The history of school psychology may be appropriately described as one of continuous evolution and expansion. Yet the foundations of many, if not most, current practices and professional issues are found in the earliest years of the profession. For example, the roles of the school psychologist (testing and placement, assessment and treatment, consultant and health care provider), the inextricable relationship between school psychology and special education, and the influence of social reforms and state and federal legislation on the profession were all anticipated in the earliest years of the profession's development.

The Earliest Years

The beginning of school psychology is commonly associated with Lightner Witmer and the opening of the first “psychological clinic” at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. As a result of requests he

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