Elementary Counseling

Confidentiality

Confidentiality enables counselors to gain student trust and effectively serve as safe adults and advocates for student social, emotional, and academic wellbeing. 

Information shared by a student with a school counselor will be held in confidence unless:

1. The student wants to or has harmed themselves.

2. The student wants to or has harmed someone else.

3. Someone is harming the student.

4. The student has given the counselor permission to share the information with a trusted adult.

Decisions to breach confidentiality in response to a student disclosing that harm is being considered or occurred to themselves or others (Items 1-3) are made by the appropriate, sector-based safeguarding team based on the Steps Followed After Disclosure outlined in the ACS Community Safeguarding Handbook. 

When counselors face decisions to breach confidentiality for reasons other than disclosures of harm (item 4), they must balance their primarily ethical obligation of confidentiality to the student with an understanding of parental legal rights, local cultural norms, as well as local and national laws as outlined by the School Counselor Association (ASCA) Ethical Standards for School Counselors.

ACS policy ensures that programs are in place to inform all students, counselors, parents, teachers, and administrators of the confidentiality statement’s scope and limits.