VCC Magazine Summer 2018

Today’s School Counselors Keeping Students Safe By Brett Welch It’s the news story we all dread hearing. We hold our breath, hoping we heard it wrong from the other room, hoping it hasn’t happened again: a school shooting. Or, at this point, we say “another school shooting”. The fact that we add that clarifier is unacceptable. As humans we feel angry, devastated, heartbroken and, worst of all, helpless to stop it. However, here is the one piece of good news: you and I both have jobs that empower us to help stop “another”. You specialize in proposing and effecting laws and providing funding for resources that can make a positive impact on students’ emotional and mental health. My fellow school counselors and I specialize in being one of those resources. School counselors directly affect student outcomes and students’ social/emotional wellbeing. Many community members hold the misconception that school counselors (no longer “guidance counselors”) lack the training to address student mental health issues affecting student safety. However, this is not the case! Today’s school counselors have a minimum of a Master’s Degree in Counseling, which exceeds the educational requirement of Virginia’s QualifiedMental Health Professionals (QMHP-C) working with children and adolescents. While many accredited Counselor Education preparation programs offer both a community/clinical counseling track and a school counseling track, the core course work mental health counseling to students in the school setting on school- wide, classroom, small group and individual formats. Both accredited tracks also require the same 100-hour practicum and 600-hour internship for all counseling students, with the only difference being whether the counseling is being done in a school or community setting. School counselor licensure renewal, required every five years, also contains specific Mental Health training as outlined by the Virginia Department of Education. So, the school counselors of today are well qualified to deliver mental health counseling to students in a school setting. With all that said, there is still a huge problem: there aren’t enough school counselors available to students. Our ratios remain high in Virginia, and students may suffer because of it. Students trust you when they know you . Kids, especially teenagers, will not talk to just any adult who brings them in to talk and asks them questions, even if that adult has a mental health background. However, students often will talk to a trusted adult when hurting, scared or bullied. A trusted adult who also has a mental health degree and is uniquely trained to work in schools can make all the difference, and that’s what a school counselor is. We are in the school buildings every day with our students. We know when a student has multiple tardies or absences, and we find out what’s going on. Parents call us when there has been a death in the family or we call them when a student’s grades start to inexplicably drop. We can develop the relationships that create a bond and belonging. When school counselors have ratios small enough to really get to know each of their students and their families, no one falls between the emotional cracks. One of the things lawmakers can do that may help to avoid another tragedy is to provide resources to follow the Virginia Board of Education’s recommendation to reduce school counselor to student ratios to 1:250 across all levels, elementary, middle and high. Help us get there. Every student. Every day. Ms. Brett Welch, MA, CTP, School Counselor, VSCA Board of Directors, Advocacy and Government Relations V in both tracks covers the same range of counseling and human development issues. School counselors are additionally uniquely trained to provide

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V irginia C apitol C onnections , S ummer 2018

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