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The legal and ethical guidance for school counselors addressing the mental health crisis of our youth.

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School counselors are in an ever changing playing field. Whether it is school shootings, the pandemic, or financial strains on families, our students are feeling more anxiety and depression than previous generations. The school counselor is being asked to provide resources that they may not have to give.

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This guide is for other school counselors, parents, teachers, and administrators who may not understand the implications of the widespread crises for the school counselor.

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the school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas has had a sobering and heartbreaking effect on me. How does a school counselor navigate that type of crisis? How can school counselors stem the tide of depression and anxiety in our students? I want to know what guides the school counselor through those events.

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No one is ready for a crisis, it just happens, and then we deal with it. The best we can do is know what resources we have at our disposal and know when to use them. Having a group of colleagues to call when things get rough is my biggest asset. Our students may have friendship problems or a school shooting could take place; we have to be prepared for either as best we can. (A. Harris, personal communication, September 24, 2022)

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- Be active on the crisis management team, and consider yourself the expert on how to best maintain the students' mental health. Remember you are their advocate.
- Keep a binder of community and district contacts for various cases of crisis. I use mine like a bible.
- Check-in with students often, so that if a crisis is occurring in that student's life you can be aware of it sooner.
(A. Harris, personal communication, September 24, 2022)

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We need to keep a watch on how the legislature is going to handle LGBTQ+ students. Right now in Texas it feels like there is a backlash against our supporting them and it could get hard to do very soon. (A. Harris, personal communication, September 24, 2022)

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I interviewed April Harris at O'Banion Middle School in Garland, Texas. She is the lead counselor and responsible for counseling the 8th grade. She has been a school counselor for the past 12 years and before that was a social worker with DFPS for 10 years.

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Actively engage in the campus or district crisis prevention and preparedness committee

Seek out any and all professional development for crisis and trauma counseling for schools

Create a crisis binder with resources of who to call in the district and community to help

Give staff developments on trauma first aid and psychological first aid to those staff members who wish to be more effective

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The ASCA has a position statement for school counselors and safe schools and crisis response.
The summary states:
"School counselors are leaders in safe school initiatives and actively engage themselves in fostering safety and in responding to critical response situations in schools. School counselors are a vital resource in preventing, intervening, and responding to crisis situations."

This statement gives a clear directive as to what school counselors should be striving for. When students exhibit a mental health crisis school counselors are guided by the ASCA to lead. They provide a comprehensive list of activities school counselors should engage in for crisis prevention and response preparedness.

Position statements. ASCA Position Statements - American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (2019).
https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Safe-Schools-and-Crisis-R

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America's School Counselors Talk Trauma of Mass Shootings

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America's School Counselors Talk Trauma of Mass Shootings

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This past summer the American School Counselor Association had its annual conference in Austin, Texas. School counselors from around the country came. One session was packed; Lessons From a School Shooting presented by Michelle Clarke from Indiana. She was the school counselor at a school where a 13-year-old shot a teacher and student.
After Uvalde, many counselors are questioning:

what they would do in the event of a shooting

what they could do to prevent a student from going down that path

and if they are willing to stay in a profession that feels unsafe

Some advice from Ms. Clarke:

Develop a crisis plan

Create a reunification plan

Know how to evaluate psychological trauma

Link: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/12/mass-shootings-school-counselors/

Edison, J. (2022, July 12). After Uvalde, America’s school counselors talk trauma of mass shootings. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/12/mass-shootings-school-counselors/

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All it took was the mere mention of Uvalde for Alma Rodriguez to start tearing up.

The El Paso native was among dozens of school counselors who packed a dimly lit room at the Austin Convention Center on Monday to attend a training session on school shootings that was part of the American School Counselor Association's annual conference.

Rodriguez has been a school counselor for two decades and currently lives in Arizona. She said the deaths of 19 students and two teachers during Texas' deadliest school shooting in Uvalde, a predominantly Hispanic city, reverberated across the country even before the countries' school counselors discussed the prevalence of such massacres this week.

