What Happened to School Psychology Programs at HBCUs?
- Byron McClure
- 12 hours ago
- 10 min read
By my count, only two stateside HBCUs still offer a dedicated graduate degree in school psychology: Howard University and Bowie State University.
HBCUs have a long tradition of preparing Black educators, psychologists, professionals, and leaders across every field.
In psychology, that legacy runs through figures like Kenneth and Mamie Clark, whose Howard training helped shape their landmark work on segregation, and Francis Sumner, the father of Black psychology, who later chaired Howard’s psychology department.
I am a proud graduate of Hampton University, the REAL HU (IYKYK), and my HBCU experience gave me more than a degree. It gave me an Afrocentric lens, grounded me in Black intellectual traditions, and taught me to see people in context before reducing them to labels, symptoms, or scores.
That legacy is powerful, but it has never been protected the way it should be. Many HBCUs have had to sustain their work through chronic underfunding, political scrutiny, and a system that routinely expects them to do more with less.
Now, the institutions best positioned to strengthen the Black school psychologist pathway have nearly disappeared from the field’s formal training structure.
How did we get here, and is there still time to reverse course?
The quiet dismantling of school psychology programs at HBCUs is happening in real time. Left unaddressed, the historic training grounds best positioned to prepare Black school psychologists may vanish entirely.
The HBCU School Psychology Map
Howard University and Bowie State are the only two HBCUs I could find that offer graduate degrees (not concentrations) in school psychology.
Texas Southern University (TSU) deserves mention. However, from what I could find, TSU offers a school psychology concentration within its Master of Arts in Psychology program, which provides students with a potential pathway into the field. For this conversation, I focused on programs that grant a graduate degree in school psychology.
If Howard and Bowie State are the only two, who were the others and what happened to them?
Florida A&M University once offered an M.S. and an Education Specialist degree in School Psychology, both of which are no longer active.
Tennessee State University ran programs at the master's, specialist, and doctoral levels. I reached out directly, spoke with the program director, and confirmed the entire school psychology program had closed several years ago.
So at least four HBCUs have held dedicated graduate-level pathways into school psychology at some point, at either the master's, specialist, or doctoral level: Howard, Bowie State, Florida A&M, and Tennessee State.
The profession cannot address the shortage of Black school psychologists while overlooking the fragile condition of the programs that train them.
Let's look closely at the two that are still standing: Howard and Bowie State.
What Bowie State Built
Bowie State shows what an HBCU school psychology program can be.
Dr. Kimberly Daniel, Associate Professor and School Psychology Program Coordinator in the Department of Counseling and Psychological Studies, has led the specialist-level school psychology program at Bowie State since 2005.
Dr. Daniel describes the program she has led for over two decades as "unique in Maryland as the only one housed at an HBCU, specifically the oldest HBCU in the state," with a curriculum "grounded in a culturally responsive, affirmative, and strengths-based framework." That framework shaped coursework in assessment, consultation, research, human development, and counseling, and the program treated communalism as a guiding value.
What Howard University Built
Howard University occupies a different and equally critical lane in the school psychology pathway.
It's the only program at a HBCU that grants a doctorate in school psychology. Howard prepares practitioners who serve children and prepares the faculty, researchers, supervisors, and mentors who will train the next generation.
Dr. Celeste Malone, Associate Professor of School Psychology at Howard University, Past President of NASP (2022–2023), and Curator of Voices of Color in School Psychology, explained that Howard is “uniquely positioned to diversify the school psychology professoriate.”
Malone also named a problem the field too often overlooks:
The school psychologist shortage is not limited to practitioners; we need more faculty. ~Dr. Malone
The future of school psychology depends not only on who enters schools, but it also depends on who teaches, mentors, supervises, and shapes the scholarship future practitioners learn from.
Howard trains school psychologists who are prepared for culturally responsive and socially just practice, and who recognize the strength inherent in marginalized communities. As Dr. Malone stated, “Howard-trained school psychologists are equipped to fulfill this need.”
Why HBCU School Psych Programs Are Hard to Sustain
Dr. Malone put it plainly: "In general, higher education is in distress. This is especially true for institutions like HBCUs, which have been systematically underfunded."
"School psychology programs are expensive to run and require significant resources, including faculty, funding for testing materials, and access to quality practicum training sites, all of which may be more difficult for HBCUs to secure." ~ Dr. Malone.
