As school psychologists, our roles have expanded significantly over the years. Not only are we responsible for conducting assessments and writing comprehensive psychoeducational reports, but we also provide counseling, behavioral support, and crisis intervention. Additionally, we are expected to lead staff trainings on social-emotional topics, attend Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, participate in Student Study Team (SST) meetings, handle various administrative duties, and the list goes on and on. The increasing demands of our profession, coupled with growing evaluation and counseling caseloads, make it challenging to manage our time effectively and get everything done by our never ending dealines.
Over the past 18 years, I’ve personally experienced the struggle of balancing these responsibilities. I think these continual dealdlines for evaluation reports are, in fact, the greatest stressor for our profession. That and parents with advocates, right? This is because every day is an endless list of choices that determine whether we will be able to fit our report writing into our day, or if we will be sitting on our couch typing away while our significant other watches basketball. Maybe that last part is just me, but I’m sure that you have some version of report writing at home that is similar.
While caseload comparisons and hours of report writing at home is not a competition, if your caseload feels bigger and bigger every school year, AI is for you. If you are getting tired of writing reports on your weekends, then AI is for you. And if you want MORE TIME for supporting kids at your schools, then AI is for YOU.
That’s because, in today’s fast-paced educational environment, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful tool to alleviate some of the daily burdens of school psychs. And its not just for helping reduce your time on report writing. By streamlining report writing, automating administrative tasks, analyzing data, translating languages, creating forms, and providing data-driven insights, AI allows me, and can also help you, to focus on what truly matters—having the time to help students.
Here are ten reasons why AI is a must-have for improving your ability to get “all the things” done as a busy school psychologists:
1. Streamlining Report Writing
Comprehensive psychoeducational reports are time-consuming, yet they are essential for determining eligibility and developing appropriate services, goals, and interventions. Through tiral and error over the past few months of using AI (Bastion GPT to be specific), I’ve found that it more than cuts in half the time that it takes to do most sections of my psychoed reports, saving potentially hours of report writing.
AI-driven tools can summarize assessment results, sumarize observations, analyze clinical interviews, analyze behavior data, write recommendations, write IEP goals based on the testing results, and the list goes on and on!
Because it is HIPAA and FERPA compliant, I started using Bastion GPT, which is an AI-powered tool designed to assist school psychologists in drafting high-quality psychoeducational reports efficiently. I was pleasantly suprised that this AI tool knows all of my different rating scales, cognitive tests, and by just a simple copy and paste of scores, could summarize results in seconds. By analyzing assessment data, behavioral observations, and background information, Bastion GPT generates well-structured narratives that align with best practices in psychoeducational report writing.
One of the most valuable features of Bastion GPT is its ability to integrate multiple sources of information into a cohesive report. School psychologists often gather data from various assessments, teacher reports, parent input, and direct observations, which can be time-consuming to synthesize. Bastion GPT streamlines this process. Once you indicate that name of a student as you paste in scores, it remembers all of the information from every test and rating scale you enter. Then it can synthesize and analyse the results to help you not only save time, but have a more cohesive report. With this level of efficiency, I’ve been able to complete reports more quickly without compromising quality, ultimately improving the support provided to students, educators, and families.
Here’s a quick video that I made about the first steps that I take for using AI in my psychoeducational reports:
2. Enhancing Data Analysis with AI
School psychologists often analyze data for a variety of reasons, including academic performance trends, social-emotional assessments, progress monitoring, and behavioral data tracking. Whether reviewing standardized test scores, evaluating intervention effectiveness, or identifying patterns in student behavior, data analysis is a crucial component of the role. However, manually interpreting large sets of data can be time-consuming and complex.
AI can streamline this process by efficiently analyzing Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) data to identify key insights. AI tools can detect important patterns such as time of day, common triggers, behavior frequency, and the function of behaviors. This automated analysis allows school psychologists to generate more precise and objective reports, ensuring that intervention plans are based on accurate data.
