<p>I considered school psychology before I decided to go into my subfield (health psychology - I never really wanted to be a licensed school psychologist in the districts, but a researcher).</p>
<p>There are three levels of education for school psychologists: master’s level, specialist’s level and doctoral level. Not all states will license master’s level-educated school psychologists to practice. Some states require the program to be approved by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) in order for graduates to be licensed, and the NASP only approves specialist-level and doctoral-level programs. A specialist-level program is sort of like an intermediate step between master’s and doctoral that is somewhat unique to education. But here’s where it gets tricky.</p>
<p>Technically, a specialist-level degree program in school psychology requires at least 60 credit hours and at least 1200 internship hours. The problem is that specialist level programs actually award a wide range of degrees. Many of them award the Ed.S, or “specialist in education/educational specialist” degree. But some of them award MA, MS. Ed.M, or M.Ed degrees despite being “specialist-level” and NASP-approved.</p>
<p>So when you’re looking for programs, you really want a specialist-level program (which usually takes 3 years of full-time study: 2 years of coursework and 1 year of internship). But that specialist-level program may not actually be an Ed.S. So you’ll want to check the webpage of each program that you peruse to make sure that it’s specialist-level. An alternative is to use the list of NASP-approved programs, especially since you’ll probably want to go to a NASP-approved program anyway since it allows the most flexibility in licensure. Here’s a list:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nasponline.org/certification/documents/NASP-Approved-Programs.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nasponline.org/certification/documents/NASP-Approved-Programs.pdf</a></p>
<p>Then there’s doctoral level programs, which of course award doctoral-level degrees: PhDs, PsyDs, and EdDs most commonly. PhD programs are usually research-focused programs that also teach school psychologists to practice, so you’ll have to complete clinical practice hours in addition to some coursework and research, including a dissertation, and then a year-long internship. PsyDs are usually more professional-oriented programs, where the focus is preparing you for practice: you’ll do clinical practice hours - perhaps more than a PhD; you’ll also take coursework. You may write a dissertation or you may do a more practice-oriented capstone project depending on the PsyD, and then you’ll do a year of internship. PhD programs usually take 6 years (5 + 1 internship year) while PsyD programs can typically take about 5 years (4 years + 1 internship year).</p>
<p>The EdD can be anywhere in between depending on the program. Some EdDs are basically PhDs by another name, whereas others are much more practice-oriented.</p>
<p>The APA accredits doctoral-level school psychology programs and the NASP also approves them. So if you choose a doctoral level program, you will want to go to one that is both APA accredited AND NASP approved. Usually, APA accreditation is required to get an APA-accredited internship, which is required for licensure. NASP approval is required for national certification and for state licensure. But there’s a lot of overlap between the lists an I’m pretty sure the vast majority of APA-accredited doctoral programs are also NASP-approved, and vice versa.</p>
<p>The list of APA-accredited doctoral programs is here: [Accredited</a> Programs in School Psychology](<a href=“http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/programs/accred-school.aspx]Accredited”>APA-Accredited Programs)</p>
<p>Each state sets its own licensure rules, so they are going to vary a lot from state to state. Some states only license doctorally-prepared school psychologists as “psychologists”, and specialist-level practitioners are called something else like “school psychological specialists” or something. But that typically does not matter functionally; it will only matter if you want to go into private practice and provide medically reimbursible services (both for advertising as well as for how much an insurer will reimburse you). If you don’t go to a SL or DL program, that limits how many states will license you. In many states, reciprocity is much easier if you go to a NASP approved program (and APA accredited at the D level) and/or have national certification ([Becoming</a> a NCSP](<a href=“http://www.nasponline.org/certification/becomeNCSP.aspx]Becoming”>National Certification)).</p>
<p>So here’s some distilled information:</p>
<p>-Doctoral level programs (PhD, EdD, PsyD) give you the most flexibility: you can practice in schools or open a private practice, and you will have an easier time moving into administrative positions later. You could also potentially teach and do research in school psychology as a professor. These programs tend to be fully-funded (except for PsyD programs and some EdD programs), too. But of course they are long: 5-6 years at minimum. And they are much more competitive, typically admitting anywhere from 4-15 students per year.</p>
<p>-Specialist level programs can award a wide range of degrees, including MA, MS, MEd/EdM, or EdS degrees. The name is not so important as the level: 60 hours of credit + 1200 hour internship. Specialist degrees typically take 3 years (2 years classes + 1 year internship), so they are shorter, but are much less likely to offer financial aid than PhD and EdD programs. Specialist programs usually license you to practice in schools, and within most school districts you’ll do work identical to that of doctoral-level psychologists, at least at first. But specialist-level practitioners MAY find fewer advancement opportunities into administration - but I say MAY, because that really depends on you and your work as well as the poo of other SPs in your district (i.e., if most or all of you are specialist-prepared it may not matter). SL prepared SPs also typically can’t get tenure-track positions as professors at universities/colleges, although they may be able to teach part-time or full-time as non-tenure-track professors and/or adjuncts. SL prepared SPs also typically don’t go into private practice, although in some states they may be eligible for licensure as licensed practical counselors (LPCs) and can do so.</p>
<p>So if you just want to practice within the schools or maybe achieve lower levels of administration in a smaller school district, a specialist-level degree will be fine - and whether it’s an MA, MS, MEd/EdM or EdS won’t matter as long as it’s NASP-approved. If you want to have the option of ascending to higher heights in the district leadership, or teaching as a full-time professor, or practicing independently, then you may want the doctoral degree.</p>