Dr. Daniel described how that played out at Bowie State. Cohorts typically ran 7 to 10 students, yet administrators often viewed the program as low enrollment, so it had to keep justifying its size and viability.
A cohort of 8 may look small in a budget report, but those 8 graduates can serve thousands of children over their careers. They become supervisors, administrators, and mentors, and some pursue doctorates of their own. Their impact ripples through schools, districts, families, and the programs that follow.
Dr. Daniel also named the strain on students and faculty. Students often worked while enrolled to cover tuition and daily expenses, even as fieldwork demanded more of their time.
Faculty carried teaching, advising, field coordination, accreditation reporting, research, and service. Leadership turnover added instability, since new administrators often needed orientation to the field, the program, and its value.
From the outside, a closure can look like a single administrative decision. However, what actually is happening is usually years of accumulated pressure: low enrollment concerns, rising costs, leadership changes, thin staffing, limited assistantships, and field coordination that leans too heavily on faculty sacrifice.
By the time a program closes, the conditions that made closure even possible have often been in place for years.
Policy barriers. Dr. Malone raised a point that deserves more attention: state boards of regents often try to avoid "duplication of programs." If a state already has a school psychology program at a predominantly white institution, a board may resist approving one at an HBCU nearby.
On paper, avoiding duplication looks like efficiency. In practice, it treats two programs as interchangeable when they are not. A school psychology program at a nearby predominantly white institution does not recruit the same students, build the same mentorship, or earn the same community trust as a program at an HBCU.
The HBCU pathway reaches Black candidates the other program rarely enrolls, trains them in a culturally grounded model, and sends them back into schools ready to serve Black children. If those programs are cut then it is not likely and those students may fall out of the pathway entirely. That is how a duplication rule preserves inequity. It removes the one pathway built to widen access and counts the loss as savings.
The institution itself shapes recruitment, mentorship, curriculum, cultural context, faculty relationships, student experience, and community trust. Treating those pathways as interchangeable ignores how professional identity is formed and the impact HBCUs can have on its students and the communities they serve.
Cost and institutional priorities. Dr. Daniel added another layer. She identified cost and institutional priorities as central barriers, and pointed to a less visible one: "there is a perception that some university administrators do not fully recognize or prioritize the value of the school psychology profession."
When duplication rules combine with a lack of prioritization and real financial strain, HBCU programs become difficult to start and even harder to sustain.
Historical mistrust & limited exposure. Dr. Scott Graves’s research adds another important layer to this story. The issue is about more than whether HBCUs can afford to start or sustain school psychology programs. It's also about how the profession has been understood inside HBCU communities.
Graves and his colleagues found that HBCU students reported knowing less about school psychology than fields like clinical, counseling, or industrial-organizational psychology.
I can attest that I had no clue about the field of school psychology until I was actually in graduate school at ACU.
Graves found that HBCU faculty also raised concerns shaped by the field’s history with testing, labeling, and the treatment of Black children. That history cannot be brushed aside.
If school psychology has often entered Black communities through referral, evaluation, placement, and exclusion, then the field has to understand why some HBCU faculty and students may be mistrusting and skeptical.
Dr. Malone put the next step plainly: school psychology needs meaningful engagement with HBCU education and psychology faculty about their perceptions of the field and their interest in establishing programs. That means the profession cannot treat HBCUs as recruitment sites without first listening to their critique.
Stronger pathways will require a concentrated, strategic effort spanning years to first repair generations of harm and then build trust with Black students, their families, and their communities.
What Has to Happen Now
A profession that values social justice has to treat HBCU school psychology programs as essential infrastructure, and that takes coordinated work across funding, policy, districts, professional organizations, and the community of Black school psychologists.
A serious strategy to build a strong pathway would include at least five commitments.
1. Sustainable funding models. School psychology programs are expensive, and HBCUs already suffer from chronic underfunding.
Sustainable support means dedicated funding for faculty, including field coordinators and supervisors; budgets for updated assessment materials and digital testing platforms; scholarships, fellowships, and graduate assistantships for students; and coverage for the accreditation and data systems that keep programs in good standing. These costs cannot keep falling on already strained institutional budgets and individual students.
2. District and state agency partnerships. Districts and state education agencies benefit directly from a more diverse school psychology workforce, and that benefit comes with responsibility.
