Advice on general statement of purpose I am writing for School Psychology Ed.S/MS programs?

[jessitis]

I'm currently applying to some School Psychology Ed.S/MS programs and need advice on my statement of purpose. The schools I'm applying to share the same university application which asks for a broad statement of purpose, so all my schools will be reading this same SOP.

The problem is I don't have experience working in a research lab so I'm not sure if I still have to address my research interests in my SOP if I don't have any direct experience... I'm writing about my experiences as a teacher and instructional aide (did field work for this through an undergraduate course) instead. Should I still mention some broad research interests related to school psych or should I just focus on what I want to do career wise? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

The prompt instructions are "Since your statement of purpose is sent to all the programs you apply to, keep it general. If you plan to apply to only one program, you should still keep your statement general in case you later apply to additional programs. Write a brief statement of purpose describing reason(s) for pursuing graduate or post baccalaureate study. Include any additional information concerning your preparation that is pertinent to the objective specified"

Edited November 14, 2018 by jessitis
added more specific info

[sun&stars]

From what I've learned as I look into School Psychology programs, they still want to know what your research interests could be. Programs also understand that interests change overtime and whatever you state as an interest may not be what you end up studying. Also, if you have experience teaching and your research interests are related, it would show that you have practical experience related to what you'd like to study. I'm in a similar boat where I know what my research interests are but my research experiences are not related to that topic at all! If you have interests that you'd like to investigate, I would definitely add them. And then you can wrap that into how it relates to your career interests! 

(I'm applying this cycle and not in a program, so this is based on what I've learned in my school psych research. Hope it helps!)