From time to time, school psychologist intern Maddison Benge hears people asking about her job.
“Are you a school counselor or something?” someone asked.
No, she is not a school counselor; she is a school psychologist.
“Oh, are you reading my mind?” another person asked.
Benge rolled her eyes. “That is a psychic, not a psychologist!” she said.
According to the National Association of School Psychologists, school psychologists are experts in psychology and education to help students and the school system as a whole.
However, inside and outside of the school, school psychologists are often one of the least recognized in-school professions. Only 23.8% of students know who school psychologists are in school or what they do according to the OpenDen newspaper survey in January 2025.
“Well, I can probably say that they’re probably helping a ton of people and their own lives, but I don’t think they have enough popularity because not a lot of people know about them,” sophomore Rishaan Suresh said.
Meanwhile, Frisco ISD has one of the best practices of school psychology. In 2020, former Frisco ISD school psychologist Jenna Becker was elected President of Texas Association of School Psychologists. In November 2024, the district won the Award for Outstanding School Psychology by the association, showing that the association recognizes the district to have one of the best practices in school psychology in Texas.
While students may not know about school psychologists, they may have encountered them multiple times without knowing. Benge is a graduate student in school psychology. Upon receiving her bachelor’s degree in psychology, she is completing her internship in schools in Frisco ISD, among one, Rick Reedy High School. Benge said that school psychologists regularly visit classrooms, and when they do, students may not know at all.
“I’m sure a school psychologist has been in your classroom at some point,” Benge said. “We try to be very incognito, and if you don’t know we are there, then we’re doing our job correctly.”
But beyond those visits, Benge said that service of school psychologists are not just for special education but for all students in school.
“I think we are oftentimes kind of an undercover person, not a lot of people know who we are,” Benge said. “But we definitely, definitely know who you are. We’re in the shadows and helping kids on all levels. You’re a student first before you’re in special education, so we’re really helping all students.”
RIOT of School Psychologists
There are many roles of school psychologists that students do not know of. Among a variety of roles, evaluating students for Individualized Education Plan, counseling services to students, and enhancing system-wide practices are major domains of school psychologists.
When school psychologists evaluate students for the plan, RIOT accurately describes their process—it is an acronym for Recording, Interview, Observation, and Testing.
“It’s [R in RIOT is] an acronym for record review,” Benge said. “So we are gonna look at your sociological background, and we are gonna look at your health history.”
Another part of RIOT is “I” for “interview”, when school psychologists interview students, parents, or teachers to understand their perspectives.
“Students can be very insightful about their own emotions and their own needs, especially in middle and high school, ” Benge said. “Sometimes that will be in the form of oral interviews or sometimes that’ll be in the form of a Google form, things have shifted to being more electronic, but we always follow up if we need to with a verbal interview.”
‘O’ for Observation is the stage when school psychologists go into the classroom and observe the student directly.
“I’m just going into their everyday classroom, you know, I want to observe their everyday routine,” Benge said.
Normally, school psychologists do not tell students about their observations. This is to prevent the ‘observer effect’ when people change behaviors for knowing that they are being observed.
However, there are times when some students notice their presence anyway.
“it’s always fun, especially at elementary [school] whenever they’re like, ‘Why are you here?’ and you have to come up with reasons like, ‘Oh, I’m just observing your class’. You never want to say something like, ‘I am here for you’” Benge said.
The final part of RIOT is testing, giving formal assessments to students.
“School Psychs can give cognitive assessments, and that determines your IQ and your cognitive ability in certain areas,” Benge said. “But diagnosticians mostly do that within Frisco. So that kind of gives us more leeway to do our other job of counseling and consultation and stuff because we have diagnosticians. They play a really, really important role.”
Helpers of Students and Schools
Another role of the school psychologist is counseling services with students who need professional support.
It is confidential who is receiving counseling from school psychologists; students cannot find out who is receiving special education or not.
“Your friend next to you, you wouldn’t know if they were in special education unless they told you,” Benge said. “We have a lot of students who have ADHD. It’s very, very common. Not every student with ADHD needs special education, but some do. You wouldn’t know outwardly unless they tell you.”
School psychologists keep track of records of students, especially if they have counseling services. If their students have behavioral misconduct, school psychologists would collect data to understand what happened.
School psychologists also have to determine if the student’s misconduct was related to the student’s disability. This is for both special and general education students with behavioral misconduct.
“We always have to do what’s called a manifestation determination review,” Benge said. “And that’s where the team comes together with the parents and we review what was the incident that occurred, whether that be vaping, whether that be cheating, and we determine, if that was a manifestation of their disability.”
