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Teachers are using artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning tools professionally. What about school psychologists? A new study published in School Psychology reveals how many U.S. school psychologists polled are using AI tools, as well as their views on its benefits, and potential areas of concern.
“This study provides empirical support for AI’s growing role in school psychology and is the first to document the use of AI amongst practitioners,” wrote corresponding author Ryan Farmer in collaboration with co-authors Adam Lockwood, Randy Floyd, and Alec Sisco in a preprint of the study.
The adoption rate of AI tools in the field of psychology overall is surprisingly fast. The number of psychologists who use AI significantly jumped from a minority 29% in 2024 to a majority, 56%, in 2025 according to surveys conducted by the American Psychological Association. This provides a clear trend of the increasing use of AI by psychologists in general.
Similarly, the use of AI is trending in education. AI is actively being used by teachers according to a 2,000-teacher survey conducted in April 2025 by Gallup and The Walton Family Foundation. Overall, a majority (60%) of K-12 teachers polled have used an AI tool professionally. Among the survey respondents, AI tools were used by 55% of elementary school teachers, 67% of middle school teachers, and 66% of high school teachers during the 2024-2025 school year.
Is the trend similar among school psychologists? Historically, there has been little insight into AI use among school psychologists, until now. In this new study, just under 200 American school psychologists across the U.S. were polled to understand the prevalence of AI use in professional practice, attitudes and perceptions on limits and benefits, as well as any concerns ethically, legally, or professionally that they may hold.
“As the field grapples with increasing workloads, workforce shortages, and the growing complexity of student needs, understanding how AI can responsibly support school psychologists is both timely and necessary,” the study authors shared.
From an overall pool of 344 school psychologists across the United States, 199 met the study criteria which includes providing services in a school or clinic setting during the past six months and consent to participate in this study. Although the number of survey participants is relatively small, it provides an informative snapshot and is the first of its kind poll according to the authors.
The results show similar trend of use of AI by school psychologists. A majority, roughly two-thirds polled reported using AI in the past six months.
The primary use scenarios among the school psychologists polled include generating recommendations (52.8%), report writing (37%), answering work-related questions (28%), generating summaries (27.6%), and generating easy-to-understand explanations (26.8%). Reassuringly, an overwhelming majority polled, 94%, reported checking any content created with help from AI tools prior to finalizing documentation.
To a lesser extent, survey respondents use AI tools for generating emails (22%), generating IEP goals or treatment goals (18%), generating presentation content (15.7%), interpreting test results (13%), generating a list of empirically supported treatments (9.5%), language translation of materials (8.6%), generating treatment plans (6%), note taking (6%), and other uses (9.5%).
School psychologists were polled using a seven-point Likert scale to evaluate their perception of the AI-generated professional content. The most frequent response was neutral.
Among the non-neutral responses of agreement (Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree), 50% of respondents reported the perception that AI-generated recommendations were equivalent or better to their own, and was lower for IEP and treatment goals (39%), treatment plans (27.5%), session and progress notes (25.5%), and interpretations of tests (24.7%).
For those that did not agree (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Somewhat Disagree) that AI matched the quality of their own, the responses were 46.6% for AI-generated reporting, 44% for test interpretations, and 32% for treatment plans.
Interestingly, regarding ethics, a majority (59%) of respondents had not disclosed their use of AI to parents, administrators, and other stakeholders, and only 5% reported having AI workplace policies.
“School psychologists are readily adopting AI, primarily for documentation and recommendations, yet ethical concerns remain, particularly around disclosure and data security,” concluded the researchers.
Copyright © 2026 Cami Rosso All rights reserved.
