Counseling Services
School counselors can provide:
Individual counseling - Short-term check-ins to assist students with emerging academic, emotional, social, and behavioral concerns.
Classroom Instruction - School counseling instruction often occurs in classroom settings, following the district's school counseling curriculum.
Small Group Instruction School counselors work with small groups of students to provide instruction, counseling and mediation support designed to improve student success.
Consultation - School counselors collaborate with students, parents, teachers and administrators to identify and remove barriers that may impede academic success. School counselors work closely with school nurses, social workers, school psychologists and other Student Services staff, as well as outside providers to coordinate services and support
Crisis Response - School counselors work with administrators teachers, other school staff, families and community members to provide immediate and follow-up intervention to meet urgent needs and prevent situations from becoming more severe.
Referral Services - Occur when students’ needs extend beyond the training and/or responsibilities of the school counseling role. School counselors provide instructional, advisement and counseling services through brief targeted approaches. When a student needs support beyond short-term services or counseling, it is a school counselors’ ethical duty to refer students and parents to school or community resources for additional assistance or information.
504 Case Management- School counselors assist with case management services for Section 504. This role supports Child Find law, advocating for student needs, facilitating meetings, and record keeping.
ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors: K-12 College and Career-Readiness Standards
The K-12 Comprehensive School Counseling Program in MSAD 6 is aligned with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model. Find more information on the role of the school counselor, here.
Two sets of standards (Professional and Student) define how school counselors develop, implement and assess our program to improve student outcomes. Find more information on K-12 College and Career-Readiness Standards for Every Student, here.
CONFIDENTIALITY
As school counselors, we have an ethical and legal obligation to keep information contained within the relationship with a student. Confidentiality is the ethical and legal term ascribed to the information communicated within the counseling relationship, and it must be maintained unless keeping that information confidential leads to foreseeable harm. “Serious and foreseeable harm is different for each minor in the school setting and is determined by students’ developmental and chronological age, the setting, parental rights and the nature of harm” (ASCA, 2016, A.2.e).
Exceptions to confidentiality exist, and students should be informed when situations arise in which school counselors have a responsibility to disclose information obtained in counseling relationships to others to protect students, themselves or other individuals.
MANDATED REPORTING
Maine law states that, as educators, if we know or have reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been or is likely to be abused or neglected, we are required to file a report with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
If you suspect the abuse or neglect of a child, please call DHHS at 1-800-452-1999
SCHOOL COUNSELING VS. THERAPY
School Counseling helps to address concerns that may be interfering with student learning and assists with situational and developmental problems. School Counseling does not provide involved therapy or the treatment of a diagnosis.
A student who has been referred to an outside agency for counseling services or sees a therapist due to other reasons cannot receive on-going individual services as it is a conflict of interest.
If the needs of a student require more assistance than the school counseling program can address, an outside referral to therapy may be necessary.