Professional Development

National Association of School Psychologists Adds Free PD Option for Members

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 02/08/16

Members of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) can now attend free PresenceLearning live webinars to earn continuing professional development credits.

NASP members "are required to earn at least 75 credit hours of continuing professional development (CPD) during each member's 3-year renewal period," according to a news release. "However, earning these hours can be expensive as well as very challenging because school psychologists juggle such full schedules of assessments, student sessions, paperwork and IEP meetings."

To earn credit, NASP members must attend a webinar, then complete a post-webinar quiz and feedback survey. They will then receive an emailed certificate to verify their participation, complete with all the information — participant name, number of CPD hours, participation hours, activity type or category, certification or member number, activity title or topic, activity sponsor and date of activity — needed to receive credit.

The first opportunity for members to take advantage of the new arrangement is a three-part webninar series, Success for Every Learner: From At-Risk to Successful, focused on school climate and behavior issues. Each 90-minute webinar in the series is worth 1.5 CPD credits. The first webinar will take place February 11 at 10 am Pacific.

"Our goal as a company is to provide students with access to the behavior and mental health services they need, and help address the professional development needs of our own extensive network of clinicians as well as school-based clinicians and education leaders across the country," said Clay Whitehead, cofounder and co-CEO of PresenceLearning, in a prepared statement. "Our professional development webinars connect clinicians with leading experts in special education to enrich the attendees' professional skills and knowledge base."