What do School Counselors Believe?
The professional school counselor believes:
The school counseling program should:
- All students can learn at high levels and should be given the opportunity to do so.
- All students have dignity and worth and have a right to a safe, mutually respectful, healthy and orderly learning environment.
- Learning involves the education of the whole person and is a continuous, lifelong process.
- All students have the right to participate in the school counseling program.
- Learning requires the active participation, mutual respect, and individual accountability of students, teachers, staff, parents, and community members.
- Diversity is to be respected and appreciated as we foster unity among our students, faculty, staff, and community.
The school counseling program should:
- Be student-centered. The program will be based on specified goals and developmental student competencies for all students.
- Include education that extends beyond the classroom environment and allows students to develop lifelong skills that can assist them in the pursuit of their life goals.
- Consider all students' ethnic, cultural, racial, gender, and special needs when planning and implementing the school counseling program.
- Be data-driven. Data will be used in assessing the needs and effectiveness of the school counseling program and will drive future program evaluation and development.