Applied School Psychology Consultation Cases
Integrate the assessment, intervention, consultation, and progress-monitoring principles presented throughout this course. Apply advanced professional judgment to complex attendance concerns involving psychological distress, school avoidance, educational accessibility, family circumstances, schoolwide systems, and intensive intervention.
Comprehensive Case Analysis Schoolwide Consultation Intensive Intervention Applied Decision-MakingReading Assignment
Primary Resource: Jordan, P. (2023). Attendance Playbook: Smart Strategies for Reducing Student Absenteeism Post-Pandemic. FutureEd and Attendance Works.
Required Reading: Printed pages 5–7 and 47–71.
Open Assigned Reading (PDF) ↗Reading Focus
- Pages 5–7: Review chronic absenteeism, the multi-tiered attendance framework, and the interpretation of research evidence.
- Pages 47–54: Review early warning systems, targeted family outreach, mentoring, tutoring, and approaches to identifying students requiring additional intervention.
- Pages 55–60: Review targeted youth engagement, health-related attendance barriers, mental health supports, and school refusal.
- Pages 61–64: Review attendance concerns involving students with disabilities and broader family or community circumstances.
- Pages 65–68: Review interagency case management, coordinated support delivery, housing instability, and student mobility.
- Pages 69–71: Review the limitations of punitive truancy interventions and the importance of responding to identified attendance barriers.
Purpose of the Final Lesson
The three applied cases below require integration of the course rather than isolated recall. Each case presents competing explanations, incomplete information, and intervention decisions requiring professional judgment.
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, learners will be able to:
- Integrate attendance, psychological, behavioral, academic, family, and environmental information into comprehensive student formulations.
- Evaluate competing explanations for complex school avoidance without making unsupported causal or diagnostic conclusions.
- Interpret schoolwide attendance trends, implementation fidelity, equity concerns, and measurement limitations.
- Develop coordinated multi-tiered interventions based on identified needs and available evidence.
- Evaluate the appropriateness of individualized and intensive attendance supports, including interagency case management.
- Apply professional reasoning to confidentiality, educational access, student well-being, and the limitations of punitive approaches.
- Establish measurable outcomes and data-based criteria for maintaining, modifying, or intensifying intervention.
Completing the Applied Case Studies
This lesson includes three extended case studies designed for psychologists working in schools. Each case requires a substantive written response that integrates assessment, intervention planning, and professional consultation.
The cases represent three distinct levels of educational problem-solving.
Response Expectations
Each case should be completed independently. Develop a detailed response that explains your reasoning, incorporates relevant evidence, identifies limitations of the available information, and provides specific, defensible recommendations.
Where numerical information is provided, include appropriate calculations and interpretations. Distinguish observations from hypotheses, and avoid assuming that a single attendance indicator establishes diagnosis or behavioral function.
Differential Assessment of Complex School Avoidance
Focus: Individual student assessment, competing behavioral and psychological hypotheses, school reentry, and coordinated intervention.
Comprehensive Assessment School Avoidance Functional HypothesesCase Study Overview
This case examines a seventh-grade student experiencing rapid attendance deterioration, significant morning distress, negative peer interactions, accumulating academic difficulties, and changes in family circumstances.
Different members of the educational team have proposed competing explanations, including anxiety-related avoidance, negative reinforcement, academic escape, and lack of motivation.
Your task is to integrate the available information rather than adopt a single unverified explanation.
Professional Analysis Priorities
- Interpret the student's attendance deterioration over time.
- Identify competing and potentially interacting hypotheses.
- Evaluate psychological, behavioral, academic, peer, and family information.
- Identify urgent safety and health considerations.
- Develop an individualized and feasible school reentry plan.
- Specify intervention measures and progress-monitoring decisions.
Case Study 1 — Written Analysis
Read the complete scenario in the activity below. Provide a comprehensive consultation response, including assessment recommendations, intervention priorities, and an evaluation framework.
Evaluating Multi-Tiered Attendance Intervention and Schoolwide Disproportionality
Focus: Systems-level consultation, measurement validity, chronic absenteeism, implementation fidelity, and equity.
Schoolwide Systems Data Interpretation Equity & AccessCase Study Overview
This case examines district-level attendance data from four schools following implementation of a schoolwide attendance initiative.
Although district average daily attendance has improved, several schools continue to experience high or increasing chronic absenteeism.
Additional concerns include inconsistent attendance coding, variation in intervention implementation, disparities among students with health or housing-related barriers, and potential unintended consequences of perfect-attendance incentives.
Professional Analysis Priorities
- Differentiate average daily attendance from chronic absenteeism.
- Examine patterns across schools and student groups.
- Evaluate measurement error and inconsistent attendance coding.
- Identify limitations of causal interpretations.
- Evaluate potential harms of incentive and recognition systems.
- Recommend schoolwide, targeted, and intensive support strategies.
- Establish a defensible district evaluation framework.
Case Study 2 — Written Analysis
Review all four school profiles in the activity below. Prepare a district-level consultation recommendation that integrates attendance outcomes, school climate, implementation quality, and equitable access to support.
Intensive Case Management, Educational Access, and Intervention Response
Focus: Intensive intervention, multi-agency coordination, disability-related needs, intervention fidelity, and data-based decision-making.
Tier 3 Intervention Interagency Coordination Progress MonitoringCase Study Overview
This case examines a tenth-grade student experiencing severe absenteeism in the context of housing instability, anxiety symptoms, disability-related educational needs, transportation problems, and significant academic disruption.
Multiple interventions have been recommended, but service delivery has been inconsistent, and responsibilities for coordinating supports remain unclear.
The educational team disagrees about whether recent attendance data indicate intervention failure, meaningful improvement, or a need for more comprehensive and coordinated intervention.
Professional Analysis Priorities
- Calculate and interpret interval-specific attendance rates.
- Differentiate cumulative absenteeism from recent progress.
- Evaluate intervention fidelity and incomplete service delivery.
- Assess educational access and disability-related needs.
- Integrate mental health, family, transportation, and academic supports.
- Develop a coordinated intensive case management structure.
- Address confidentiality and appropriate interagency information sharing.
- Establish meaningful decision rules for intervention adjustment.
Case Study 3 — Written Analysis
Review the full scenario and intervention data below. Develop a coordinated Tier 3 support plan that reflects student needs, family circumstances, implementation limitations, and relevant educational and psychological considerations.
Final Lesson Synthesis
The three applied consultation cases integrate the core concepts presented throughout the course: chronic absenteeism identification, school avoidance assessment, multi-tiered intervention, family engagement, intensive case management, and systematic progress monitoring.
Effective attendance problem-solving requires more than responding to the number of missed school days. It involves evaluating interacting psychological, educational, behavioral, family, and environmental barriers and developing supports matched to the student's needs.
The cases also reinforce the importance of interpreting research and local data carefully, acknowledging uncertainty, examining intervention fidelity, and avoiding unsupported assumptions about students or families.
For psychologists working in schools, professional consultation involves integrating information from multiple sources, developing defensible hypotheses, coordinating appropriate supports, and evaluating both attendance and broader student outcomes.
Course Integration: Key Practice Takeaway
Effective intervention for chronic absenteeism and school avoidance is assessment-driven, relationship-centered, contextually responsive, multi-tiered, and measurable. The goal is sustainable access to education and improved student functioning—not simply a higher attendance percentage.
Next Step: After submitting all three applied case studies, continue to the course's final assessment as directed by the learning platform.
Reference
Jordan, P. (2023). Attendance Playbook: Smart Strategies for Reducing Student Absenteeism Post-Pandemic. FutureEd and Attendance Works.