What does a school counselor do?
School counselors help students with their academic, career and social emotional development through classroom lessons, small groups and individual meetings.
Mission View Elementary School Counselor Mission Statement:
The mission of the Mission View Elementary School Counseling Program is to ensure high levels of academic and social emotional learning through a comprehensive counseling program.
Mission View Elementary Vision Statement:
The vision of the Mission View Elementary Counseling Program is for all students to have the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve academic, social-emotional and career success. All students will be lifelong learners that reach their fullest potential as respectful and responsible citizens.
Here is a short video on how school counselors help students:
Why do we need school counselors?
A school counselor's main goal is to help students learn. Learning is hard work for the brain. A calm and happy person's brain is much better at learning information than a sad, worried, or overly-excited person's brain. School counselors help student be calmer and happier through individual counseling, group counseling and problem-solving. Most students just need to see the school counselor a few times. If a child will require more intensive counseling services, the school counselor will refer the family to a counselor outside of the school.
School counselors also try to prevent problems students may have in the future. We do this by teaching lessons on problem solving, handling emotions, bullying, staying safe and getting along with others. School counselors also collaborate with teachers, parents and principals to create plans to help all students develop social-emotional, behavioral and academic skills to be successful learners.
How needed are school counselors?
Sometimes I get questions about the needs of our students. Here is some data:
61% of children will have an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). This is a significant trauma. Childhood trauma changes how children's brains function making it more difficult to learn. A significant trauma in childhood can lead to health problems for a person's entire life. Five of the top ten causes of death in the United States are linked to childhood trauma according to the CDC. Here is a great video about ACEs.
In the United States, 1 in 6 children between the ages of 2-8 years old have a mental, behavioral or emotional disorder. The number of children experiencing depression or anxiety is growing. Click here for more information.
33% of sixth graders in Chelan County reported being bullied in the past month.
52% Eighth graders in Chelan County reported they were anxious and could not stop worry in the past two weeks.
Students are at risk for depression and even suicide. Eighth graders in Chelan County reported the following: 37% said they were depressed in the past year, 21% considered suicide in the past year, 15% made a suicide plan and 9% attempted suicide according to the Healthy Youth Survey.
School counselors are on the front lines dealing with these difficult issues.
If you are concerned about your child, you can contact your school counselor or your child's doctor or see my counseling resources in the community page.