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Given the increasing prevalence of schoolchildren's experience with crises and resulting loss through sudden or violent death, adoption of a school-based crisis prevention and response plan becomes crucial. This article reviews a model of regional, district, and school-based levels of response designed collaboratively by four school districts and consultants from Yale University. The team approach on which the model is based is examined through benefits it affords students, staff, parents, and the community. Obstacles that can impede full implementation of the model are identified, and strategies for overcoming logistical and systemic resistances are offered. This proactive design helps promote individual and organizational resiliency to traumatic events by promoting communication, collaboration, and service provision in an efficient and comprehensive manner.

Parents of 391 preschool children ages 49 to 64 months completed a brief developmental inventory as part of a preschool screening program operated by an urban school district. The 28-item developmental inventory assessed adaptive behavior and language development. In addition, preschool children were administered the Minneapolis Preschool Screening Instrument. Teacher ratings of kindergarten performance the following year provided criterion data to validate the screening measures. Correlations with the overall teacher rating [the mean of nine ratings] were .40 for the adaptive behavior scale and .57 for the language scale. Validity figures for the developmental inventory were significantly higher for low SES than for high SES children, for older children [57 to 64 months] than for younger children [49 to 56 months], and for firstborn children than for younger siblings. No effects were found by sex. While a positive relationship between parent reports of developmental functioning and early school performance was clearly established, validity levels did not justify use of parent information as a sole source of preschool screening information.

School psychologists are often asked how much time is required to conduct a psychoeducational evaluation. Implicit in the question are assumptions that evaluation time is fixed and predictable and that an evaluation is composed of little other than standardized testing. To estimate the time requirements for psychoeducational evaluation, school psychologists from 5 urban school districts in Connecticut compiled data on 271 evaluation cases. Total evaluation time proved to be highly variable, ranging from 3.75 to 24.25 hr, with a median of 11.70 hr. Direct contact with the student (i.e., testing and interviewing) accounted for only 27% of total evaluation time. School psychologists need to educate school personnel and parents about the various components involved in psychoeducational evaluation and the variability from one case to the next.

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