The role played by school counselors is often misunderstood.

Many parents, as well as voters who dont have children in the school system, have only a vague idea of their job duties. School counselors, also called guidance counselors, help students develop competencies in academic achievement, personal and social development and career planning. They follow a comprehensive guidance curriculum to work with students in individual, small group and classroom settings. Counselors dont focus only on those students in need: They help every student improve academic achievement, career planning and personal and social development by collaborating with students, parents, school staff and the community. They help students create an academic plan to prepare for successful careers after high school as well as help them develop the skills they will need to succeed, such as organizational, time management, and study skills. Dropout prevention is one of a school counselors primary duties. One counselor addressed the issue of counselors and their work with dropouts: I feel that if I had more time to spend working directly with students, I would have been able to prevent some of my students from dropping out of school. Students who drop out of school typically do not have family support at home for staying in school, and so those students need all the support possible from the high school to continue on to graduation. Counselors also help students respond to issues such as divorce or death, as well as childhood and adolescent developmental issues. They work with students with learning disabilities and mental illness as well as disruptive students, bullies and underachieving students. The National Institute of Mental Health and the U.S. Surgeon General report that while one in 10 children and adolescents suffer from mental illness severe enough to result in significant functional impairment, only 5 percent to 7 percent are identified and receive treatment. These children are at much greater risk for dropping out of school. Also, NIMH reports that 5 percent of the school-aged population suffers from specific learning disabilities, which put them at risk academically and creates a disruptive, negative classroom environment.1 To perform these tasks, counselors must have at least a masters degree, a state counselors license and undergo intensive training in areas such as human growth and development, individual and group counseling, testing and assessment, research and program evaluation, professional orientation and career development. Researchers say school counselors are in a key position to assist schools to reduce the achievement gap among low income and minority children. They can build partnerships among the school, home, and community to increase students chances of success by removing some of the barriers to academic and personal success, the authors noted. A 2004 study of at-risk middle school students in Baltimore County, Md., showed that school counselors help increase academic achievement, raise career awareness, and improve overall student self-efficacy. The researchers made this important link: As students begin to connect their academic accomplishments with the expectations of the world of work, they are more likely to understand the significance of remaining in school and may make more prudent decisions concerning their short- and long-term futures. It is important, especially at the middle school level that educators and counselors continue to provide the resources necessary to bolster at-risk students academic and career skills, thereby enabling them to believe that some of their future dreams can come true.4 A 2006 study showed that lower student-to-counselor ratios decreased both the recurrence of student disciplinary problems and the number of students involved in a disciplinary incident. These effects were greater for minority and low-income students.5 Several studies found that elementary guidance activities have a positive influence on elementary students academic achievement. One study of 150 elementary students in Washington state found that early elementary-age students enrolled in well-established comprehensive school counseling programs produce higher achievement test scores over those children without such programs.

This situation is intolerable. School counselors are an integral part of our school system, yet Minnesota has the distinction of ranking 49th among 50 states in student-to-counselor ratio a rank it has held since the beginning of this decade. To make matters worse, while the ratio of counselors to students in Minnesota has been abysmal for years, counselors have continued to absorb greater duties as the state has required new tests without increasing funding for the personnel to conduct the tests. This has put a strain on the traditional duties required of counselors: Student mental health care needs have increased in the past 24 months and more than 90 percent of counselors say they have helped students deal with interpersonal and family problems, depression, aggressive or disruptive behavior, anxiety and ADHD in the last 12 months. Because of the increase in duties, counselors say they spend less than 10 percent of their time with students on mental health issues or helping with career guidance. Counselors work with students at the greatest risk of dropping out. While Minnesotas dropout rank is among the middle of the states, it is well below neighbors Wisconsin and Iowa, which have vastly higher student-to-counselor ratios. Counselors say they dont get enough support from the Department of Education or state elected leaders. This information is startling. School counselors are a key component to a fully functioning school system, yet their numbers are few while their duties are growing away from their core responsibilities. The need for quality test data requires qualified test administrators. With a masters degree, school counselors are some of the most highly qualified personnel to assist the school district in the planning for administration and interpreting of test results. It is an ineffective use of school counselors education and skills to require them to do such things as pack and unpack test containers or be responsible for all the administrative paperwork associated with such mandated federal and state tests. Training of other employees to handle such perfunctory duties is not an insurmountable problem. Counselors need to be allowed to do their jobs. By working with students at risk of dropping out, they can decrease the drop-out rate, which decreases the number of people likely to use welfare and the prison system and increases the number of tax-paying citizens in the state. They can work with disruptive students to ease their problems in class and ease the problems other students have with these students in class. They can work with students to ameliorate test anxiety. They can provide financial information for students looking to attend higher education institutions. And perhaps most importantly, they can work with students to help plan a career or a path to higher education, which will allow Minnesota to maintain its status as an educational leader in the United States. It all starts with two simple decisions: First, we must increase the number of licensed K-12 school counselors to increase student access to academic, career, personal, and mental health resources. The second decision is more immediately achievable: Where school counselors are now employed, they should be allowed to implement the full measure of their education and skills through full access and direct service provision to students. Noncounseling-related duties which interfere with the daily functions of the school counselor must be eliminated in order to ensure increased interaction with students and their parents.
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