Multilingual learners are among the fastest growing K-12 student populations in the United States, and more than 5 million multilingual learners attend K-12 schools, an increase of 35% over the past two decades. In addition, more than 2 million students speak a language other than English in their homes representing about 40% of California’s public-school enrollment, with 82% speaking Spanish at home.
Yet most school psychologists are monolingual English speakers (88% in 2020) and White (86%), and among those who speak another language, only 12% provide services in that language.
The critical shortage of school psychology practitioners and candidates in graduate education programs has been well documented and is even more pronounced for bilingual school psychologists who continue to be underrepresented in the profession.
To address the urgent need to increase the number of bilingual professionals practicing school psychology, Assistant Teaching Professor Arlene Ortiz and Professor and Director of Academic Program Development Shane Jimerson, both in the Gevirtz School’s Department of Counseling, Clinical and School Psychology (CCSP), decided to take action.
Ortiz and Jimerson have had an ongoing involvement (since 2021) with the California Consortium for Bilingual School Psychology to create a set of bilingual school psychology competencies that could be used by training programs to develop specialized certificate programs. They worked tirelessly over the past several years, in collaboration with CCSP faculty, to design a Graduate Certificate in Bilingual School Psychology at UCSB that aligned with the identified bilingual school psychology competencies.
In June 2024, the Graduate Certificate in Bilingual School Psychology program received approval, with the mission to support and promote the professional preparation of bilingual school psychologists to meet the needs of multilingual children and their families.
“The UCSB school psychology program is the first, and at present, the only program in the state to establish and offer a Graduate Certificate in Bilingual School Psychology,” Ortiz said. “This is an incredibly timely and important certificate. There is a tremendous need for school-based mental health professionals who are trained to support the unique needs of multilingual and multicultural children and their families.”
“By preparing bilingual school psychologists, we continue to advance diversity, equity, and justice to support children in the local community, state-wide, and nationally,” Jimerson said.
This program will include each of the Gevirtz school psychology faculty colleagues, with Otriz and Associate Professor Miriam Thompson contributing their multilingual contributions through mentoring, supervision, and course instruction.
Students must be matriculated in the M.Ed.or Ph.D. school psychology program and be proficient in a language other than English to be considered for the program. Once enrolled in the program, students can expect to develop discipline-specific language skills and gain knowledge and skills of best practices for bilingual school psychology to provide key services in school, including bilingual assessment, culturally responsive social-emotional and academic interventions, and consultation.
For more information on the Certificate in Bilingual School Psychology, visit: https://bit.ly/48mXls7.