The discipline of psychology is fundamental to teaching, learning, and child development. School psychologists have training and experience in the core areas of psychology and education and represent the pursuits of both fields. At The Gengras Center , the school psychologist occupies a unique position at the intersection of both professions, and therefore can advance the accomplishment of a broad range of school goals in the areas of behavior, learning, and mental health. The school psychologist offers a problem-solving orientation - based on research, empirically proven practices, and data-based decision making, which is applied to the design and implementation of effective academic and behavioral interventions. At The Gengras Center , emphasis is on prevention, assessment, and consultation which are characterized by the following practices of the school psychologist:

- the cognitive, adaptive behavioral, and social and emotional evaluation of individual students using a variety of assessment methods including testing, observation, interviewing, and reviewing of existing data to determine and diagnose a full range of psychological and educational strengths and disorders as they pertain to the educational process;

- helping school personnel in developing alternative instructional strategies or programs to meet the needs of all students in the classroom;

- applying consultation, functional behavioral assessment, and ecological assessment of learner/environment systems to the design of instructional, social, emotional, and behavioral interventions;

- design alternative approaches to classroom management and student discipline, behavior management, ecological intervention and enhancement of classroom climates;

- provide special educators and support specialists with timely research on instruction from psychological and educational literature.