As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools have been actively working to hire, train and retain school mental health professionals. To support this process, one of NCSSLE’s School Based Mental Health Services grantees, funded in 2020, the Hawaii Department of Education, in collaboration with Chaminade University, created an Education Psychology doctoral program as well as the state’s first ever School Psychology program to start a pipeline of trained mental health professionals for their state’s schools.

On this episode of “In Session,” we talk to Ayada Bonilla from the Hawaii Department of Education about the state’s homegrown educational psychology doctoral and school psychology programs. This conversation is guided by NCSSLE’s Annie Knowles and Brianna Cunniff. To learn more about the programs, read Hawaii’s Grantee Highlight.

0:45 - About Ayada and Hawaii
3:55 - Creating the Doctoral Programs to Address Student Needs
7:37 - Impact of the Programs
8:40 - Recruitment & Retention
10:19 - Lessons Learned and Challenges
14:05 - Virtual Learning Opportunity
14:55 - Future Plans & Sustainability
17:28 - Using Data to Improve
20:30 - Dissertations as System Research
21:48 - Closing

For all questions or feedback, you can email ncssle@air.org. Thanks for listening!

Please note, the contents of this podcast do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does it imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education.