Professional School Psychology Programs' Recruitment and Retention of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

In comparison to other professional programs of psychology, the field of school psychology has shown the least advances in regards to diversifying its practicing professionals and trainers of school psychology. Given the diversification of the public school system, where school psychologists are most frequently employed, and the professional organizations’ call for the diversification of psychologists, the recruitment and retention initiatives of school psychology programs were examined to determine the strategies graduate school psychology programs implement to recruit and retain culturally and linguistically diverse students into the profession of psychology. Data from training directors in clinical, counseling and school psychology were collected, but due to low representation of other programs, only school psychology programs were examined to identify the strategies that graduate programs used to recruit and retain culturally and linguistically diverse students. Results reveal that more emphasis on recruiting CLD students to apply to programs should be implemented as significant success is achieved in getting CLD students to accept the offer of admissions. Implications for recruiting CLD students will be discussed