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Abstract
The United Nations (1989) Convention on the Rights of the Child was designed to promote and protect the survival, development, and well-being of children, thus extending human rights to individuals from birth to age 18. This article examines the consistency of the Articles of the Convention with the professional standards for school psychology, as articulated by the major organizations representing the profession in the USA––American Psychological Association, International School Psychology Association, and National Association of School Psychologists. Although the standards for ethics, practice, and training of these organizations are generally consistent with the UN Convention, the standards lack the specificity provided by the Convention’s 54 Articles. To facilitate the application of child rights’ principles in school psychology practice, we propose a model for integrating the professional standards with the Articles of the Convention. In addition, we describe a curriculum for training of school psychologists, developed through a partnership of several organizations, which is consistent with the model. In the curriculum, the school psychologist is regarded as the mesosystem in the child’s ecology, to characterize the psychologist’s central role in ensuring the promotion and protection of child rights within school, family, community, and society.
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Bonnie Kaul Nastasi, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Tulane University. Dr Nastasi’s research focuses on the use of mixed methods designs to develop and evaluate culturally appropriate assessment and intervention approaches for promoting mental health and reducing health risks in the USA and internationally. She directed a multi-country study (sponsored by ISPA) of psychological well-being of children and adolescents with research partners in 12 countries from 2008–2013. She is active in promotion of child rights and social justice within the profession of school psychology and has directed the development of a curriculum for training school psychologists internationally on child rights, a joint effort of ISPA, International Institute of Child Rights & Development, Division 16 of the APA, and Tulane University’s School Psychology Program. Dr Nastasi is a Past-President of APA’s Division 16 and current Co-Chair of APA’s Committee on International Relations in Psychology.
Shereen Naser, MS, is a Doctoral Candidate in School Psychology at Tulane University. Her research interests center around student resilience. With this in mind, her research and professional projects have focused on early identification of behavioral and emotional risk, school based mental health, and training school based mental health professionals in the use of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Shereen is the lead student on the Tulane University Child Rights Team, which has developed a curriculum for professional development and self-study modules to prepare for school psychologists for child rights advocacy, in collaboration with ISPA, Division 16 of APA, and the International Institute of Child Rights & Development.
