Program Definition, Rationale and Assumptions

Definition:  The Smith Elementary counselor will work with teachers, administrators, and specialists in our school to provide students with a comprehensive counseling program. The counselor will develop and lead guidance curriculum, support responsive interventions, consult and coordinate with students to be successful inside and outside of school, and coordinate with parents and guardians to facilitate their involvement in the education process. Students will be able to demonstrate healthy social and emotional traits and characteristics, become productive and responsible members of their community as they transition to adulthood, and achieve academic success. 

Rationale: The Smith Elementary counselor assists students in navigating through elementary school, both socially and emotionally. Smith Elementary School believes students hold unique value and infinite promise and the counselor plays a pivotal role in helping a student discover his or her value and worth. The counseling program provides students with experiences that foster collaboration, communication, and contextual learning to prepare students to discover and develop their vision for their post-secondary experience. The Smith Elementary counselor uses insight from students, teachers, and parents to understand and determine campus needs and develops appropriate programming in conjunction with the Campus Improvement Plan. The Smith Elementary counselor looks at accepted professional trends, current counseling theories, and ethical practices to develop a comprehensive school counseling program. 

Assumptions: For the Smith Elementary School Comprehensive School Counseling Program to be fully and effectively implemented, the following programmatic conditions and resources are necessary.

• • Appropriately trained and certified school counselors

  • Appropriate support staff

  • Use of a tracking form to document direct student support, planning, collaboration, and non-counseling related services

  • Clearly defined roles within the counseling department and support staff

  • Removal of responsibilities and administrative/clerical duties that do not support the mission and goals of the counseling program

  • Needs assessments from teachers, students, and parents to adequately plan counseling programming

  • School counseling specific budget

  • Training opportunities to develop school specific plans to meet needs of the current school population

  • An office that promotes confidentiality and provides an environment conducive to counseling and parent conferences

  • Software to facilitate and expedite the Section 504 paperwork and implementation

Counseling Program Needs

Parent Survey

Teacher Survey

Student Survey

Evaluating Our Program

The school counselor will evaluate each SMART goal set in the counseling program. At the conclusion of the year, we will evaluate a needs assessment of the staff and students to ascertain where the gaps in programming lie. At the conclusion of each school year, we will have students and staff complete an evaluation that evaluates their thoughts and opinions on the activities from the year, information provided, and further needs of the students. The CAC will look at these evaluations when planning and developing future SEL lessons, Leopard Time, Staff morale, and PBIS needs. The counselor will also look at data and goals from attendance reports, discipline, CIP, and the district goals.  Evaluation of this data will allow the counselor to create goals for the next year and determine what further development is needed.