Despite having two counselors, I think the needs of our students are often overlooked because of the demands placed on schools by district, state and federal guidelines. Our counselors are often overloaded with assessment, RTI and transition planning that takes up the bulk of their time. This leaves little time for individual or group counseling for students. Oftentimes, students in need of counseling are referred to contracted counselors from the local community mental health agency. Again, it is great that we have this resource to utilize and many students benefit from it. But, these counselors are often looking for a DSM diagnosis in order to fulfill their own billing requirements. Without a diagnosis, there is little need for that service. We have a plethora of students that simply need a positive adult role model to provide guidance and supportive listening because this does not exist at home. If public schools are going to claim to meet all the needs of students, then I think it is necessary to provide a counselor that has the sole job of counseling students in individual and group settings, without the demands of testing, scheduling and planning.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Post of Choice
The school that I teach at has approximately 800 students in grades 9-12. We have two counselors: one who works primarily with freshmen and sophomores and one who works primarily with juniors and seniors. The roles of these two counselors are very different because of the needs of their students. Not only do they do scheduling and assessments for their assigned students, but also any social or emotional needs that these students have. We are probably lucky to have two counselors to split up our student body. Teaching slots have been cut every year that I have been at my school and losing a counseling slot would be very detrimental to our students' success.
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I think most school counselors feel guilty about not having the time to meet with students individually or in small groups as much as they need to. At the elementary level, counselors have taken on roles such as ARC chairs, program review chairs, etc. I agree that there is a need for counselors whose sole responsibility is to counsel students.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I have seen this at the elementary level as well. School districts have budget cuts that they are dealing with and this requires many people to take on multiple roles and duties in the schools. The counselor that I worked with at the elementary school was also the gifted and talented teacher. I think that in this day and age it is so very important that students have someone in the school that they can go to when facing difficult situations at home or at school.
ReplyDeleteI think that people tend to forget how much of a workload counselors take on and the amount of time that they realistically have to spend with the students. It would be great if the schools would have a counseling job slot just for individual and group counseling. Students would gain a great amount of insight and appreciation from it.
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