School Psychologists

High pay & lowrisk
Minimal Risk
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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
6.6/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

12% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Therapy and counseling expertise

Very important
Why this matters
Uses clinical and counseling methods to assess people’s needs, build trust, and guide treatment or rehabilitation—work that depends on empathy, nuanced judgment, and adapting to each person’s situation.
Jobs that also use this strength

Critical thinking

Very important
Why this matters
Weigh options using logic and evidence, spot weaknesses in arguments, and choose the best approach when there isn’t a single clear answer.
Jobs that also use this strength

Psychology knowledge

Very important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
Jobs that also use this strength

Education and training expertise

Very important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
Jobs that also use this strength

Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Show 4 more strengths

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Consulting and advising others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide guidance and expert advice to managers or teams on technical, system, or process decisions—explaining options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 147 votes

27% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 12% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that School Psychologists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for School Psychologists was $86,930 ($42 per hour).

The median annual wage for School Psychologists was 75.6% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'School Psychologists' job openings is expected to rise 0.7% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 63,830 people employed as 'School Psychologists' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 2 thousand people are employed as 'School Psychologists'.

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What people are saying (10)

Leave a comment
Henrique (Low)
12 Aug 2025 14:22
Psychology has an important human skill and AI does not: Subjectiveness
Hoshi (No chance)
03 Dec 2024 22:49
Cuz patients need emotional advice and other stuff that needs real care, not some already made response or solution, every person has its own experiences, it might not go well.
teresa (No chance)
10 Jul 2024 14:37
Robots won't be able to perceive human emotion as well as another human being because they cannot feel.

Also, they won't understand body language, and humans won't be able to share their emotions and intimate thoughts with a machine.
AI user (Highly likely)
28 Feb 2024 13:37
People have already started using ChatGPT for most of their psycologic problems. So, there is no need to go to psycologists most of the time. And if you have a thing like major depression or any other serious problem, you will go to psychiatrist who is a real doctor.
Milo
23 Nov 2025 12:02
I think you dont really understand what AI is, if people treat AI as psychologist/therapist may God help them, because its gonna be miserable really fast,
Ramazan (Low)
09 Jul 2023 10:33
People needs human interaction with their personal problems. Human contact is hard to replace by and cold robot
Lukas (Low)
28 May 2023 14:51
Requires face to face interaction with students and parents. Very hard for a robot to replicate.
B. Himamshu Rao (No chance)
03 Apr 2023 12:47
Ai can't take this job it is nearly impossible for Ai to take this job as it is emotional less and this job deals with human emotions.
Tasha (No chance)
04 Oct 2022 19:25
Humans can coach, but robots cannot, and will not be able to show genuine compassion. Robots simply don't have the capacity to do so.
Matthew Ames (Low)
28 Sep 2021 05:57
I simply don't believe that a robot could ever understand the mind of a human and be flexible enough to adjust its approach to different people. That being said, I suppose there is the other side of the coin, the person receiving counseling that may be content with receiving fake understanding. Overall, this aspect relies on cultural norms to remain fairly the same.
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Job description

Diagnose and implement individual or schoolwide interventions or strategies to address educational, behavioral, or developmental issues that adversely impact educational functioning in a school. May address student learning and behavioral problems and counsel students or families. May design and implement performance plans, and evaluate performance. May consult with other school-based personnel.

O*NET-SOC code: 19-3034.00