"I think it hit home because they look just like our kids," Rodriguez said. "Not just my kids at the school I work at, but obviously my children as well. It raised the heightened awareness of what job I have to be prepared for at an elementary."

Counselors packed the hourlong session that touched on the many roles they play before and after such tragedies. That included discussions on how they can prevent or prepare for crises, the "web of trauma" that unfolds from school shootings and best practices for self-care after such psychologically debilitating events.

Katie Spenlau, a teacher and counselor at a Catholic school in Kentucky, said the need for a session about school shootings at a conference for professional development is "a horrible thing."

"As a teacher and a counselor, I don't know what I would do in that situation," Spenlau said about the Uvalde massacre. "How can anyone really prepare for that? You can't. So it's just the more knowledge that you have, the better."

The conference fell weeks after the shooting. But it also comes after a particularly rough two years for counselors and other education professionals, who have had to navigate the pandemic, politicized fights over mask mandates and battles over what books children can access while also often being bogged down by scheduling and administrative work.

"I've heard from many, many, many educators and school counselors, anecdotally, that this was the hardest year," said Jill Cook, executive director of the American School Counselor Association. "They're leaving the profession. And I know just after the Texas shooting, anecdotally, they're like, 'I can't do this anymore.'"

Other sessions at the conference, which began Saturday and ends Tuesday, included meetings on building student-to-school connections, teaching graduate students trauma-informed practices and moving anti-racism conversations to action.

Michelle Clarke, an Indiana school counselor who worked at a middle school where a 13-year-old shot and injured a teacher and another student, presented the session titled "Lessons from a School Shooting." She said counselors should be involved when schools develop crisis plans and advocate for the creation of reunification plans for campuses that don't already have one. She discussed how to evaluate psychological trauma. And she said schools should have behavior threat assessment and management teams that, among other things, should define concerning behavior and determine when law enforcement intervention is appropriate.

The Uvalde gunman had no known mental health issues, according to Texas officials after the shooting. As a counselor responsible for about 200 students in Illinois, Nicole Fulton said she feels a sense of responsibility for every student and doesn't want to see anyone fall through the cracks.

"I was just sad, because how did we miss it? How did they miss that? How do we not know? Like, we're supposed to be the professionals," Fulton said. "You want to reach all your students, you want to build that relationship connection with your students, but you're stretched thin as a school counselor."

Renee West, a counselor for fifth and sixth graders in Mississippi, said that out of all the school shootings in recent years, she was most "flabbergasted" by the one in Uvalde.

When West first started in the profession more than two decades ago, school fights were among the biggest concerns.

"Now, you are worried about being able to do your job, and safety," she said.

Jonathan Borden, a middle school counselor in Alabama, said that people in the profession feel drained as a result of events like the Robb Elementary shooting.

"We are exhausted as educators, we're exhausted as parents, we're exhausted as citizens," Borden said. "What is so difficult about us getting it together to protect our babies? And it doesn't matter where you are, doesn't matter your income level. It doesn't matter your socioeconomic status or your race or what your religious beliefs are. It's just simply getting it together."

During the session on school shootings, attendees sometimes lifted their phones to snap photos of the slideshow presentation. Counselors would express their agreement with a particular point through humming affirmations. Others stayed behind at the conclusion of the presentation to ask more questions - including Laura Cugini, a 26-year-old graduate student from New Jersey who's hoping to pave a long-term career in school counseling.

"This is, unfortunately, the epicenter of another traumatic event, and I feel like there's so much training out there, but you're never going to be 100% sure," Cugini told the Tribune. "So I think the more that I can at least surround myself with information and interventions in my role, if I can at least strengthen my role in my outreach, that's one step closer to preventing a potential crisis."
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At their first conference after the Uvalde shooting, school counselors grapple with supporting students in an age of mass violence

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Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. All it took was the mere mention of Uvalde for Alma Rodriguez to start tearing up.

