School

The

Psychologist’s

Psychologist

It’s the 2025-2026 academic year, and I am loving teaching and being the psychoeducational clinic director for the University of Denver’s School Psychology Program, and I get to continue to do a little independent work.

A scheduling fluke in my teaching schedule is allowing me time to be at the California Association of School Psychologists’ (CASP’s) 76th Annual Convention this year at the Hyatt Regency Orange County (not going to be able to pull this off in the future). My workshop will be on Wednesday, October 29, from 2pm-5pm “Intellectual Disability Evaluation Best Practices…Somethings You May Not Be Aware Of”

I will also be presenting at the Colorado Society of School Psychologists (CSPP) Annual Conference at the Vail Hyatt Saturday November 8, time TBD, “When definitions differ and the consequences that occur - substantive differences between state special education regulation and IDEA (and other federal regulations) pertaining to Intellectual Disability criteria”

As of right now, I will be ending the calendar year providing a full day workshop to Sutter County Superintendent of Schools and the district they serve on Friday, December 12, from 9:00am-4:00pm at 970 Klamath Lane, Yuba City, CA.

Dates Currently Available for Workshop(s)

James provides 3-hour workshops for any Districts, Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs), County Offices of Education, as well as for California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) affiliate associations, or anyone wanting Continuing Education for NASP’s NCSP:

  • Demystifying Intellectual Disability (ID) eligibility criteria:

    • Intellectual Disabilities (ID) is the least desired of all special education eligibility categories. Parents report that they would rather their child be Autistic than ID. A great deal of weight is placed on this eligibility determination and there is only one sentence that describes it in the federal regulations (CFR 300.8(c)(6)) that California adopted verbatim (CCR 3030(b)(6)) with the exception of the addition of one sentence “The term ‘intellectual disability’ was formerly termed ‘mental retardation.’” How does one make the case for Intellectual Disability? What are the “best practices”? What are the criteria to be used when the one-sentence definition is vague? What is the relationship between overall measures of cognitive ability (IQ) and measures of adaptive behavior, and why is it important? How does one make meaningful recommendations when a student cannot perform on a standardized test of intelligence? How does one make a convincing eligibility or recommendations to skeptical parents? All of these questions and more will be addressed in this workshop. 

  • PSW and Discrepancy Models - Theory to Practical Application -Intermediate and Advanced Concepts To Consider, Including Larry P. Updates

    • For the school psychologist who wants to take a deeper dive into looking at PSW’s CHC theory, which is used by popular tools like XBASS. We will discuss why significant subtest score differences might occur within the same processing area and how to talk about it without having to pull out another subtest that might cloud the issue further. What is the relationship between overall measures of cognitive ability (IQ) and measures of academic achievement, and why is it important? This workshop will help make clearer the actual statistics that underpin these theoretical constructs. It will go into the mysteries of the 8 processing areas of CCR 3030(b)(10) and how they came to be defined in the way they are (yes, there are actual definitions of what Cognitive Conceptualization, Association, and Expression are) and where might Executive Functioning fit into this. We will go through some case studies and there will be ample time for questions and answers.

  • Previous list of workshops provided upon request

Updated Availability:

Dec: 17, 18 & 19

July: 23 & 24, 30 & 31

Aug: 13 & 14, 20 & 21

Please email a time to talk about what type of workshop your group is looking for.

Possibility of Monday slots becoming available. Please email if your group needs a Monday.

Dates Already Committed:

Oct 29 CASP

Nov 8 CSPP

Dec 12 Sutter County SELPA

Cost of Workshops

  • The total cost for an in-person 3-hour workshop for a district, SELPA, or CASP Affiliate is $2750 (not including travel costs and per diem). Your venue determines the limit on the number of attendees. Any two 3-hour workshops can be combined for a full-day workshop for $4500 (not including travel costs and per diem). An extended Q&A can also be added to any workshop to address specific cases raised by participants. The fee for this will be roughly $300 per hour. And if you don't see a workshop that you need? Check my CV to see if I have done something like what you need in the recent past or develop one given my areas of experience. Updating or developing a new workshop will have added costs to be negotiated.

  • “The total cost for a workshop can include Zoom or be completely over Zoom for: state associations like CASP and CSSP or their affiliate associations, Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA), Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES)/County Offices of Education, or school districts. This includes a video recording of the workshop that lasts for 1 year before being taken down, at no additional cost. The limit to the number of attendees on Zoom, however, is limited to 100.

  • 3 or 6 hours of CEs can be made available through CASP for those with NCSPs and LEPs. The Board of Behavioral Science charges a fee, which CASP will collect from the district/SELPA as a lump sum for the total number of people needing CEs. This fee covers NCSP and LEP documentation for each person requesting it. The total cost will depend on the number of people seeking CEs. If you wish for one of the workshop(s) to provide CEs, please contact CASP’s Executive Director, Paul Cauchi (paulc@casponline.org), and cc me on the email.