Position: School Psychologist - 10 month position (205 days)
Location: Downingtown, PA
Benefits Eligible: Yes
Effective Date: April 28, 2025
Are you passionate about helping ALL students learn in a collaborative environment? If so, we may have the career for you! Downingtown Area School District is excited to announce an immediate opening for a certified school psychologist for the current 2024-2025 school year. This is a full-time, permanent contract.
At DASD, we are committed to sharing values of diversity and inclusion in order to achieve and sustain excellence in education. As a diverse district, we continually seek ways to strengthen our educational environment. We believe that we can best promote excellence by recruiting and retaining a diverse group of staff who bring various backgrounds and perspectives. Our ability to create and maintain a climate of respect is critical to attaining the best teaching and learning environment.
At Downingtown Area School District we value our employees. We seek to hire new staff who:
- Communicate openly to build relationships and trust
- Partner with team members to see the TEAM succeed
- Demonstrate a growth mindset and seek ongoing opportunities for growth
- Embrace and support a safe and inclusive environment
- Eagerly and enthusiastically support student learning
- Strive to be kind and reflective
- Focus on the solution and put people first
- Lead by example!
If you want to be part of our “Downingtown Proud” team - please apply! Help us with our mission to educate all students to meet the rigorous challenges of a global society.
Job Summary: The School Psychologist assesses the learning, social, and emotional needs of referred students who are experiencing difficulty in school, and assists in the development of interventions to facilitate academic success and positive school functioning.
Qualifications:
- One (1) year supervised internship (preferred)
- Masters degree in school psychology
- Certified as a School Psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania
- Demonstrated knowledge in federal and state special education/gifted regulations
- Knowledge of current Child Abuse Law
- Possess effective interpersonal skills with the ability to interface diplomatically with peers, teachers, administrators, parents, students, support staff, and outside professional contracts
- Must successfully complete and maintain compliance with all federal and state background and criminal record check requirements
- Click here for more information about required clearances
- Candidate must adhere to all local, state, federal, and school code requirements for employment
Duties & Responsibilities: (Abbreviated - Please review the attached Job Description for more details on this specific opportunity)
- Evaluates all students, thought-to-be exceptional, in order to determine their eligibility and degree of need for special education/Gifted
- Issues all state and federal paperwork to parents regarding the evaluation/reevaluation process
- Re-evaluates and/or participates in re-evaluations of handicapped students who are receiving special education
- Assimilates and organizes information essential to the formulation of the Evaluation /Re-evaluation Report and to produce the final, comprehensive report within the mandated timelines
- Completes all needed evaluations and evaluation reports on students who have been receiving special education support at out-of-state programs
- Completes evaluations and reports for students residing in the Downingtown Area School District who attend non-public schools
- Provides information and results of psychological evaluations to parents, teachers, and administrators
- Serves as a member on the RtII Team, Multidisciplinary Team, Individual Education Planning Team, Pre-Referral Team, Student Assistance Team, and the district’s task force
- Serves as a consultant to parents, teachers, administrators, guidance personnel, special education teachers, support staff, and children who have educational, behavioral, and/or emotional needs regarding specialized programs
- Assists in developing educational intervention strategies and programming goals for individual students
- Assists in designing individual/group classroom behavior management programs
- Assists in developing and providing screening procedures/evaluations for specific populations such as gifted
- Consults with community professionals such as physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, health agencies, etc. regarding the needs of individual students
- Assists Student Assistance Teams and provides psychological support to students and staff in times of a crisis
- Provides psychological counseling for students and/or their families if included in students’ IEPs
- Performs classroom observations as part of RtII and the evaluation/ reevaluation process
- Attends staff meetings, conferences, and in-services activities; provides in-service training for staff and parents
- Assists school teams on conducting functional behavior assessments (FBA) and creating individual student behavior support plans (BSP)
- Completes all MA billing paperwork for all eligible students
Salary 2024-2025 School Year:
Starting rate $81,221 - $97,465 annually
*Placement upon salary scale is dependent upon years of experience in similar position
Schedule:
7 hours per day based upon district-approved calendar
205 days per year
Summary of Benefits:
Select Health Benefits a la carte - Only pay for what you need - Medical Coverage through IBX - PPO plans only
- No Primary Care Physician necessary
- No referrals required
- IBC has extensive local and national networks
- Prescription Coverage through CVS/Caremark
- Dental Coverage - Delta Dental Active PPO
- Allows use of in-network and out-of-network providers
- Vision Coverage - Vision Benefits of America (VBA)
Eligibility - No Waiting Period
All employees may enroll in the district’s health benefit plans effective with their date of hire into the benefit eligible position.
