School counselors play an integral role in supporting students socially, emotionally, and academically within the K-12 school environment. They are trained to support students when facing challenges that can prevent them from fully thriving within the school setting. School counselors provide individual counseling, small-group counseling, guidance lessons, and a plethora of additional services to support students, faculty, and staff.
The cost for school counseling services in a school setting is normally free to students who attend their local school districts. All students can benefit from building a rapport with their school counselor at any grade level if this service is available within their schools.
How Does School Counseling Work?
If a school has a school counselor, the school counselor is trained to support youth academically, socially, and emotionally within a K-12 setting. School counselors provide individual short-term counseling services to students who may be experiencing a problem that is impacting them within the academic setting. Students can normally be referred to see their school counselor by a teacher, administrator, parent/guardian, or students can refer themselves. Typically, there is a process to see the school counselor, which varies school to school.
School counselors also can provide small-group counseling services for students. Some topics of group-counseling services that can be provided to students include, but are not limited to, social skills, coping with the loss of a loved one, career planning, and building rapport with peers. These are some general types of groups that may be facilitated by a school counselor.
However, school counselors normally conduct a needs assessment to determine what types of groups and other services are required for students to thrive within the academic setting. School counselors are trained in their programs to provide counseling services to students, which may often include training in social and emotional learning. However, they are not clinical counselors and therefore do not provide mental-health diagnoses. Due to this, many school counselors refer students to another mental-health provider outside of the academic setting if additional mental-health services are needed.
School counselors also consult and collaborate with teachers, staff, administrators, and parents/guardians. Through collaboration, they often help other adults brainstorm and find solutions to optimally meet students’ needs within the academic setting. School counselors often consult with other adults who work with the students to ensure that all personnel within the school setting are providing resources that focus on the students’ real needs.
What Certifications Do School Counselors Have?
School counselors are well equipped to provide social, emotional, career, and academic support to their students. School counselors obtain a master’s degree with a specialization in school counseling that focuses on counseling within the K-12 setting. There are certain core classes within the master’s program that school counselors take, such as counseling theories, techniques, career counseling, introduction to school counseling, program management in schools, ethics, and many other courses that support school counselors’ ability to meet their students’ needs.
According to the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP),1 school counseling programs must be at least 48 credit hours. Within master’s degree programs in school counseling, counselors take core classes but also have to do a practicum and internship experience within a K-12 school. During their practicum and internship experience, they work hands-on with students under the supervision of a licensed school counselor. Once school counselors complete their master’s program, they must also apply for a license through their state department of education verifying that they meet the requirements to be a school counselor.
What Is the Goal of School Counseling?
The main goal of school counseling is to provide a level of assistance for all students within a school setting. The school counselors are often the first contact when students have a concern that is impacting them academically, socially, and emotionally.
The Roles of School Counselors In Elementary, Middle, and High Schools
The role of the school counselor varies from setting to setting and district to district depending on students’ needs. However, the underlying roles of school counselors are to ensure that students have the support that they need academically, socially, and emotionally to thrive within the academic setting. Below you will find some counselor duties at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Elementary School Counseling
Elementary school counselors provide support to students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally by collaborating with teachers, staff, parents, and administrators to support students.
Elementary level school counselors typically provide the following services:
- Short-term individual counseling
- Career exploration
- Small-group counseling
- Classroom guidance lessons on special topics
- Consultation with teachers, staff, administrators, and parents/guardians
- Collaboration with other stakeholders to ensure that services are provided and resources are available for students to succeed
Middle School Counseling
Middle school counselors are in buildings to provide support to students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Due to students being at that pre-adolescent stage, school counselors try to ensure that teachers, staff, parents, and administrators can collaborate to provide adequate support for students.
Quite often at the middle school level, school counselors provide:
- Short-term individual counseling
- Peer mediation
- Career exploration
- Small-group counseling that focuses on concerns of middle school students
- Classroom guidance lessons on special topics related to the needs of the students
- Scheduling of classes to prepare students for careers that they may be interested in pursuing
- Consultation to teachers, staff, administrators, and parents/guardians
- Collaboration with other stakeholders to ensure that services are provided and resources are available for students to succeed
High School Counseling
High school counselors are in buildings to provide support to students to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally with an added emphasis on college and career readiness. Due to students being older at the high school level, there is more impetus for school counselors to empower students to collaborate, consult, and advocate for themselves within the educational setting. In addition, many high school counselors are engaged in consultation and collaboration pertaining to many academic concerns such as scheduling, assisting students with disabilities, and helping students plan for their future.
High school level school counselors often provide the following services:
- Short-term individual counseling
- College and career readiness preparation
- Small-group counseling
- Classroom guidance lessons on special topics related to high school students
- Scheduling of courses to prepare students for college and/career opportunities
- Consultation with teachers, staff, administrators, and parents/guardians
- Collaboration with other stakeholders to ensure that services are provided and resources are available for students to succeed
Techniques Used by School Counselors
School counselors use various techniques to support students in the academic setting. Some techniques that are used are outlined below.
Individual Counseling
School counselors often provide individual-counseling sessions to students to help them work through personal and/or academic concerns that may be hindering them from succeeding within the academic setting. Due to school counselors not providing mental health diagnoses, they do not treat long-term mental health concerns.
The goal within the school setting when providing individual counseling sessions is to help students find solutions to problems that may be having a negative impact on them academically. Techniques may vary due to the developmental level of the child. Some techniques that are used in individual counseling in the school setting include, but are not limited to, play therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and solution focused therapy.
