School psychologist talking with elementary school student in classroom

Academic Program

School Psychology

Master the skills necessary to help children in school settings and the surrounding communities.

Our School Psychology program prepares students to effectively support the academic and social emotional success of children and adolescents. Working with faculty with extensive research and practice expertise, our students develop the skills and knowledge needed to address complex educational problems and lead systems level change. 

About

School psychologists must follow best practices that are supported by empirical research. Our program trains graduates using a problem-solving model that approaches consultation, assessment and intervention from a behavior analytic framework and emphasizes the influences of family, community and culture in the problem-solving process.

Students in our Ed.S. and Ph.D. programs receive supervised practicum experience in school settings from the beginning and gain a knowledge and experimental underpinning in multicultural perspectives.

Our faculty and students engage in research in areas such as academic assessment and intervention, ADHD, autism, behavioral/emotional assessment and intervention, and pediatric school psychology, and they have published in journals and presented their research at national and international conferences.

Accreditation

Our programs have met the rigorous criteria and standards designed by the following governing boards to provide a top education for our students.

  • Ph.D. program is accredited by the American Psychological Association, the National Association of School Psychologists and the Pennsylvania Department of Education
  • Ed.S. program is accredited by the National Association of School Psychologists and the Pennsylvania Department of Education

School Psychology Spotlight

  • Bob Boyer and Lori Anderson

    Making Mountaintop a Better Place

    Once a week, Lori Gallagher Anderson arrives on Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus with fresh groceries for the food pantry housed in Iacocca Building. Transporting all of those supplies into the building can be a challenge. “There are days I have my wagon piled high and multiple bags slung across each shoulder,” she laughed. But Anderson receives help from an unexpected source: a campus transit driver.

  • Lisa Sandilos

    Sandilos Selected for 2025 Class of '61 Professorship

    Lia Sandilos, an associate professor in the School Psychology program, has been selected for the 2025 Class of '61 Professorship for the College of Education. This award recognizes faculty members who have achieved the rank of associate professor and have shown distinction in teaching, research and service.

  • George DuPaul and Lee Kern

    Behavioral Interventions Effective Tool in ADHD Treatment

    A recent op ed by COE professors George DuPaul and Lee Kern published in Penn Live suggests that the role of behavioral parent training [BPT] may be underutilized. For young children, especially those under six, leading health authorities, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recommend that parents pursue behavioral interventions (specifically BPT] before turning to medication.

  • Josselyn Alvarenga

    Alvarenga Prepares for a Career in Community Research

    Josselyn Alvarenga, a second-year doctoral student in the COE’s Counseling Psychology program, is passionate about supporting healthy child development in marginalized families. Her research looks at how culture shapes the ways in which young children learn to handle and show their emotions.

    Focusing on Black and Latinx families, Alvarenga looks at how parents and caregivers respond to their child’s distress, the child’s feelings of closeness and security with their caregivers, and how the child manages stress. She hopes that her research and the research of others within the Hands and Hearts Together project where she works, will promote wide-scale changes that positively impact family relationships and behaviors in these communities.

Faculty & Staff