Coordinating Autism Care Across Schools and Medical Settings: Considerations for School Psychologists

Abstract

Optimal service delivery for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often involves interdisciplinary care coordination between primary care clinicians, community-based providers, and school personnel such as school psychologists. Interdisciplinary care coordination includes communication and collaboration from multiple providers to facilitate comprehensive services that are accessible and continuous while promoting effective partnerships across the home, school, and community systems. Unfortunately, school psychologists report barriers to collaborating with providers outside the school setting around service delivery, including a mismatch in eligibility criteria for educational classifications verses medical diagnoses, lack of delineated roles and responsibilities of other providers, and a limited infrastructure around information sharing. This article (a) delineates roles and functions of school psychologists in coordinating care for students with ASD, (b) highlights potential barriers to care coordination from the perspective of school psychologists, and (c) provides practice considerations, objectives, and direct application activities to overcome barriers to care coordination.