School psychologists are uniquely qualified members of school teams that support students’ ability to learn and teachers’ ability to teach. They apply expertise in mental health, learning, and behavior, to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. School psychologists provide direct support and interventions to students, consult with teachers, families, and other school-employed mental health professionals to improve support strategies, work with school administrators to improve school-wide practices and policies, and collaborate with community providers to coordinate needed services.

All children and youth can face problems from time to time related to learning, social relationships, making difficult decisions, or managing emotions such as feeling depressed, anxious, worried, or isolated. School psychologists help students, families, educators, and members of the community understand and resolve both long-term chronic problems and short-term issues that students may face. School psychologists typically complete either a specialist-level degree program (at least 60 graduate semester hours) or a doctoral degree (at least 90 graduate semester hours) both of which include a year-long 1200 hour supervised internship. 

Anna Haynes is the school psychologist at NUHS. She has worked here for the last two years, but she worked here previously for seven years. Anna grew up in South Dakota. She moved to New Ulm eleven years ago because she got an internship through Riverbend. Anna Haynes is here two days a week, and she spends the rest of her week in Sleepy Eye and at Riverbend. She said her normal days consists of “a meeting, then I either do assessments, observations or write reports and then my day normally ends with a meeting.” Haynes decided to become a school psychologist because she wanted to work with children, but she didn’t want to become a teacher. She normally sits in on 50-70 classrooms every year. When asked about her favorite and least favorite part of her job, she replied: ” My favorite part would be working with the kids, and my least favorite would probably the meetings.”