THE SCHOOL COUNSELOR'S ROLE

School counselors play a critical role in supporting social/emotional development as they:

• Collaborate with classroom teachers to provide the school counseling curriculum to all students through direct instruction, team-teaching or providing lesson plans for learning activities or units in classrooms aimed at social/ emotional development (ASCA, 2019).
• Understanding the nature and range of human characteristics specific to child and adolescent development.
• Identify and employ appropriate appraisal methods for individual and group interventions that support K–12 students’ social/emotional development.
• Know and utilize counseling theories to inform both direct and indirect services providing support to K–12 students’ social/emotional development.
• Use assessment in the context of appropriate statistics and research methodology, follow-up assessment and measurement methods to implement appropriate program planning for social/emotional development.
• Select and implement technology in a school counseling program to facilitate K–12 students’social/emotional development.
• Serve as a referral source for students when social/emotional issues become too great to be dealt with solely by the school counselor, including crisis interventions.

ASCA Position Statement The School Counselor and Social/Emotional Development