School Psychologists as Change Agents with Families Impacted by Parental Incarceration

Parental incarceration affects millions of school-aged children across the United States–more specifically, racially and ethnically minoritized students are disproportionately impacted. Students with a parent who is experiencing incarceration are more likely to experience loneliness, shame, and may struggle behaviorally and academically. While school psychologists are uniquely positioned to support students and families experiencing parental incarceration, there is a dearth in the school psychology literature outlining how to practically and meaningfully engage in this work. This social-justice focused paper uses an ecological, whole-child approach to conceptualize the role of school psychologist practitioners and researchers in serving students and families experiencing parental incarceration. We provide practical, equity-based considerations for school psychologists grounded in the National Association of School Psychologists’ Practice Model Domains to encourage critical self-reflections, knowledge building, consultation with all vested partners, and interventions in the school and community to support systemic change. We end with a call to action for researchers to amplify the marginalized voices of families experiencing parental incarceration and provide a catalyst of ideas for this imperative research.Impact StatementThis article provides school psychologists with considerations on how to center families experiencing parental incarceration and amplify their voices via collaborative assessment, intervention, and consultation practices. We implore researchers in school psychology to prioritize and address the paucity of literature on supporting children and families impacted by parental incarceration.