Eligible Dependents
A legally married spouse as defined by PA law and children up to age 26 may enroll in the District’s health benefit plans.
New Hires or Newly Eligible
You have 31 days from the date that you are benefit eligible to make your elections. If you do not make elections during this time, you will only be enrolled into any benefit that is provided by the District at no cost to you.
Flexible Spending Accounts
Benefit eligible employees have the opportunity to elect to participate in a Flexible Spending Account. DASD offers both a Healthcare Spending Account and Dependent Care Spending Account. This benefit allows you to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for out of pocket eligible healthcare and dependent care expenses.
Support for the Whole You - Fitness Program
- Nutritional Counseling
- Up to 6 free visits per calendar year with a registered dietitian.
- Employee Assistance Program
- Health Advocate is a free, confidential program that offers EAP+ Work/Life benefits to help you address difficulties in your life by providing short term assistance with personal, family, and work issues. In addition, it simplifies the navigation of the health care system by helping you find the right doctors, resolving billing and insurance claim issues, explaining benefit coverages, helping your parents or in-laws with the complexities of Medicare, and much more!
- Telemedicine
- The telemedicine benefit through SwiftMD is offered to ALL DASD employees at no cost to you. The telemedicine benefit allows for consultations with US board-certified doctors over the phone or online, from your home, office, or on the road. These physicians can diagnose, recommend treatment, and submit prescriptions to your pharmacy of choice.
Retirement - Member of State Pension System (PSERS)
As a PSERS member, you'll join with over a half million fellow public school employees who are also members. You'll contribute to your own personal PSERS retirement account and have a safe and secure benefit payment(s) from one of the largest public retirement plans in the nation.
Student Loan Forgiveness
All DASD employees are eligible to apply for loan forgiveness through the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Find out more here: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service
Basic Life and AD&D Insurance
DASD provides group term life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage at no cost to you. The plan includes double indemnity for accidental death and dismemberment.
Optional Life Insurance
You may also purchase additional life insurance as a supplement to the company paid benefit.
Income Protection Benefits
DASD provides income protection insurance at no cost to you. This provides income if you are disabled and unable to work. The benefit begins on the 61st day of disability or illness or the exhaustion of your sick days, whichever is later. Pays 60% of your basic monthly pay, up to $10,000 per month
Life Benefit
Pays 3x your basic annual salary up to maximum of $800,000
Executive Flexible Benefits Plan
You are provided a reimbursement account, equivalent to 2.5% of your annual base salary, up to a maximum of $2,500. You can use this money to fund your share of employee contributions for healthcare coverage and/or other eligible expenses.
Insurance Waiver
You may waive coverage for yourself and eligible dependents under the district’s health insurance plan and receive a payment representing a portion of the premium, which the district would have paid. Depending upon coverage waived, administrators are eligible to receive up to $2,200 annually.
Tuition Reimbursement
100% of tuition for all graduate or doctoral courses, if grade of ‘B’ or better is attained. Cap $15,000/yr
DASD TSA Contribution
- 3% of salary after 1 year of employment
Paid Time Off
- 10 sick days annually
- 5 personal days annually
- Paid holidays
Retiree Benefits
- Health Insurance: Can purchase insurance for retiree and spouse until the lesser of 10 years or age 65 for medical, prescription, dental and vision. Health contributions will be the greater of the DASD Act 93 contribution or co-pay equal to PSERS premium assistance. To qualify, employee must be age 55 or have 35 years of service, retired under PSERS and have worked as a DASD administrator for 10 years.
- Life Insurance: 2.5 times annual salary until lesser of 10 years or age 65
- Personal Days Payout
- Sick Days Payout
Salary Increases
- Based on performance; up to 3% per year
Merit Pay - Based on completion of 2 goals; up to 1% per year
EOE