These partnerships can create paid practicum and internship placements tied to HBCU programs, offer tuition support or loan forgiveness for candidates who serve in high-need schools, and build grow-your-own pathways so paraprofessionals, teachers, and community members can move into the field through nearby HBCUs. These partnerships should have written agreements so they survive when one leader retires or changes roles.
3. Policy change and program approval. State policies that treat "duplication of programs" as a problem need to be revisited when they block HBCUs from offering school psychology degrees.
Building a sustainable workforce requires a clear policy agenda. This agenda must treat HBCU pathways as irreplaceable, recognizing that a program at a nearby predominantly white institution cannot duplicate their impact.
It must require governing boards to factor equity, representation, and community trust into their structural decisions.
Finally, the policy must protect existing HBCU programs from being dismantled by rigid enrollment thresholds and narrow budget logic. We can not rely on governing boards to make these decisions out of the kindness of their hearts, which is where advocacy and professional association support come in.
4. Professional association support. National and state associations have the political influence, funding capability, and networks required to hold these governing boards accountable.
Social justice initiatives must direct concrete funding and technical assistance to HBCUs working to start, maintain, or rebuild school psychology programs.
These organizations must advocate forcefully against restrictive duplication rules and demand fair funding models. Associations frequently invite HBCU faculty and students to headline conferences and speak on diversity. Now, they must use their resources to build and protect the actual training structures that produce those experts.
5. Community infrastructure and early exposure. The Black School Psychologists Network (BSPN) already provides community, mentorship, and professional support for Black school psychologists, graduate students, and faculty.
A serious strategy would be to fund BSPN annually. As a 501c3, BSPN runs on charitable contributions. To actualize its mission to support, elevate, and advance the work of Black grad students, especially those at HBCUs, early career practitioners, even faculty, then it needs support. National associations must partner with BSPN. Associations should work collaboratively with BSPN to connect HBCU students with mentors, supervisors, and internships across states.
Importantly, national and state associations as well as universities and institutions who benefit from grants and funding sources should partner with BSPN, support them as a 501c3 non-profit entity so they can sustain the work of supporting, elevating, and advancing the work of Black school psychologists, grad students, and faculty.
HBCUs as Places of Possibility
It’s time to recognize the storied traditions of HBCUs and how it can positively impact the field of school psychology.
The absence of Black voices in the field has never been about a lack of talent, interest, or possibility.
The talent, ingenuity, and desire have always been there, sitting in HBCU classrooms, shaped by institutions with storied traditions and legacies that prepare Black educators, psychologists, and leaders who serve their communities with skill, purpose, and fire.
That is why this moment requires more than concern. It requires action from practitioners, faculty, researchers, program leaders, professional organizations, and anyone connected to the future of this field.
If school psychology is serious about growing its workforce and preparing socially just practitioners, it has to stop treating HBCUs as an afterthought.
HBCUs must be treated as partners, knowledge producers, and training grounds the field cannot afford to lose.
The question now is whether school psychology will measure its commitment to diversity by the language it publishes or by the programs it protects.
A field that says it wants more Black school psychologists has to build the conditions for Black school psychologists to be trained, mentored, funded, and sustained. That means moving money, policy, faculty support, district partnerships, and professional attention toward the HBCU pathways that remain and the ones that should exist again.
The realization that only two school psychology programs at HBCUs remain is disturbing and requires a serious strategy, along with financial commitments, to preserve them.
So what happened to school psychology programs at HBCUs? They were slowly ignored, undervalued, and underfunded by a profession that too often treated HBCU pathways as optional instead of essential. Racist assumptions, narrow budget logic, policy barriers, and weak institutional protection did the rest. The dismantling was rarely loud. It happened through years of quiet decisions, with historically marginalized faculty, students, and practitioners left to carry the weight of sustaining programs the field should have been protecting all along.
The good news is that this can still change, but the response has to be direct.
School psychology programs at HBCUs must be protected, funded, and rebuilt with deeper intentionality.
The future of the field depends on whether it has the discipline to invest in the institutions that have always known how to prepare people to see Black children fully.
That future begins with treating HBCUs as places of possibility.
About the Author
Dr. Byron M. McClure, D.Ed., NCSP, is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, founder and CEO of School Psych AI, author of Hacking Deficit Thinking and Shift to What's Strong, and was a co-founder of the Black School Psychologists Network.
He practiced as a school psychologist across elementary, middle, high, and alternative settings in the DMV for over a decade.