The "Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation" ("JEPC") is beginning its second quarter century of publication. Given the challenges education faced in 1990, when the journal began publishing, and the evolving challenges of 2015, it became important to answer two questions: (1) Has "JEPC" successfully…

In recent years, ecological perspectives have become more visible in prevention, health promotion, and public health within the school context. Individually based approaches to understanding and changing behavior have been increasingly challenged by these perspectives because of their appreciation for contextual influences on individual behavior.…

As the number of children engaging in problem behaviors grows, teachers increasingly report feeling unprepared to effectively meet students' mental health needs. Social-emotional learning (SEL) should be a prominent goal of school programs because social competence prevents school failure. This commentary reviews the challenges associated with…

The prevention of and early intervention with internalizing problems are vital to children's overall health and development. Schools are strongly considered a venue where these services can be provided. The Strong Kids program was developed to increase youths' resiliency. This study examined the efficacy of Strong Kids with middle school students…

Background factors that correlate with juvenile delinquency are consistent across the interdisciplinary literature base. Yet, information about the process of how risks relate to outcomes, especially within school settings, is limited. Researchers used qualitative methods to examine school and interpersonal experiences from the perspective of…

The vision of training school psychologists to serve a broad, preventative role has evolved through "Blueprint I," "Blueprint II," and the 2002 Conference on the Future of School Psychology with limited impact on the daily functioning of practitioners. "Blueprint III" is a multidimensional and integrated model for the training of school…

The purpose of this article is to engage in the debate about "Blueprint III" regarding practice and graduate education in school psychology. We use school-based consultation as a lens to uncover meaning and context in the "Blueprint" and give particular attention to the "Blueprint" authors' foregrounding of prevention as a basis for school…

This article examines the practices of school psychologists who work within an urban school district. Participants (N = 86) rated 20 specific practices on their current use, their importance, and their level of competence. Overall the school psychologists rated their involvement in traditional assessment activities as significantly more common…

Since the practice of consultation first began, primary prevention has been posited as an important outcome. In this article the empirical basis for this element of consultation is examined. It is concluded that consultation's preventive benefits should not be oversold, as at this time there is only emerging evidence for this aspect of the process.

Zins and his colleagues pointed out that understanding implementation of school-based prevention programs is a critical issue as we get more sophisticated about strategies to promote children's social and emotional skill development. This commentary discusses school-based program implementation, challenges, lessons learned, and future directions…

Despite a decade of advances since Zins' 1995 article on prevention, much work lies ahead to make prevention everyday consultation activities for school psychologists. To foster prevention efforts, this commentary discusses how motivational interviewing in school-based consultation (a) might peak consultees' initial interest in change, and (b)…

From his review of research on consultation, Zins (1995) concluded (a) that a paradigm shift to a more prevention-oriented approach was necessary; (b) that systems-level consultation held significant potential; and (c) that systems-level consultation had the most data to support its use in preventive efforts. This commentary reviews promising…

More than a decade ago, Joseph Zins (1995) hypothesized that consultation had the power to prevent children from developing academic, social, emotional, and related problems. To date, empirical research has yet to fully validate its value. This commentary discusses the potential benefit of consultation as a preventive measure, identifies ways to…

In November 2002, the multisite Conference on the Future of School Psychology was sponsored by major professional associations of school psychologists. Conference goals included achieving consensus on current and future demands for school, conceptualizing the practice of school psychology in the face of diminishing numbers and increasing demand…

The Invitational Conference on the Future of School Psychology held at Indiana University in 2002 had implications for consultation. It addressed projected shortages in school psychologists that provide a rationale for service delivery models integrating consultation and prevention. The conference discussed the need for effective work with…