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Doctor of Psychology in School Psychology

(Not accepting applications at this time)

Coordinator: Pamela Pressley Abraham, Psy.D. NCSP

The Psy.D. program in School Psychology is approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The program is committed to the education and training of certified school psychologists who are seeking doctoral level skills and competencies. The Psy.D. program in School Psychology at Immaculata University is a practitioner program in which students are educated and trained to deliver school psychological services through the direct application of skills and knowledge based on scientific research, scholarly inquiry, and personal reflection.

The curriculum of the Psy.D. in School Psychology is informed by the educational and training standards of the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Council of Schools and Programs in Professional Psychology (NCSPP), and the National Association in School Psychology (NASP). The Psy.D. program in School Psychology operates from a philosophy that is fully attentive to the systemic, cultural and ecological forces that shape the psychology of children, youth, and families in need of school psychological services. The program seeks to build upon the school psychologist's understanding of children and adolescents affected by numerous quality-of-life issues impacting growth and development. With this type of ecological orientation to school psychology practice, the philosophy of the Psy.D. program in School Psychology values and promotes education and training in the areas of ethics, research design and analysis, assessment, consultation, diversity, program evaluation, prevention, and intervention. Program graduates are prepared to take leadership positions as doctoral level school psychologists both in the public and private sectors.

These functional domains, applied to school settings, distinguish the focus of the Psy.D. program in School Psychology from the certification program in School Psychology and from the Psy.D. program in clinical Psychology. The Psy.D. program in School Psychology is distinct from the school psychology certification program in the areas of admissions (school psychology certification is a prerequisite for program application), range and depth of courses, individualized practicum training, research contribution, and scope of doctoral internship. The Psy.D. program in school psychology is distinct from the Psy.D. in clinical Psychology in program admission, and by the nature of discipline specific courses and clinical training. School and clinical Psy.D. students take common foundation courses in response to the generic knowledge needs that define psychology as a professional discipline and which are applicable to a psychology license, but are separated by specific tracks in which courses are unique to students in each discipline.