Consequences for the student’s misconduct can be different if it was influenced by the student’s disability. But if the result of the review was negative, the school administration will apply the same disciplinary procedures as students without disability.
“Ultimately, when it comes to consequences and that kind of thing, it comes down to our assistant principal and more of the office staff versus school psychologists,” Benge said. “But on the prevention end of it, of course, we want to educate all students about more healthy coping mechanisms versus those maladaptive ways to cope with your emotions. We’re always there to help if students need it.”
Calling for System-Wide Change
School psychologists don’t always agree with educational laws. In certain cases, they may advocate for large-scale changes in education. Laws in states and districts are constantly changing, and they are sometimes against school psychologists’ interests.
“So trying to adhere to those while also serving the best needs of your student and practicing ethically can be hard whenever that does not align with the current legal stance of the country or the state,” Benge said.
If a school psychologist disagrees with certain policies, they may work with school administration to try to improve practices and collaborate with the community, which is part of the guided practice of the National Association of School Psychologists, but they can have other options as well. Benge says there are two main options for school psychologists if they do not like a system.
“You either go on to take a more role of enacting system-wide change and you’re going to state legislators and you’re advocating for your students’ needs, and some people really like that as a school psychologist,” Benge said. “Or you’re moving somewhere else that has different policies that align better with your own values.”
School psychologists who completed nationally accredited programs can work anywhere in the country and choose in which state to work. Responsibilities of school psychologists are different between states.
“In a district such as Frisco, that is very diverse,” Benge said. “We have a large South Asian population and just many different communities and religions and languages spoken. I never want someone to be discriminated against for those things.”
School psychologists interact with general education teachers as well as special education. For example, chemistry teacher Emily Woodard said that school psychologists do presentations to help teachers better understand students, sometimes including different statistics about students.
“It [statistics from school psychologists] just helps us be more aware of just some of the things that are out there in teenager-land,” Woodard said. “Since we are grown ups, our perspective can get skewed, and so it’s just a good refresher of like ‘These are the things that kids could be going through’ and new things that we need to be aware of, so that we can be educated to help students to be more aware of making choices.”
While school psychologists may impact school environments in general, Woodard says that they don’t have direct influence when it comes to school classes.
“I wouldn’t say here as a huge direct impact on the classroom environment, more on just individual one-on-one conversations,” Woodard said. “I think that’s the way that some of them can influence the students and my environment.”
In reality, school psychologists are in shortage across the state, and even across the country. The association recommends a ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students. However, there are not enough school psychologists for the number of students, according to a research by Elise Hendricker, Ph.D., published in Texas Association School Psychologists journal volume 10.
“It’s a lot worse in some areas and it’s a lot better than others,” Benge said. “So in Louisiana, I want to say, it’s like one, two, four-thousand higher than what you would want, which is why we would need more.”
According to the research, the Student-to-Licensed Specialist in School Psychology ratio in Texas is 1 : 2,617, and in the Fort Worth area it is 1 : 2,869 There are six times less number of school psychologists than what is recommended by the association.
Kickoff for Psychics
The previously mentioned research says that school psychology shortages continue in Texas with minimal improvement. While this means that school may struggle with students’ needs, it also means that the school psychology program offers a competitive career with a high level of employment.
Among many other institutes with the program, Texas Woman’s University article for School Psychology says that 100 percent of students who graduate from their school psychology program are employed, and that graduates with advanced degrees in school psychology are in high demand.
There are many points in a career when a student can choose to become a school psychologist. Benge said that some people even become school psychologists after having a career in different industries.
“I have people in my program who are really young all the way from like 21, up to people who are in their 40s and 50s,” Benge said. “So, never too late, and sometimes you realize your passion later on.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the average annual salary of school psychologists in the United States is $91,990. In addition to the salary, school psychologists have benefits such as summer break.
“I would say if you value your time in the summers right now as a student and you wanna continue that,” Benge said. “I have these scheduled breaks, I have holiday breaks, I have spring break, I have summer break, so if you’re looking for that, it’s a little bit of flexibility there.”
In November 2024, Benge gave presentations about school psychology to AP Psychology students. She says that her purpose was education, awareness, and advocacy for the profession. She says that students can learn more about the National Association of School Psychology website, and contact school psychologists if they are interested.
“If you’re interested in school psychology, then reach out to one of us,” Benge said. “We’re always happy to talk about it. Like I said, I’ve drank the Kool Aid. I want you guys to drink the Kool Aid too, and we are always happy to talk about our profession and help you in any way we can.”
