Service Learning in School Psychology: Building Community and Careers

By Melissa Fassel

According to the Massachusetts Department of Education, there are hundreds of children who need someone to help them with their special education programs. They encourage people to make a difference by volunteering as an educational parent in their Educational Surrogate Parent Program. For graduate psychology club officer Barbara Ball, this need resonated with the graduate school psychology program and UMass Boston's mission to serve the community. Working with Felicia Wilczenski, faculty advisor for the graduate student psychology club, Ball coordinated with the Massachusetts Department of Education and the Department of Social Services to set up training for psychology club members to become surrogate parents.

Massachusetts' special education laws require that a parent approve of a child's Individual Education Program (IEP). For one reason or another, parents of many of these children do not have legal custody of their child nor legal right to advocate for his or her education. The Educational Surrogate Parents program trains a stand-in parent and gives him/her full parental rights to their assigned child's education, including: the right to meet with and observe the child at school, attend all school meetings concerning the child, review all school records and receive all evaluations and progress reports, and approve or disapprove of the child's IEP.

On March 7, about 25 students from the Graduate College of Education's School Psychology Program attended surrogate parent training. Unlike most surrogate parent volunteers, the school-psychologists-in-training already have extensive knowledge about the testing that special needs children undergo. "These students are not only serving needy children in the community, but they are also learning-- gaining the invaluable parental perspective of the educational planning process," said Wilczenski.

For the next year, each student will dedicate 10 to 20 hours to one or more special needs child. The school psychology department plans on incorporating this service into its curriculum and welcomes students, faculty, and staff from other departments to participate.

Image: Barbara Ball, graduate psychology club officer, speaks at the workshop held on campus on March 7. She worked with Felicia Wilczenski, faculty advisor, to coordinate the program. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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