern has the opportunity to help the school administer and analyze school-wide benchmarking data, and participate in RtI evaluations. A rotation is also available within the local district’s Early Childhood Program. This program includes a preschool experience for typically developing three- and four-year-old children while also providing services to children who have identified developmental delays or disabilities in one or more of the following areas: speech and language, social-emotional, motor, or intellectual. Rotations are also available with the district’s elementary, junior high school and therapeutic day school settings.
- Technical Support: The psychologist intern is issued a desktop or laptop computer and has access to all of the audiovisual, computer-related, technical and other hardware, software, and services available to all employees. The Technology Department is staffed by seven full-time employees.
- Training Materials and Equipment: The psychologist intern has access to all commonly used assessment instruments, technical manuals, and computer-scoring programs, including WISC-IV, WAIS-III, WIAT-II, MACI, YSR/CBCL/TRF, BASC-II, MMPI-A, MMPI-II, etc. The intern has access to the District 211 Professional Library, the Harper College Library, and a variety of books, manuals, journals, and other materials available at PHS and HEHS.
- Physical Facilities: The psychologist intern has a private office. Conference and group counseling rooms are easily accessible. The schools are located on 60-acre campuses, with modern, well-equipped facilities including auditoriums, swimming pools, gymnasiums, athletic fields, tracks, tennis courts, music practice rooms, and computer, reading, science, and vocational laboratories.
- Clerical Support: The Special Education Clerk is the primary secretary for the psychologist intern, but three other secretaries provide assistance as needed. Secretarial and support staff members schedule parent conferences, IEP meetings, individual/group counseling sessions, and other appointments for the intern, in addition to entering data in software programs, typing/editing reports, etc.
- Psychologist interns are provided with a full benefit package available to all certified staff members that includes life insurance, flexible spending plans, and the opportunity to choose from a variety of health insurance plans.