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Division of Continuing and Global Education

Certificate for Bilingual School Psychologists

 

This certificate program is designed to train practicing school psychologists to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to multilingual students, thereby addressing social justice issues in education.

The program offers two distinct certification tracks:
  • Bilingual School Psychologist (BSP) Certificate: This track is for school psychologists who are proficient in Spanish, Hmong, or Mandarin. 
  • Culturally and Linguistically Diverse School Psychologist (CLD SP) Certificate: This track is for monolingual school psychologists who work with multilingual students but do not speak a second language proficiently.
By offering both tracks, the program recognizes the need for specialized training to support the diverse linguistic and cultural needs of students in the educational system.

The Need for Bilingual School Psychologists

Increasing number of multilingual learners (MLs) in public schools in the last two decades (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). MLs lack access to academically, linguistically, culturally appropriate, and equitable education. School psychology graduate training is insufficient for providing effective and equitable service to MLs. Growing consensus on the need for specialized training of bilingual school psychologists.

Program

The current bilingual program is designed for practitioners and includes:

  • 18 units
  • Five weeks of summer intensive training
  • One year long monthly group supervision
  • Training provided for three languages: Spanish, Mandarin, and Hmong
  • Two tracks
    • Monolingual culturally and linguistically competent school psychology
    • Bilingual school psychology 

Committed to Bilingual Competencies

This certificate builds on practicing school psychologists’ competencies to provide school psychological services to multilingual  students to address social justice issues in the education process. Our training program is  grounded in the California Consortium for Bilingual School Psychologist’s 13 competencies.

Sample Curriculum - Summer 2026

  • Psycholinguistics & Bilingual Education (3)
  • Assessment (4)
  • Counseling (3)
  • Intervention & Prevention (4)
    Language Specific Service Delivery (4)
    • Spanish, Hmong, or Mandarin

*18 Units, 1 week per course. Plus year-long Peer Supervision

Application Information 

Practitioners are admitted to the Bilingual School Psychology Certification program in the Summer semester.

Fee

TBD

Application Deadline

May 1, 2026 (application TBD)

 

Contact

Dr. Hong Ni
Coordinator of School Psychology Graduate Program
hongni@csufresno.edu
559.278.1726