Street-level bureaucrats and AIDS policy: The case of the school psychologist

Schools can expect an increasing incidence of students who are HIV-positive or who manifest full-blown AIDS, which will present challerges, both in educating these students and dealing with community concerns. The authors contend that the school psychologist is an underrecognized resource in this endeavor, noting that political decisions at the state level affect what can be done at the local level, and they discuss concrete implications for the school psychologist to become a more effective actor in developing and implementing AIDS policies at the local level. Graduate coursework and inservice training are two possible means to assist school psychologists in becoming more effective at influencing AIDS policy.