Legal, Ethical, and Diversity Considerations in School Psychology
This domain tests the legal framework, NASP ethics, and nondiscriminatory practice. Items often describe a procedural sequence or a conflict and ask what is required, permitted, or prohibited.
Legal framework
- IDEA requires free appropriate public education, child find, least restrictive environment, nondiscriminatory evaluation, an individualized education program, and procedural safeguards with parent participation.
- Timelines: initial evaluation within 60 days of parental consent (Georgia follows 60 days); annual IEP review; reevaluation at least every three years unless parents and the district agree it is unnecessary, and not more than once a year unless agreed.
- Discipline: after 10 cumulative school days of removal, services must be provided to enable progress and progress toward goals. A manifestation determination occurs within 10 school days of a change of placement. A 45-day interim alternative educational setting is permitted for weapons, illegal drugs, or serious bodily injury. Stay-put applies during disputes.
- Section 504 covers students with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; it provides accommodations, not specialized instruction. ADA extends broader protections.
- FERPA gives parents access to education records within 45 days of a request and a process to seek amendment. Transition planning begins with the IEP in effect when the student turns 16.
Ethics
NASP's four principles are Respecting the Dignity and Rights of All Persons; Professional Competence and Responsibility; Honesty and Integrity in Professional Relationships; and Responsibility to Schools, Families, Communities, the Profession, and Society. Informed consent requires capacity, disclosure, and voluntariness. Confidentiality yields to danger to self or others, suspected abuse or neglect (mandatory reporting), court orders, and legitimate educational access. Test security and boundaries of competence are ethical obligations.
Diversity and nondiscriminatory assessment
Evaluate in the student's native language when feasible, use trained bilingual staff or interpreters, and do not simply translate standardized tests, because norms become invalid. Distinguish language difference (BICS versus CALP) from disability. Disproportionality appears as overrepresentation in some disability categories and in exclusionary discipline; examine referral, evaluation, and decision practices rather than assuming child-level causes.
Worked example
A student receiving special education services is suspended for the eleventh cumulative day. Because the removal exceeds 10 days, the district must continue services enabling progress and progress toward IEP goals, and the team must determine whether the conduct was a manifestation of disability. Simply extending the suspension is a violation.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing Section 504 with an IEP. Using translated standardized tests as if norms applied. Reporting suspected abuse only after parental permission - reporting is mandatory. Treating FERPA and IDEA record timelines as identical.