The School Counselor's Role

School counselors play a critical role in supporting social/emotional development as they:

• Collaborate with classroom teachers to provide the school counseling curriculum to all students through direct instruction, team-teaching or providing lesson plans for learning activities or units in classrooms aimed at social/ emotional development (ASCA, 2019)

• Understand the nature and range of human characteristics specific to child and adolescent development

• Identify and employ appropriate appraisal methods for individual and group interventions that support K–12 students’ social/emotional development

• Know and utilize counseling theories to inform both direct and indirect services providing support to K–12 students’ social/emotional development

• Use assessment in the context of appropriate statistics and research methodology, follow-up assessment and measurement methods to implement appropriate program planning for social/emotional development

• Select and implement technology in a school counseling program to facilitate K–12 students’social/emotional development

• Serve as a referral source for students when social/emotional issues become too great to be dealt with solely by the school counselor, including crisis interventions

Source: https://schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Social-Emotional-Developm 

The School Counseling Department Supports Social Emotional Development through Direct and Indirect Services. 

Direct 

• Classroom Lessons  

• Individual Counseling 

• Small Group Counseling 

• Appraisal and Advisement - assisting students in identifying and recognizing their abilities, interests, skills,  and achievements. Working with students to then make recommendations based on appraisal of test materials and other data 

Indirect 

• Consultation 

• Collaboration - one example of how we collaborate to support SEL in the classroom is by providing weekly/daily Advisory Lessons which focus on  various SEL competencies including character education, mindfulness, executive functioning, and emotional regulation

• Supporting PBIS

• Referrals