Additionally, AI can suggest research-based behavioral goals for Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), helping school psychologists create effective, evidence-based strategies for student success. School psychologists often analyze complex assessment data, requiring careful interpretation. AI can quickly process numerical and qualitative data, identifying patterns and trends that might otherwise be overlooked. This allows for more precise diagnoses and intervention planning.
3. Supporting Early Intervention Strategies
By analyzing student data from multiple sources (e.g., academic performance, behavioral incidents, and teacher feedback), AI can help school psychologists identify at-risk students earlier. Predictive analytics can flag concerns before they escalate, allowing for timely interventions.
To learn EXACTLY how I use AI for psychoeducational reports, check out this mini-course. Just 90 Minutes!
4. Improving Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Support
With the increasing need for mental health services in schools, AI tools can assist in developing personalized SEL strategies for students. Bastion GPT, for instance, can generate tailored coping strategies, social skills training modules, and mindfulness exercises that align with individual student needs.
I remember working with a second-grade student who struggled with emotional regulation and frequent outbursts in class. Despite multiple interventions, he had difficulty recognizing his triggers and utilizing coping strategies effectively. Using Bastion GPT, I was able to quickly generate a customized SEL plan that included specific self-regulation techniques, social stories, and teacher strategies tailored to his needs.
5. Enhancing Consultation with Educators and Parents
AI-generated summaries and insights can aid school psychologists in explaining assessment results, intervention plans, and progress reports more clearly to teachers and parents. This ensures that all stakeholders are well-informed and can collaborate effectively. Summarizing information may be used to summarize your testing results for the whole report or for an anylsis or for each section. This can help with shortening lengthy IEP meetings, and with writing the summary section of your report, particulalry for the sections that were contributed to you by other team members.
For example, as part of my psycheducational (multidisciplinary) report, I have other evaluators provide me with their academic, speech, or OT results. Sometimes these evaluations are wordy, and the evaluators do not provide their own summary.
By taking their report infomration and putting it into Bastion GPT (which is HIPAA compliant, so not to worry), I can summarize their information help create the summary section at the end of the report. I can also help better understand their evaluation results, which I did not conduct. And if the psychologist understands, then they can best help the parent to understand in the IEP meeting.
6. AI can TRANSLATE!
Yep! I have been using AI to help traslate all kinds of things, from emails to Spanish or Vietnamese parents, to translating some of my parent questionaires. And, yes, I then use ChatGPT or Bastion GPT to translate their reponses. Gotta love cut and paste. This has saved me time with getting my schools’ translators to help translate for me emails and parent responses, which is great for confidentiality and saving time. Now I don’t have to wait hours, days, or weeks to get the information to and from parents who do not speak English.
7. Managing High Caseloads More Effectively
Perhaps the most critical benefit of AI is its ability to alleviate the burden of high caseloads. With tools like Bastion GPT handling routine tasks, school psychologists can dedicate more time to direct student support, consultation, and intervention, ensuring that every student receives the attention they deserve! This way, when principals ask us to add a small group counseling session, or when we get two FBA evaluations in one day, we won’t sweat it. We’ll know that we’ll have the time to get it all done…and not from our couch at home!
In a world where school psychologists are often stretched too thin, AI offers a much-needed lifeline. By leveraging tools like Bastion GPT, we can enhance efficiency, reduce stress, and ultimately provide better support to students, parents, and educators. AI isn’t here to replace the human touch—it’s here to empower us to be more effective in our mission to help students succeed.
If you’d like a FREE 30 day Trial to test out Bastion GPT for yourself, just CLICK HERE. (The trial is typically only 7 days, so this will help you save a little money while you are checking it out.)
For tips on Using AI for Clinical Interviews, check out this video!
To learn EXACTLY how I use AI for psychoeducational reports, check out this mini-course. Just 90 Minutes!
