Tri-Level Service Delivery: An Alternative Consultation Model

Presents an alternative model for delivering school consultative service. Within this model, school psychologists provide consultative training and support to teacher consultants, who then serve as primary consultants to their teaching colleagues. To evaluate this approach, we assessed staff perceptions of the functioning of the teacher consultants. Noteworthy findings: (a) all respondent groups perceived the knowledge base of teacher consultants favorably, particularly in areas of children's social-emotional functioning, special education placement guidelines, community resources, and consultative skills; (b) although consumers of consultation provided by teacher consultants had a preference for indirect services, they also desired greater involvement of teacher consultants in direct intervention activities outside the classroom; and (c) overall ratings of teacher consultants' consultation skills and the program were high. Potential advantages of this model to school psychological service delivery are discussed.