National School Counseling Week
NFMS School Counseling Department 2019
What Does A School Counselor Do?
- We manage caseloads running from 155-190, depending on the grade we are assigned. And within that group we also manage a sub group of students with 504 accommodations of about 25 students each. We are responsible to make sure that all students operating with a 504 accommodation plan are receiving the accommodations from each team and teacher that they need, as we are that students case manager. We also handle and attend all meetings that are involved with all of those families.
- We write and implement our school wide comprehensive developmental guidance curriculum. This includes our T.E.A.M. workshops and our Naviance student success plan (SSP)/learning style inventory(LSI)/Career workshops, along with our new social emotional learning (SEL) programs we are working on developing.
- We teach class.
- We offer both tier one and tier two groups and individual counseling to students that need assistance in academics, and social/emotional issues. This we offer to all 155-190 students in our caseload (depending on our grade).
- We also participate and help manage crisis management work, when needed. Often times we are the go to person for the start of a crisis situation, and may very will be involved along with social work and/or psychologist because the student wants us there. Sometimes we are involved to be there for a parent. We have been known to ride in ambulances and sit with parents in hospital waiting rooms.
- We often work with the Department of Family and Children Services. We are often liaison between school, family and the agency. We often have to balance the relationship with family and the relationship with child and the relationship with agency. All while making sure the child is always safe.
- We often work with outside therapists.
- We often work with families, and connect them with resources outside of the school.
- We often connect students and families to our school psychologist and/or school social worker.
- We support all other support staff members and assist all other school members in the building.
- We attend PPT, 504, Team, Department, Parent, Clinical, Crisis and Faculty meetings. We attend any meeting we are asked to attend.
We are the child's advocate. We are here for the child. Child first.
A Couple Of Duties to Stress That School Counselors Do Not Do.
- We do not provide therapy or long-term counseling in schools to address psychological disorders.
- We do not perform disciplinary actions or assign discipline consequences.
American School Counselors Association
Connecticut School Counselor Association is the professional organization that NFMS counselors are affiliated with, and with CSCA they work under the guidelines of ASCA. We use ASCA standards when writing our curriculum. We use the framework provide to us from the ASCA National Model.