Application of Child Rights to School-Based Consultation

Abstract

Consultation, one of the central roles of a school psychologist, is a strong method for the promotion of child well-being at a public health level (Doll, Cummings, Transforming school mental health services: population-based approaches to promoting the competency and wellness of children. Corwin Press with National Association of School Psychologists, Thousand Oaks, 2008). As an evidenced-based service delivery model, consultation enables school psychologists to use a prevention framework of practice that better serves the needs of entire student populations (Hess et al., Comprehensive children’s mental health services in schools and communities: a public health problem-solving model. Routledge, New York, 2012). The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child continually calls for efforts to ensure the provisions of the United Nations (Convention on the rights of the child. United Nations, Geneva. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/crc/, 1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child (Convention) are widely known and understood (Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report of the committee on the rights of the child. United Nations, New York. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/55/a5541.pdf, 2000; United Nations, General Assembly, Report on the committee of the rights of the child. A/67/41. Retrieved from http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/50a0cd982.pdf, 2012). This chapter serves to educate school psychologists on the Convention and to demonstrate how the Convention could be integrated into the consultation practice of a school psychologist. Through case examples that utilize primary forms of consultation, the chapter illustrates ways in which the Convention can strengthen the consultation process and improve outcomes for consultees and students. By engaging in consultation with a child rights lens, school psychologists improve the overall quality of their consultation practice as well as their capabilities overall.

Appendix A

Resources on Consultation Models

Consultation is an integral part of a school psychologist’s work. Consultation by school psychologists can serve several purposes, including the development of school-wide prevention and promotion strategies that support student well-being and educational performance, as well as the development of specific interventions for groups or individual students. Consultation generally follows a problem-solving framework and includes the consultant (i.e., school psychologist), consultee (e.g., teacher, allied professional, caregiver), and client (e. g, student).

School psychologists use several models of consultation. Some models focus on academics (e.g., instructional consultation); other models attend to behavioral and social-emotional development. In all models, consultation generally incorporates several common stages: the establishment of a consultative relationship; the operationalization of presenting concerns; the implementation of interventions; and the collection of data for evaluation.

In contrast to individual intervention, consultation has the potential to broaden the impact of school psychologists’ applied practice by positively influencing multiple individuals and systems through support around common difficulties. That is, consultation enables the school psychologist to serve a larger proportion of the school population and to promote more long-lasting change because of the resulting increase in knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy of individuals and systems charged with meeting the needs of children.

In this chapter, applications of three types of consultation were illustrated:

• Conjoint behavioral consultation (Sheridan et al., 2008; Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2010) – A solution-focused approach that relies on collaborative problem-solving among multiple stakeholders to jointly develop plans to address academic, social, and/or behavioral needs of students. Benefits of this model include parental engagement, strengthened relationships, and improved positive academic, socioemotional, and behavioral outcomes.

• Consultee-centered consultation (Knotek et al, 2008) – A facilitative model of consultation that aims to enhance specific skills of the consultee in order to better serve student needs. Through the consultation process, the consultant and consultee work together to build an understanding of social, cultural, psychological, economic, and/or linguistic factors that may relate to areas of concern. Benefits of this model include improved understanding, knowledge, and skills, which lead to the formation of stronger relationships and increased problem-solving abilities of the consultee.

• Participatory Culture-Specific Consultation model (PCSC: Nastasi et al., 2000, 2004) – A culturally sensitive, iterative model that integrates research and stakeholder collaboration to identify and address issues of concern. PCSC is rooted in participatory action research and thus views the perspectives of all community members as central to the identification and operationalization of problems as well as to the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions, all of which ensure key stakeholder involvement when addressing community problems. Benefits of this model include its emphasis on cultural sensitivity as the needs, opinions, and perspectives of multiple entities are considered to be central to problem identification and resolution.

For more information about these and other types of consultation, see further readings listed below.

• 1. Bergan, J. R., & Kratochwill, T. R. (1990). Behavioral consultation and therapy. New York, NY: Plenum.

• 2. Kratochwill, T. R., & Bergan, J. R. (1990). Behavioral consultation in applied settings: An individual guide. New York, NY: Springer.

• 3. Erchul, W. P., & Martens, B. K. (2010). School consultation: Conceptual and empirical bases of practice (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

• 4. Erchul, W. P., & Sheridan, S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of research in school consultation (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Erlbaum.

• 5. Nastasi, B. K., & Hitchcock, J. H. (2008). Evaluating quality and effectiveness of population-based services. In B. J. Doll & J. A. Cummings (Eds.), Transforming school mental health services: Population-based approaches to promoting the competency and wellness of children (pp. 245–276). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press with National Association of School Psychologists.

• 6. Nastasi, B. K., Moore, R. B., & Varjas, K. M. (2004). School-based mental health services: Creating comprehensive and culturally specific programs. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

• 7. National Association of School Psychologists. (2010). Model for comprehensive and integrated school psychological services. Bethesda, MD: Author. Available at http://www.naspweb.org

• 8. Rosenfield, S. (2014). Instructional consultation and collaboration. London, UK: Taylor & Francis Group.

• 9. Sheridan, S. M., Kratochwill, T. R., & Bergan, J. R. (1996). Conjoint behavioral consultation: A procedural manual. New York, NY: Plenum.

• 10. Sheridan, S. M. & Kratochwill, T. R. (2010). Conjoint behavioral consultation: Promoting family-school connections and interventions (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.