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The pandemic was more than people feeling lonely at home or disconnected from the world; it changed how a generation of students was educated (or not educated) for two years. Students in pre-K-12 suddenly had no structure or support. In this article Mogos (2022) discussed:

the mental health crisis stemming from the pandemic

the need for more school counselors in every school

the need for diversified school counseling personnel, mainly men and those of color

enforcement of the school counselor-to-student ratio of 1:250 as prescribed by the ASCA

Link: https://news.wttw.com/2022/02/13/pandemic-takes-toll-students-mental-health-school-counselors-call-more-support

Mogos, A. (2022, February 14). As Pandemic Takes Toll on Students’ Mental Health, School Counselors Call For More Support. WTTW News. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://news.wttw.com/2022/02/13/pandemic-takes-toll-students-mental-health-school-counselors-call-more-support

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As the pandemic continues to take a toll on kids and their mental health, getting them the support they need remains challenging.

School counselors are often a primary resource for mental wellness and guidance, but few can be found in America's schools. According to the latest data from the American School Counselor Association, there was one counselor for every 424 students during the 2019-20 school year. In Illinois, the ratio was one counselor for every 592 students. The association recommends one counselor for every 250 students.

"School counselors can provide a variety of mental health support to youth in schools including short-term individual one-on-one meetings, as well as small group interventions like grief counseling, stress management groups, anger management groups, and then also school counselors do classroom visits where they can talk about mental health topics like managing stress, signs of anxiety, and other mental health topics along those areas," said Autumn Cabell, an assistant counseling professor at DePaul University.

The U.S. Surgeon General released a public advisory in December with recommendations to address what he called a "youth mental health crisis." One of the recommentations was to "expand the school based mental health workforce, which includes using federal state and local resources to hire and train additional staff such as school counselors, nurses, social workers, and school psychologists".

TaRael Kee, president of the Illinois School Counselor Association, agrees with the surgeon general's recommendation, but hopes for more funding towards recruitment.

"I think the money needs to be allocated to hire more school counselors, but we also need to allocate money to great programs like DePaul so that they could market the school counseling program and get more candidates in there because we need school counselors all around the state," Kee said. "We need to develop more programs around the state and I know we don't have a ton in Illinois and we need more and we need to try to figure out a way to get school counselors at every grade level."

Kee says school counselors are often overworked and overwhelmed, which can negatively impact a student and their mental health.

"They're not able to go out and do some of those direct services, so like they need to be in there doing those classroom lessons using the ASCA (American School Counselor Association) national model to change mindsets and behaviors, to uplift students through tough times, to help them build resiliency when they're going through tough times, like we are now," said Kee.

Autumn Cabell wrote an op-ed for USA Today and called the Surgeon general's advisory "a clarion call to increase and diversify the ranks of mental health professionals in our nation's schools."

"It starts even in our master's graduate programs for school counseling, the marketing materials for potential students who are interested in serving youth in the school system and marketing that to Black, brown men as well," said Cabell. "We have a shortage of male school counselors in the school systems across the nation, and so being intentional, and even the marketing materials that are used for recruiting students to school counseling programs, and then once they're there in those school counseling programs, retaining them in the school counseling programs by supporting them by letting them know that they're needed, that they are important, that there's jobs for them out here in the workforce for school counseling and supporting them through every process."

Stephanie Miller-Henderson is a professional school counselor for a CPS elementary school. She's the only counselor for a school with about 400 students, a far bigger caseload than the 1 to 250 ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association.

"The recommendation is there for a reason, and so I definitely think that some of those challenges would be at least cut in half if the ratio, you know, was the recommended ratio across the board in all of our schools in the country," Miller-Henderson said. "I would say that I do feel like I have support, with the various funding and things that came down the pipeline during the pandemic. We have been able to receive support from community organizations with them coming into our buildings to counsel students. We do have a social worker presence, so I definitely feel that the support is there."

Cabell says she's noticed a shift in how America views mental health and now is the opportunity to capitalize on meeting the needs of students and working towards smaller caseloads for school counselors.

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As Pandemic Takes Toll on Students' Mental Health, School Counselors Call For More Support

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School counselors are often a primary resource for mental wellness and guidance, but few can be found in America's schools. According to the latest data from the American School Counselor Association, there was one counselor for every 424 students during the 2019-20 school year.

