school counselors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a counselor's role in each grade of high school? For example, in 9th grade they meet students at the beginning of the year. What do they work with students during the other years of high school?

Mainly facilitating course registration for the following year.

Do they assist in advising which courses student should take based on interest and ability or actual registering for the course?

Both, but they have so many students per counselor they only have time to meet briefly with each student.

This is part of their job. Some embrace it more than others, and I think it probably also has to do with the initiative of the kid. My older kids barely saw their counselors (had no interest in it and were pretty self sufficient) and my youngest reported probably ten meetings with him last school year (same counselor as the older ones had). These were mostly on her own initiative as she was pretty anxious about what courses to take and also was looking into things like internships, summer courses, etc. so used the counselor as a resource. He also seemed to embrace college counseling as part of his job (though the school has a dedicated college counselor). For instance, she asked about applying to international universities and he said he didn't have much experience with it but would gladly do some research for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The counselor is the one who runs 504 meetings.

We had a really good relationship with DD’s HS counselor because of this. It also made the college counseling meeting very comfortable and productive.

[Anonymous]

Off the top of my head, some things I do as a HS counselor:

Map out four year plans with kids
Plan for college with kids and support them throughout entire application process
Meet with kids at the request of concerned peers, teachers, and/or parents
Conduct check-ins
Attend attendance concern meetings, help with the action plan
Prepare and conduct 504 meetings
Individual counseling for academic, social/emotional, and college/career topics Plan and teach classroom lessons (personal body safety, career inventories and activities, suicide awareness, college planning, academic planning, etc.)
Course registration
Attend IEP meetings
Master scheduling assistance
Parent meetings
Facilitating teacher-parent-student meetings Writing college recommendations
Run small group counseling (if I can!)
Classroom observations and and FBAs
Facilitate EMT meetings
Conduct transcript reviews several times a year
Graduation planning and validation meetings
Handling crisis situations
Help students with college essays
Fixing and cleaning up schedules and processing schedule change requests
A lot of administrative work

There’s probably more, but you probably get the idea.

The mental health counselors often work with more severe cases or with kids that qualify for in-school therapy, but I still do social/emotional counseling daily. We often work together as a team. We also still help a ton with college/career with support from the career coach. With large caseloads, we support one another as a team and have crossover with the same kids. Some kids I see daily or weekly, others seek me out maybe once or twice a year, depending on their individual needs.

[Anonymous]

Forgot home visits and lots of collaboration and consultation with other stakeholders.

[Anonymous]

As an earlier PO mentioned, some/most of the interactions will be based on a student initiating the meeting. For this reason, both of my children had close relationships with their counselor (same counselor w/some overlap time). He always seemed to make time for them when they needed it. He also responded quickly to parent emails and when things became tricky (child wanted to graduate early, a medical emergency, etc…), happily had zoom meetings to help figure things out. I have nothing but positive things to say about him, especially knowing what a huge load the counselors have. I know that not all counselors are as responsive, but don’t count them all out! They’ve got way too many students and most have the biggest hearts!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a counselor's role in each grade of high school? For example, in 9th grade they meet students at the beginning of the year. What do they work with students during the other years of high school?

Mainly facilitating course registration for the following year.

Do they assist in advising which courses student should take based on interest and ability or actual registering for the course?

Both, but they have so many students per counselor they only have time to meet briefly with each student.

This is part of their job. Some embrace it more than others, and I think it probably also has to do with the initiative of the kid. My older kids barely saw their counselors (had no interest in it and were pretty self sufficient) and my youngest reported probably ten meetings with him last school year (same counselor as the older ones had). These were mostly on her own initiative as she was pretty anxious about what courses to take and also was looking into things like internships, summer courses, etc. so used the counselor as a resource. He also seemed to embrace college counseling as part of his job (though the school has a dedicated college counselor). For instance, she asked about applying to international universities and he said he didn't have much experience with it but would gladly do some research for her.

Sounds like an awesome counselor. I am always glad to hear such accounts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forgot home visits and lots of collaboration and consultation with other stakeholders.

Home visits? I forget...don't pupil personnel workers handle that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot home visits and lots of collaboration and consultation with other stakeholders.

Home visits? I forget...don't pupil personnel workers handle that?

Yep, but we often go together, especially if there’s a positive relationship there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Off the top of my head, some things I do as a HS counselor:

Map out four year plans with kids
Plan for college with kids and support them throughout entire application process
Meet with kids at the request of concerned peers, teachers, and/or parents
Conduct check-ins
Attend attendance concern meetings, help with the action plan
Prepare and conduct 504 meetings
Individual counseling for academic, social/emotional, and college/career topics Plan and teach classroom lessons (personal body safety, career inventories and activities, suicide awareness, college planning, academic planning, etc.)
Course registration
Attend IEP meetings
Master scheduling assistance
Parent meetings
Facilitating teacher-parent-student meetings Writing college recommendations
Run small group counseling (if I can!)
Classroom observations and and FBAs
Facilitate EMT meetings
Conduct transcript reviews several times a year
Graduation planning and validation meetings
Handling crisis situations
Help students with college essays
Fixing and cleaning up schedules and processing schedule change requests
A lot of administrative work

There’s probably more, but you probably get the idea.

The mental health counselors often work with more severe cases or with kids that qualify for in-school therapy, but I still do social/emotional counseling daily. We often work together as a team. We also still help a ton with college/career with support from the career coach. With large caseloads, we support one another as a team and have crossover with the same kids. Some kids I see daily or weekly, others seek me out maybe once or twice a year, depending on their individual needs.

👍

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on the counselor. Some can be a point of contact for any issue. Some see their main role as sashaying around the building and handing out glamour pictures of themselves.

+1 You know what you're talking about about!

+1

[Anonymous]

Most are really bad at their jobs worthless. Especially MS ones.

They can change schedules that's about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most are really bad at their jobs worthless. Especially MS ones.

They can change schedules that's about it.

I'm sure you are pretty worthless at your job as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most are really bad at their jobs worthless. Especially MS ones.

They can change schedules that's about it.

Not a counselor, but I suspect that is all you ever accept in the way of help when your child struggles.

[Anonymous]

Some are really amazing. And might have actually saved your kid’s classmate’s life last year on top of working tirelessly after school and weekends with unsustainable caseloads. And still somehow love their job.
And yet, when they see threads like this, they feel demoralized and want to leave the profession. And the future isn’t looking great for the replacements based on the reputation and stress.
Thanks, dcurbanmom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some are really amazing. And might have actually saved your kid’s classmate’s life last year on top of working tirelessly after school and weekends with unsustainable caseloads. And still somehow love their job.
And yet, when they see threads like this, they feel demoralized and want to leave the profession. And the future isn’t looking great for the replacements based on the reputation and stress.
Thanks, dcurbanmom.

Most don't have time to read this board because as you say, their caseload