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Notes on the book:

Counseling in Schools

Chapter 4: Essential Services

·        Individual counseling can have a developmental focus by looking toward future plans and goals, but it most often has a remedial purpose.

·        Group counseling is an essential service, and to include it counselors seek suggestions from teachers and administrators to design reasonable schedules without significantly disrupting the instructional program.

·        The focus of consultation is a specific need or situation for which a student, parent, or teacher requests information, instruction, or facilitation.

·        Consulting establishes a triangular relationship including the consultant, consul tee, and an external situation usually involving a third individual or a group of people.

·        Consulting services often use indirect helping processes to address an identified situation. Counseling is a direct service to assist people in achieving self-awareness, focusing on self-development, or learning new coping behaviors.

·        One of the most frequent types of consulting used by school counselors is information services.

·        Instructional services used by school counselors include classroom guidance, parent education and teacher in-service.

·        Problem solving services used by school counselors include parent-teacher conferences, administrative conferences and student services team conferences.

·        Other school services that school counselors provide is guidance curriculum, individual student planning, special events and promoting a healthy school climate.

·        School counselors traditionally have had responsibility for organizing, scheduling, and monitoring the administration of group tests.

·        By having counselors coordinate referrals and follow-up activities, schools avoid duplication of effort when they seek services for students and their families. This kind of coordination results in more efficient referral processes and subsequently more cooperative relationships with agency personnel in the community.

·        School counselors use appraisal instruments and assessment processes to measure students’ needs, interests, intellectual functions and academic performance.

·        This chapter also provides an example of a school climate assessment form to help gather data.