Eastchester Middle School Counseling Department

The Eastchester Middle School Counseling Department’s comprehensive school counseling focus is established through a program mission, vision, and beliefs. The program is aligned to the district’s mission and benefits all students.

Mission Statement: The Eastchester Middle School Counseling Department’s mission is to deliver a comprehensive program that promotes student achievement. This is accomplished by providing all students with school based academic, social emotional, high school and career readiness skills.

Vision Statement: Through a partnership with administration, staff, families and community we nurture a learning environment that:

● Supports the transition between elementary and high school.

● Delivers classroom curriculum, individual planning, responsive services (individual counseling, group counseling, referrals and coordination with outside supports) and systems support.

● Integrates a social emotional learning curriculum for the entire middle school population.

School Counseling Program Beliefs: We believe it is important for our counseling department to:

• Follow the ASCA National Standards and Ethical Standards in guiding the work of our school counseling program.

• Regularly evaluate school counseling programs with all stakeholders to analyze and refine practices.

• Commit to ongoing professional development to keep current with effective counseling practices.

To support the mission, vision, and beliefs of Eastchester Middle School, EMS has implemented a robust social-emotional emotional learning curriculum that allows school counselors to regularly engage with every student through a series of push-in lessons. These monthly lessons align with district-wide initiatives such as RULER and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, as well as building-wide initiatives such as EMS Career Day, Kindness Week, and many others. During these sessions, counselors meet with individual classroom groups to foster connections and provide support that reinforces the EMS values of kindness, respect, responsibility, hard work, and community. For the most up-to-date information about each lesson, please see this letter.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

The EMS DBT skills training curriculum aims to teach students crucial emotional regulation, stress management, and problem-solving skills that will help them navigate challenging situations and improve their overall social-emotional well-being. Essentially, it aims to equip students with tools to manage their emotions effectively both in school and out. Students will get hands on experience using DBT skills such as DEAR MAN and ACCEPTS.

RULER

RULER is the framework the district has adopted with the goal to get each building on the same page in regards to emotions. RULER is the name of the program, but also an acronym itself. It stands for Recognize, Understand, Label, Express, and Regulate. Students will learn the importance of emotions and how emotions might effect them, while also learning proper ways to regulate their emotions. Students will learn about the 'meta moment' in regards to decision making and how taking this breather can assist them in making better choices. Students in every building will recognize the Mood Meter, how to use it, and how it can help them. For more information on RULER, please see these slides.