The Professional School Counselor Is Responsible For...

Long gone are the days when school counselors concentrated on providing guidance to students solely for the purpose of graduation preparation and course selection. The professional school counselor is responsible for delivering a well-organize school counseling program that aims at helping students reach successes. The program is held accountable for managing the needs and concerns for all students. The school counselor is seen as a leader and therefore, parents, school staff, community members and administrators rely on them to provide skilled services to aid in the academic achievements, career readiness and social/emotional development of students. There are times when school counselors will be required to work with stakeholders, one†¦show more content†¦When selecting, administrating and interpreting assessments one should adhere to the professional school counselor’s standards. Data collected should be used to develop, implement, and evaluate school counseli ng programs. A professional school counselor is required to analyze data collected over a period of time to examine the effectiveness of services or interventions. The school counselor is required to work with school administrators and stakeholders when advocating for the needs of students, one should adhere to keeping student records private as their records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Our students are being educated in the 21st century and many school counseling programs use computer tracking software to monitor student progress and to assess and evaluate programs. One should be mindful of school children rights to confidentiality and should safeguard their information when monitoring counseling programs. Many times parents and community members wonder how stakeholders decide what school programs will be funded and which ones will be eliminated. Portions of the information are obtained from the school counseling programs. Effective school counselor programs should have attainable and measurable goals for effectiveness. The counselor should have an awareness of individual student issues or needs and one should have understanding of the student achievement gap. School counselors are trained to