School

The

Psychologist’s

Psychologist

2024-25 was a big year for changes. I am enjoying teaching and being the psychoeducational clinic director for the University of Denver’s School Psychology Program. I am also thrilled that they allow faculty to continue a bit of their private practice work. I am grateful to both Delta Area Association of School Psychologists and Central Valley Affiliate-California Association of School Psychologists for having me come out and do full day trainings as well as thankful to Perry and Villarreal, LLP, for asking me to be a contract consultant for their esteemed legal practice working with district all over the state of California. In the coming year, there will be limited opportunities to continue offering trainings.

James provides 3-hour workshops for any Districts, Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs), County Offices of Education, as well as for California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) affiliate associations, or anyone wanting Continuing Education for NASP’s NCSP:

  • Demystifying Intellectual Disability (ID) eligibility criteria:

    • Intellectual Disabilities (ID) is the least desired of all special education eligibility categories. Parents report that they would rather their child be Autistic than ID. A great deal of weight is placed on this eligibility determination and there is only one sentence that describes it in the federal regulations (CFR 300.8(c)(6)) that California adopted verbatim (CCR 3030(b)(6)) with the exception of the addition of one sentence “The term ‘intellectual disability’ was formerly termed ‘mental retardation.’” How does one make the case for Intellectual Disability? What are the “best practices”? What are the criteria to be used when the one-sentence definition is vague? What is the relationship between overall measures of cognitive ability (IQ) and measures of adaptive behavior, and why is it important? How does one make meaningful recommendations when a student cannot perform on a standardized test of intelligence? How does one make a convincing eligibility or recommendations to skeptical parents? All of these questions and more will be addressed in this workshop. 

  • PSW and Discrepancy Models - Theory to Practical Application -Intermediate and Advanced Concepts To Consider, Including Larry P. Updates

    • For the school psychologist who wants to take a deeper dive into looking at PSW’s CHC theory, which is used by popular tools like XBASS. We will discuss why significant subtest score differences might occur within the same processing area and how to talk about it without having to pull out another subtest that might cloud the issue further. What is the relationship between overall measures of cognitive ability (IQ) and measures of academic achievement, and why is it important? This workshop will help make clearer the actual statistics that underpin these theoretical constructs. It will go into the mysteries of the 8 processing areas of CCR 3030(b)(10) and how they came to be defined in the way they are (yes, there are actual definitions of what Cognitive Conceptualization, Association, and Expression are) and where might Executive Functioning fit into this. We will go through some case studies and there will be ample time for questions and answers.

  • Previous list of workshops provided upon request

Updated Availability:

Aug 18, 25, Sept 15, Oct 20, Dec 4, 5, 8, 15, and Feb 16.

Please email or schedule a Zoom time to talk about what type of workshop your group is looking for.

Dates Already Committed:

Dates already on hold are Dec. 11-12 and 18-19, but may free up.

Workshop(s) Being Offered

Cost of Workshops

  • The total cost for an in-person 3-hour workshop for a district, SELPA, or CASP Affiliate is $2750 (not including travel costs and per diem). Your venue determines the limit on the number of attendees. Any two 3-hour workshops can be combined for a full-day workshop for $4500 (not including travel costs and per diem). An extended Q&A can also be added to any workshop to address specific cases raised by participants. The fee for this will be roughly $300 per hour. And if you don't see a workshop that you need? Check my CV to see if I have done something like what you need in the recent past or develop one given my areas of experience. Updating or developing a new workshop will have added costs to be negotiated.

  • The total cost for a workshop that includes Zoom or is completely over Zoom for a district, SELPA, or CASP Affiliate adds $100 (this includes a video recording of the workshop that lasts for 1 year before being taken down). The limit to the number of attendees is 100.

  • 3 or 6 hours of CEUs can be made available through CASP for those with NCSPs and LEPs. The Board of Behavioral Science charges a fee, which CASP will collect from the district/SELPA as a lump sum for the total number of people needing CEUs. This fee covers NCSP and LEP documentation for each person requesting it. The total cost will depend on the number of people seeking CEUs. If you wish for one of the workshop(s) to provide CEUs, please contact CASP’s Executive Director, Paul Cauchi (paulc@casponline.org), and cc me on the email.