Each spring and fall conference offers approximately 15 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) for school psychologists. Taking time out for the keynote, that leaves 13.5 hours of CPD. Thus, offered over four conferences, this allows for approximately 54 hours of mental health CPD that can be accumulated by attending over the two years, which should satisfy the minimum requirements of the certificate.

Since the Mental Health Certificate is composed primarily of 3, 6, or 9 hours of instruction, it is recommended that the preconvention (~6 hours), Thursday afternoon (~3 hours), and Friday morning (~3 hours) have dedicated sectionals to address the mental health certificate.  The “skinny” (or 90-minute sectional on Thursday morning) may present unique challenges to the group in terms of content and/or depth of instruction. It is recommended to the committee to have a “Practice Strategy” that focuses on either individual or group therapeutic interventions that could be self-contained within that sectional and thus this would add to the hours of individual therapy and/or group interventions.

The chart below maps out the content area for the committee to consider for each of the conferences in selecting speakers and topic areas. Beyond the typical strand that has been developed by the Mental Health committee, the convention committee may choose to offer mental health topics.