Retention of current school psychologists is a vital strategy for addressing shortages in the field. Understanding what contributes to why school psychologists stay in the field has the potential to influence leaders and administrators to ensure that they are targeting what matters most to school psychologists. Survey results from 134 school psychologists indicated that they stay in the field because they enjoy working with children and believe their work makes a difference. These generally satisfied school psychologists also shared that they work with teams that facilitate effective and creative problem solving and were acknowledged for their contributions. For the few school psychologists who expressed dissatisfaction, their responses communicated a lack of professional self‐efficacy: their opinions were not valued, they did not believe they were effective in their roles, administrators did not value their contributions, and they did not believe they could make a difference for students. Implications for practice highlight the need for district and building administrators to ensure that school psychologists have manageable caseloads that allow them to work directly with children and to be a part of teams that solve problems.

A shortage of school psychologists has been evident since the profession was initially recognized as a distinct field, and there is insufficient research on what current administrative supervisors are doing to address this problem. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of district level administrative supervisors regarding recruitment and retention of school psychologists. Participants reported the following: (a) school psychology graduate programs do not producing enough school psychologists, (b) administrators are challenged to find enough school psychologists to hire, (c) neighboring school districts compete to hire candidates, and (d) administrators recruit and retain in a worker's market that favors the school psychologist. These administrative supervisors also communicated a sense that they had little influence over the shortage. Actions within the administrators' control included developing close relationships with graduate programs for successful recruiting, creating appealing workloads that matched salaries, being responsive to the needs of their current school psychologists, and offering job flexibility.