• Definition of a School Counselor

    The Elementary Guidance and Counseling Program provides a systematic, planned approach for helping all students acquire skills necessary for successful academic, career, social, and emotional development.  The guidance counselor will work with teachers, administrators, and the community to help create a caring atmosphere whereby all students’ needs are met through prevention, early identification, and intervention.

    Counseling

    Texas law requires school counselors to deliver guidance lessons and provide interventions through four major components:  Guidance Curriculum, Individual Planning, Responsive Services, and System Support.  Additionally, the primary goal of the program is to promote and enhance student learning through the integration of three core areas of student development: academic, career, and personal/social development.

    Four Major Components:       

    Guidance Curriculum includes classroom instruction, group activities, and parent workshops. School counselors teach all students basic life skills such as self-esteem and self-confidence, decision-making, problem solving, goal setting, and motivation in classroom presentations.

    Individual Planning may be individualized or in small group settings and will aid the student in being successful in school.  As students progress through school, counselors coordinate activities that help all students plan, monitor, manage their own learning and work towards goals that include career and personal/social development.

    Responsive Services consist of activities to meet students’ immediate needs and concerns.  This may include consulting with parents or guardians, teachers, and/or administrators, individual or small group counseling when students are having difficulty dealing with relationships, crisis, counseling, referrals, and peer facilitation.

    System Support includes coordinating support of additional campus and community resources for student success including: parent communication, teacher/administrator consultation, and sharing resources with educators. 

     

    Adapted from: http://www.txca.org/