Small-Group Counseling
Students of today face distinct challenges that may have an impact on them academically. Due to these needs, small groups can be a service that school counselors provide to reach more than one or two students at a time. Small-group counseling by a school counselor is normally focused on a specific group of students based on their needs.
The small groups are put in place to be more of a support or psychoeducational in nature to ensure that students have resources available based on their needs. Small groups in schools are based on the needs of the population of students in the building. Therefore, school counselors often conduct needs assessments with teachers, staff, administrators, students, and parents/guardians to gather information on what groups would benefit students.
Guidance Lessons
Guidance lessons in school are conducted by school counselors at all levels, elementary, middle, and high schools. Guidance lessons are normally within a classroom setting in which the school counselors visit and give a presentation on a specific topic based on the needs of the students.
Guidance lessons can range from getting to know your school counselor to more intense topics such as bullying. The main goal of guidance lessons is to provide a dedicated time for school counselors to support students and to give them information that is relevant and useful based on their needs.
School Counseling at Each Level
School counseling duties and resources can vary from district to district and also level to level. However, the primary purpose of helping students to thrive is an important factor. The following information is outlined to show how school counselors can support your child if he/she needs assistance at each level of education.
Elementary School Counselors Supporting Students
In today’s society, children in kindergarten to 5th< grade experience various challenges that can impact them socially, emotionally, and academically in the school setting. Situations that elementary students may face may include conflict with peers, adjustments to the school environment, academic challenges, test anxiety, and various outside factors that could impede their learning in the academic setting.
As a response to these various challenges, school counselors can provide an array of services to help support elementary students. Some of the services that have been discussed are individual counseling, group counseling, consultation, and guidance lessons. However, parents/guardians should have a discussion with their children about what to expect when they go and see their counselor at school.
Parents/guardians must also be aware that school counselors must abide by the American School Counselor Association Ethical Standards.2 These guidelines promote that school counselors keep information confidential and ensure that the highest level of support is maintained to help students thrive.
Middle School Counselors Supporting Students
Middle school students are normally in distinct situations in which they are learning to adjust to various changes due to their age, possibly changes in school, and outside factors that come with adolescence. Some of the changes that students experience impact them socially and emotionally and can have an impact on how they thrive within the school setting. According to the American School Counselor Association,3 school counselors are charged with providing a comprehensive school-counseling program that is preventive in nature and engages students.
Middle school counselors often create peer-mediation programs, deliver guidance lessons that focus specifically on the needs of middle school students, and assist with career planning opportunities for students to explore possible careers. These are just some of the resources that middle school counselors can provide. These counselors also often collaborate with other stakeholders to ensure that outside resources are available to address some of the needs that cannot be addressed in the academic setting.
High School Counselors Supporting Students
During high school, students are adjusting to being a high school student but many have also experienced some level of change during the transitions from elementary to middle school and then middle school to high school. In response to the changes that high school students experience, many school counselors support them by focusing on individual needs pertaining to their academic and career journey throughout high school.
Although academic and college and career readiness may be the focus, high school counselors also provide individual counseling sessions for students who may also need support socially or emotionally throughout their academic career. These sessions, however, are short-term and more solutions-focused in which students can focus on solving their problems and getting back to their academic needs.
Tips for Parents/Guardians When Communicating With School Counselors
Collaboration among school counselors and parents/guardians is key for students to thrive within the academic setting. Parents/guardians not only should reach out to their child’s counselor when there are challenges but should also be aware of resources and supports that the school counselor can provide related to social, emotional, career and academic support.
However, parents/guardians may not communicate with the school due to unawareness of which questions to ask or what resources may be available to students and families. Therefore, it is imperative that parents/guardians are equipped with tips to communicate effectively to ensure that all children have what they need within the academic environment to thrive.
When communicating with your child’s school counselor, it is important to keep the following tips in mind:
Write Down Questions or Concerns Before Your Meeting
When parents/guardians are meeting with school personnel, they may forget important questions or topics that they would like to discuss. Therefore, it is imperative to take notes ahead of time before a meeting to ensure that as a parent/guardian that you get important questions answered to support your child.
Encourage Your Child to Build Rapport With the School Counselor
When children are younger, it may take some coaching to get them to advocate for themselves. However, in a school setting, school counselors can provide various levels of support from an academic, college/career, social, and emotional perspective. So, as parents/guardians, encourage your child to make an introduction to the school counselor.
Know That This Is a Collaborative Relationship
As parents/guardians, you know your child very well. Therefore, it is important that when communicating with school counselors to share what you are seeing at home and what works within the home setting. Due to this being a collaborative approach, it is extremely important for parents/guardians’ voices to be heard. But parents must share these things with the school counselor to meet student needs.
Seek Out Support
School counselors provide various resources in the school setting. However, if your child needs additional services (e.g. clinical counseling, after school care, tutoring) that cannot be provided within the academic setting, consult with your school counselor for a resource list of additional services available within your community.
History of School Counseling
Many people are still adjusting to the term school counselor. In the past, people called school counselors guidance counselors because, at the time, their roles focused on career readiness that came about due to the Industrial Revolution. Over the past few decades, more attention has been brought to the various roles that school counselors play in K-12 settings. School counselors now are trained to follow a comprehensive school counseling program that supports all students within a K-12 school.
