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JUST
AN INNOCENT QUESTION...
Time
to stop writing psych reports?
Donald
J. Asbridge, Ed.S., KOG Editor
I'm not responsible
for this... this is to be blamed on thinking.
Even though I was
trying not to, I started thinking again. I keep telling myself to
try to stop it because thinking is just not encouraged, but it happens
every now and then. I'm sorry. I'm trying to stop this bad
habit.
Thinking*
happens.
Let me explain my excuse
for thinking... here's how it all started.
I showed up at the
IEP meeting with my psych report. I looked around and noticed that
no one else had a report...
The nurse didn't
have a report.
The special education
teacher didn't have a report.
The general education
teacher didn't have a report.
The principal didn't
have a report.
The parent didn't
have a report.
The student didn't
have a report.
The director didn't
have a report.
In all fairness,
I'm certain that had the speech therapist been there, she would have had
a 35-page report.
On one hand, I'm
thinking it's probably okay that school psychologists show up with reports.
School psychologists, after all, are the ones who, when everyone else in
the district is lost and confused, show up and not only save the district
from a huge lawsuit, but provide empowering recommendations and services
for students. So, okay, fine, I guess we can keep on testing and
writing our reports to serve students and districts. I try to be
fair. Go ahead and keep doing that. That is what we do, after
all. We test, we write our reports, we diagnose. Somebody has
to spend their career calling students horrible names... why not you and
me?
"I'm
a school psychologist, therefore I write reports."
But really, when you
(i.e., I) think about it, the psych report could have 8,000,000 recommendations,
but only the recommendations of the IEP team "count." Here's an example:
let's say I show up with my nifty 12-page report (including all legal components
as identified by 10,000 pages of law) and recommend, say, counseling for
the student. But for whatever the reason, counseling is not agreed
to or recommended by the IEP team. No matter what my recommendations
are in my report, they aren't "official" and cannot be implemented unless
and until they become IEP team recommendations.
I'm always amused
when someone says, "What did the last psych report say?" It
doesn't matter what the last psych reports said -- all that
matters is what the IEP team decided.
So maybe this is
a polite way of telling you I don't read your reports. But don't
get too upset. I know you don't read my reports either. I hope
you have better things to do than sit down and review what some shrink
wrote two years ago. I hope you're working directly with the student
rather than sitting down and reading two-year-old reports. If you
do read reports, I hope you, as a scientist, read skeptically. I
know I do.
You
know your student better than I do and I know my student better than you
do.
Plus, we all know that
a student might have a learning disability in one district, but, um, not
in the district down the street (think about that -- whoops, no, don't
think about that)!
If you've diagnosed
a student with a learning disability (and hopefully you would never do
that -- it takes a team decision to diagnose SLD)... well, why would I
want to read any further -- we all know that really means the district
or the school has given up on the kid. But I'm not attacking you
-- I do that too -- that's what we all do. Why? Because
that's what we do.
Ultimately,
what you or I write really doesn't matter... what matters it what the IEP
team recommended.
How is it that a nurse
can show up and somehow find a way to make a recommendation without a twelve-page
"Nurse's Report?"
How is it that a
special education teacher can show up and somehow find a way to make a
recommendation without a twelve-page "Special Education Teacher's Report?"
How is it that a
general education teacher can show up and somehow find a way to make a
recommendation without a twelve-page "General Education Teacher's Report?"
How is it that a
principal can show up and somehow find a way to make a recommendation without
a twelve-page "Principal's Report?"
How is it that a
parent can show up and somehow find a way to make a recommendation without
a twelve-page "Parent's Report?"
How is it that a
student can show up and somehow find a way to make a recommendation without
a twelve-page "Student's Report?"
How is it that a
director can show up and somehow find a way to make a recommendation without
a twelve-page "Director's Report?
I'm
thinking school psychologists drew the short straw.
It's actually a pretty
convenient process when you think about it -- whoops, sorry.
I keep hearing everybody
else is "too busy" to write reports. Apparently school psychologists
are doing nothing all day and have nothing but "free time" to sit around
and type 12-page reports. If that is truly the case, then let's give
it up, what do you say?
So whenever we all
go off to court, who's the one person who's neck is on the line?
The one person who has had the courage (or is legally required) to put
his or her findings and recommendations in writing. And we get to
start every meeting by outlining to the parents exactly who and how to
sue if they want. And school lawyers from both sides love to pull
out the report and attack it. It's an interesting process --lawyers
aren't educators and psychologists aren't lawyers, yet both are expected
to be each. And lawyers always get the final say. What an [interesting]
time in which we live and work, eh?
I don't
know about you, but I could work with a student and show up to the meeting
ready to make powerful, effective, empowering, and professional recommendations
for the team to consider just like everyone else WITHOUT A 12-PAGE REPORT.
Could you?
I bet you could.
Either everyone on
the team should be required to show up at the meeting with a report...
or no one should. I know I could better serve society, students,
and the district if I could just work with students.
So, ultimately, no
one will ever read this rant so it's a moot point. But I miss the
"team" in IEP team. And I think it's pretty much a waste of taxpayer's
money to pay [us] to sit down and write out beautiful 12-page reports that
no one will ever read or if they do, they're just looking to sue us.
I would ask you what you think, but I know you aren't reading this.
"Any
time spent not working with students is wasted time."
*That
would "automatic reinforcement" if you're a behaviorist.
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