How's a day in the life of a school counselor? What exactly do they do?

Hi Valeria,

Today's school counselors are vital members of the education team. They help all students in the areas of academic achievement, personal/social development and career development, ensuring today's students become the productive, well-adjusted adults of tomorrow.

School counselors should spend most of their time in direct service to and contact with students. School counselors' duties are focused on the overall delivery of the total program through guidance curiculum, individual student planning and responsive services. A small amount of their time is devoted to indirect services called system support. Schools should eliminate or reassign certain inappropriate program tasks, if possible, so school counselors can focus on the prevention needs of their programs.

Some of the activities of a school counselor include:

■ individual student academic program
planning
■ interpreting cognitive, aptitude and
achievement tests
■ providing counseling to students who are
tardy or absent
■ providing counseling to students who have
disciplinary problems
■ providing counseling to students as to
appropriate school dress
■ collaborating with teachers to present school
counseling core curriculum lessons
■ analyzing grade-point averages in
relationship to achievement
■ interpreting student records
■ providing teachers with suggestions for
effective classroom management
■ ensuring student records are maintained as
per state and federal regulations
■ helping the school principal identify and
resolve student issues, needs and problems
■ providing individual and small-group
counseling services to students
■ advocating for students at individual
education plan meetings, student study teams
and school attendance review boards
■ analyzing disaggregated data

Here in this link you can have more information and videos about this career:

https://www.schoolcounselor.org/administrators/role-of-the-school-counselor

Best of luck!

Hi Valeria! As a school counselor I can tell you that working with students around bullying is one thing that I do. However, my job is multi faceted. Social/emotional development is one. An elementary counselor might be a better fit since at the elementary level, counselors get to go into the classrooms more and run more small groups.