School Psychologist: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

A psychologist whose specialty is concerned with the science and practice of psychology with children, youth, families; learners of all ages; and the schooling process. The basic education and training of school psychologists prepares them to provide a range of psychological diagnosis, assessment, intervention, prevention, health promotion, and program development and evaluation services with a special focus on the developmental processes of children and youth within the context of schools, families and other systems. School psychologists are prepared to intervene at the individual and system level, and develop, implement, and evaluate preventive programs. In these efforts, they conduct ecologically valid assessments and intervene to promote positive learning environments within which children and youth from diverse backgrounds to ensure that all have equal access to effective education

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, 37.8% of the active records are flagged as sole proprietors. The flag is a self-reported NPPES field and an imperfect proxy for private practice: school psychologists may work in schools, districts, health systems, group practices, or independently, and the field does not identify all of those arrangements.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• - The count covers active NPI records with School Psychologist as the primary taxonomy and may not include providers using another primary taxonomy.
• - NPPES taxonomy and business-status fields can be updated, so the snapshot may not reflect current roles or arrangements.
• - NPI records and enumeration dates are administrative measures, not a complete measure of distinct professionals, service capacity, or workforce change.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions