Student Wellness

The psychology team at HCCS aims to help students find joy, purpose and community while they navigate the challenges of early social and emotional development. We collaborate with families to address any barriers to mental health through short-term counseling support, clinical assessment, targeted referrals, and consultation with school team members. We recognize that gifted learners have unique emotional strengths and needs that we nurture through clinical consultation and strategic intervention planning with children, families, and school staff.

School psychologists hold unique positions at the intersection of educational and psychological assessment. At HCCS, we work closely with school administrators, the special education liaison and the learning specialist to identify academic challenges, collect data to explore learning needs, and support the implementation of evidence-based educational and behavioral interventions to foster academic growth and ameliorate related emotional difficulties.

Our psychology team seeks to partner with families in pursuit of preventive and responsive mental health care. While we do not provide therapy in school, we work collaboratively to provide tailored referrals and resources to help families connect with community-based treatment; students and their families should not feel that they need to meet diagnostic criteria to benefit from supportive and confidential conversations with our team. Students are always welcome to drop in, email, or encourage friends to connect with the school psychologist. The psychology team also collaborates with the PTA to offer talks exploring emerging issues related to this critical period of development.

Clinical Doctoral Fellowship at HCCS

HCCS has developed a counseling partnership with the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at City College, through which we offer year-long fellowship placement for doctoral students in training. The clinical fellows are integrated into student support teams and provide weekly counseling services for HCCS students in need to provide wraparound support with regular clinical supervision. Candidates for fellowship counseling are considered through referral which can be initiated by a parent or members of the elementary or high school student support teams.

Meet the Team

List of 2 members.

  • Photo of Joyce Halpert

    Dr. Joyce Halpert 

    K-12 School Psychologist
    (646) 963-6331
  • Photo of Francesca Schwartz

    Dr. Francesca Schwartz 

    Consulting Clinical Psychologist
Hunter College Campus Schools
71 East 94th Street 
New York, NY 10128

Elementary School: 212-860-1292
High School: 212-860-1267
Professional Photography © Laura Dwight