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(Increasing Access to Mental Health in Schools Act of 2021-2022, H.R. 3572, 117th Cong.). (2021-2022).

A Grant to:

increase the hiring and retaining of mental health providers (school counselors) in low-income districts

recruit, hire, and retain culturally or linguistically underrepresented graduate students

recruit, hire, and pay faculty in low-income districts to work toward mental health provider-to-student ratios

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3572/text

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Comprehensive School Counseling Programs – (Tex. Education Code. §33.002 – 006). (2019).

This law spells out exactly what a school counselor in the state of Texas is required to do.

Create a comprehensive school counseling program

Work with at-risk students

Care for students' academic as well as emotional wellbeing

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/ED/htm/ED.33.htm

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Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.)

The 14th amendment protects the right to public education for all students.

https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#amdt_14_(1868)

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Article 7: Education, of the Texas Constitution (Tex. Const. art. 7, § 1.)

Article 7 of the Texas Constitution provides free public education to all Texas students.

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/CN/htm/CN.7.htm#:~:text=A%20general%20diffusion%20of%20knowledge,system%20of%20public%20free%20schools.

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New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., INC. v. BRUEN
818 Fed. Appx. 99, reversed and remanded.

Just weeks after the Uvalde school massacre the Supreme Court ruled in favor of expanding gun rights making it harder for states to tighten gun laws.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/20-843.html

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Joint United States Departments of Health and Human and Education. (2022, June). Dear colleague letter on social-emotional development and mental health. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/policy-guidance/dear-colleague-social-emotional-development-and-mental-health

In this letter, it is recommended that there be an emphasis on social-emotional learning and mental health for school-aged children. To prioritize this effort through funding and implementation.

Health and Human Services & Department of Education. (2022, June 14). Social-Emotional Development and Mental Health. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/policy-guidance/dear-colleague-social-emotional-development-and-mental-health

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Active Threat Exercises - (19 Tex. Admin. Code § 103.1211)

This Texas Administrative Code describes how and when an active threat exercise can take place. Keeping in mind the mental and emotional health of all participants.

https://texreg.sos.state.tx.us/public/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=19&pt=2&ch=103&rl=1211

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District employees can carry a firearm with board approval. This allows teachers and school personnel, who have had appropriate training, to keep in their possession a handgun in case of emergencies.

Garland ISD. (2019, October 29). CKC - Safety Program/Risk Management: Emergency Plans. In Policy Online. https://pol.tasb.org/PolicyOnline/PolicyDetails?key=364&code=CKC

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The preamble of the Ethical Standards guide describes what all students are entitled to.
"A physically and emotionally safe, inclusive and healthy school environment, both in-person and through digital platforms, free from abuse, bullying, harassment, discrimination and any other forms of violence." (ASCA, 2022)

With this in mind, I wonder how school violence is not addressed in a more urgent manner. A physically and emotionally safe environment is not what we can honestly predict for all students.

ASCA. (2022). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. In American School Counselor Association. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/About-School-Counseling/Ethical-Legal-Responsibilities/ASCA-Ethical-Standards-for-School-Counselors-(1)

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In order for me to reconcile the death of so many innocent and young lives, I have to look to the future. After reading many articles, laws, and best practice guides, I find that no one has the answer I am looking for. I want to know what exactly I can or should do in order to keep the kids safe, maintain the atmosphere of learning first, and not go crazy from worry. There are no answers right now, what about in a year or five? Will we be in a better place or worse off than we are now? There is a conflict between laws giving everyone access to weapons, lack of mental health care, and schools remaining a hub of the community. Something has to give eventually. We can either run our free public schools as prisons or we can, as a society, chose to put our youth ahead of the selfish and entitled nature of some.

We have laws that contradict other laws in practice. Public education and guns for all; then we create roles that are impossible to support. I want to be a school counselor to help students get through those hard parts of growing up not to hold a child riddled with bullets as they die.