Abstract
The field of school psychology has long struggled with a lack of diversity, with racially, ethnically, and linguistically (REL) diverse professionals being underrepresented in not only graduate programs but also the profession as a whole. This thesis project explores research-based strategies to diversify the field of school psychology by understanding the challenges faced by REL diverse graduate students in the broader field of education and developing a guidebook for school psychology graduate programs to implement multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework. Furthermore, the guidebook is intended to give school psychology a starting point to increase the recruitment and retention of diverse students and support them from admission through graduation. Using the MTSS approach, the guidebook caters to targeted interventions at a universal, targeted, and intensive level to ensure diverse students have equitable access to school psychology graduate programs. Through providing research-based best practices, this guidebook strives to provide actionable recommendations and resources for school psychology graduate programs to facilitate the diversification of school psychologists that serve increasing numbers of diverse students in education.