Educational and School Psychology

There are currently 5.5 million school-age children attending 8,000 schools in California. The need for school psychologists was formally mandated in the 1970s with the passage of Public Law 94-142, requiring that all children with special needs be evaluated, provided with the appropriate support and placed in the least restrictive learning environments possible.

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD): Educational Psychology

The Doctor of Psychology in Educational Psychology program is designed to meet these needs, providing both assistance to children with special needs and a rewarding career to those who choose the profession of educational psychology. Alliant International University’s Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco Campuses offer a five-year program leading to a PsyD in Educational Psychology: School Psychology Emphasis, with a master’s degree and PPS credential awarded after the second and third year in School Psychology.

The PsyD in Educational Psychology program is offered in an “executive format” for working professionals, with classes meeting on evenings and/or weekends. It involves coursework, passage of two doctoral-level comprehensive examinations (Praxis 2 and a professional practice examination), completion of a professional portfolio, PsyD project, and additional research/applied work.

Masters of Arts in Education (MAEd): School Psychology: with Pupil Personnel Services (PPS); School Psychology Pupil Personnel Servcies (PPS) Credential Only

With increasing frequency, schools must find ways to help students learn while coping with a broad array of challenges that include language and cultural barriers; exposure to violence, victimization, or substance abuse; attention deficit, and other neurological/ behavioral disorders.

The master’s degree program in school psychology prepares students to gain the PPS (Pupil Personnel Services) credential that allows them to practice in California’s schools.

The master’s degree and credential programs in school psychology will be of interest to recent college graduates with bachelor’s degrees, current teachers, school personnel and people in other related fields.

The credential-only program will be of interest to mental health, counseling, psychology and special education professionals who already possess a master’s degree in a related field.

Certificate in Educational Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology is the study of brain-behavior relationships. There exists increasing empirical support for the application of neuropsychology principles within the school setting resulting in the specialty of school neuropsychology. Thus, the application of neuropsychological principles in order to better understand the behavior of children and/or adolescents and how they learn, coupled with the brain-based instructional practices, is a logical and reasonable application of scientific knowledge to the educational process. In order for such an application to occur, however, specialized training on the part of school psychologists in neuropsychology is necessary. The School and Educational Psychology programs unit has launched a certificate training program to provide school psychologists with school neuropsychology training which takes two years to complete. Prospective applicants for this certificate program can include master’s level and doctoral level school psychologists trained at other educational institutions.

Certificate in School Based Mental Health

The School Based Mental Health certificate is designed to enhance the skill sets of school psychologists and other school-based mental health practitioners in the areas of school-based mental health services as articulated by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).

This two-year certificate program utilizes an executive format model: classes occur during the evenings and weekends.

School-based mental health focuses primarily on:

Building skills,
Assessing deficits,
Preventing problems, and
Nurturing strengths among culturally and ethnically diverse preschoolers, school-age children, and adolescents.

Our two-year certificate program is designed to provide master’s level practitioners with the knowledge, skills, and awareness necessary to conduct culturally-informed, short-term, cognitive-behavioral group and individual counseling interventions within the schools. Prospective applicants to this certificate program can include school psychologists, school counselors, MFTs, MAs in counseling, and LCSWs.