by Carlene Phillips ·
Friday, September 6, 2024
Madison Price, the school psychologist for middle and high school students at Bromfield, says her profession has been largely motivated by personal experience: “Overall I joined the field to help students like me who might have not enjoyed coming to school. Having even one safe person to rely on makes such a difference,” Price remarked in an interview last week.
This is Price’s first year as a full-time psychologist, but she has had extensive experience with students during her internships while working toward advanced degrees. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and early childhood education, a master’s in school psychology, and a certificate in advanced studies as an education specialist in secondary education—all from Worcester State University.
Madison Price.(Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
She said much of her background involved younger kids, but she has “gravitated to older students—who are still ‘kids’—but are starting to come into themselves. It’s great to be a part of that.” She said she is honored to be teaching in Harvard.
Over the summer Price worked as a counselor to help out with Bromfield students because of a big gap last year that had left kids in a hard spot and counselors with heavy evaluation caseloads. Superintendent Linda Dwight explained in an email that last year the school had contracted the services because there had been no highly qualified candidates for the school psychologist position. She added: “Many districts have had issues hiring for these positions because of the increase in students’ mental health needs. We are excited to again have the position filled by Maddie.”
Price said there is definitely an increase in mental health problems among young people. Social media is part of it, she said. It’s hard for schools because kids don’t share universal experiences anymore. She remembers growing up with neighborhood kids doing things together; now there don’t seem to be real neighborhoods, and kids tend to be individually absorbed in YouTube or TikTok. And she thinks there’s also more of a spotlight on mental health. She said she’s had kids say to her, “I was Googling it, and I think I have ADHD.”
She sees firsthand the shortage of people going into the mental health field and teaching in general. For various reasons, people don’t want to be in schools, she said. And it’s a problem to have only white teachers serving a diverse population of kids. She said Superintendent Dwight does such a good job of talking with faculty in acknowledging diversity and the need for more representation.
“I’m seeing racial slurs across many schools,” said Price. “A school is a little world,” in many ways a reflection of what’s going on in society. She said she tries to teach the difference between “intent” and “impact.” Mainly kids are just being kids and goofing around with friends, she said. “But they need to know the impact of what they say and do.”
Among Price’s responsibilities as the school psychologist are to screen students for potential special education needs; to complete the initial evaluations for students who may require an individualized education plan (IEP), accommodation, modification, or other supports; to re-evaluate IEPs; and to counsel a small caseload of students who are on IEPs for social-emotional needs, either on a one-to-one basis or in small groups.
She said an IEP—whether for learning or for social and emotional support—involves instruction. It is a plan for how the student is being taught. She added that members of the special education department had been given training on the new IEP. She said what’s new is an added component that individualizes the plan to each child by asking them, “What do you want for yourself?” Even young kids are asked to say what their plans for themselves are.
Price said many parents fear that if their child is not on an IEP, they won’t get academic or behavioral support. But she explained the different interventions the school provides for all students. Response to intervention (RIT) is a multi-tiered approach to teaching that provides instruction with increased focus to address specific areas of need. Price said it’s important to “work through the tiers rather than jump to an evaluation.”
In RIT, tier one is classroom-wide support for all students through high quality instruction and classroom management. If a student struggles to learn a particular concept, they move to tier two, where they receive special or small group instruction that is more direct and explicit. If the student does not succeed, they are moved to tier three for intensive and individualized instruction. At this point a specialist will weigh in, and the student may be given an IEP, but not necessarily.
Many students do not need a new way of instruction, which is what an IEP provides. What they need is an accommodation, and that can be arranged with a 504 plan. Examples of accommodation are ensuring a student has a seat close to the door, more time to complete work, access to large-print books, verbal testing, or permission to go for a walk.
“I love what I do,” said Price. “I was drawn to the field because it encompasses so many areas I enjoy and relate to, such as collaboration, understanding others, creativity, and overall just helping others. It’s a job that’s different every day, keeps you on your toes, and allows you to research new ideas and solutions. Plus working in a school is overall just fun for me.”