HIRING INTERNS: YOU GET MORE THAN YOUR MONEY'S WORTH

Participation in an internship program is a win-win situation for both the student and the sponsoring school district. The intern student receives supervision and guidance as he or she enters a new profession, while the school secures a future employee during a time when fewer school psychologists are being trained. By training, the school is able to indoctrinate their protocol/methods, avoiding the need to "untrain" former practices.

However, best of all, through the availability of emergency certification, school districts are now able to collect Medicaid reimbursement for the work done by intern students. This can earn thousands of dollars for the school district. Some schools even combine the internship, resident year, and entry year all into one, eliminating duplicate paperwork and conferences.

So what is an internship and its requirements? The internship is a comprehensive field experience through which the student demonstrates, under supervision, his/her ability to integrate knowledge and skills (acquired in course work and practice) in providing a broad range of school psychological services. The internship affords the student the opportunity to work with diverse client populations, a range of problems, and different types of human service programs, using varied intervention methodologies. The internship is based on a positive working relationship and represents a collaborative effort between the university program and field-based supervisor to provide an effective learning experience for the student.

The following internship guidelines come from NASP. The field-based supervisor provides at least two hours per week of direct supervision and is responsible for no more than two interns at any given time. The university instructor provides one on-site contact per semester with each intern and field-based supervisor and is responsible for no more than twelve interns at any given time.

The internship occurs on a full-time basis over a period of one academic year, or on a half time basis over a period of two consecutive academic years. The student spends 1200 clock hours (for 6 hours of credit) at his/her location. At a minimum, 600 hours must be in a school setting. For that portion of the internship that is in a school setting, the field-based internship supervisor must hold a valid credential as a school psychologist, be employed full-time as a school psychologist in the agency, and have held such employment for a minimum of one school year prior to undertaking supervisory responsibilities. In non-school settings, supervisory personnel must hold an appropriate credential for that setting.

If interested in offering internship supervision, please contact Peggy Kerr, Ph.D. at the University of Central Oklahoma at 405 974- 2000.

Submitted by Marti Wyand, UCO Student Representative

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