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Question 1 - How does the home environment affect learning at school?

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Question 1 - How does the home environment affect learning at school?

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Early Family Risk Factors and Home Learning Environment as Predictors of Children's Early Numeracy Skills Through Preschool.

A qualitative and quantitative study in Germany examined family risk factors, such as poverty and migration background and how they affected children at school. Five-hundred forty-seven children from three years old to five years old were studied on their numerical skills. The study was used for cognitive promotion and looked at the development in proximal processes in things like low cognitive parental stimulation and maternal sensitivity. Studies found that the quality of the home learning environment makes an impact on children's achievement in school. Children received higher scores in numeracy and literacy tests and continued as they advanced grades in school. Researchers also found that the quality of the preschool also made a difference in testing. High quality preschools really helped those students who come from low socioeconomic statuses and are from disadvantaged families.

Some of the risk factors that were considered in the study included maternal education, single-parent households along with poverty levels. Research showed these factors to have a negative influence on students' learning for the first four years of school.

The analysis of the research shows there's empirical evidence to support the assumption that high-quality home learning environments play a crucial role in a child's learning in early and later childhood.

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Kluczniok, K, (2017). Early Family Risk Factors and Home Learning Environment as Predictors of Children's Early Numeracy Skills Through Preschool. Sage Open, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017702197

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Question 2 - What are some trends and issues that are seen in the school counseling role in reference to mental health and students? 

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Question 2 - What are some trends and issues that are seen in the school counseling role in reference to mental health and students? 

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UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS’ VOICE, MTSS, AND SCHOOL COUNSELORS’

MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY: A TRANSFORMATIVE

MIXED METHODS STUDY

A study was done in 2023 on why mental health services are not as prevalent in the school counselor's realm of work. It was found that only two percent of school counselors and mental health workers actually provided mental health services, and the rest of the services were provided by untrained and unskilled teachers. Another concern in this study was that undocumented students were suffering from a host of mental health issues in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade. They had fears at school, migratory stress, depression, anxiety, and emotional and/or behavioral problems.

The reasons school counselors were not able to provide these services is due to changes in the field, school counseling is less valued, inconsistent school counselor identity, and a lack of advocacy for their job duties. The Texas Model gives school counselors information about what their job duties actually consist of; however, some school districts make counselors be a substitute teacher, put them on duty, or even perform disciplinary action on the students. These duties have pulled counselors away from their actual job and has affected their job performance.

This mixed methods study is designed to bring together the undocumented student and the underutilized school counselor. It uses qualitative and quantitative data through interviews and surveys, respectively with school counselors. Undocumented students are interviewed to enhance their voice and to be heard throughout this research study. This information is very important when trying to seek cultural sensitivity and inclusion throughout the school systems. Less than fifty percent of undocumented students have health care meaning they do not have the money for mental health services at minimum. Therefore, physical needs come first when speaking of those living below poverty level ignoring any mental health issues.

Findings showed that students had academic resiliency, determination, and perseverance when in school. Despite their barriers, they knew how to take advantage of opportunities in school for any kind of assistance when it was available. School counselors made it clear that they were advocating for more time doing school counselor duties so they could perform their job to the best of their ability.

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OLIVER CAMACHO. Undocumented Students’ Voice, Mtss, and School Counselors’ Mental Health Advocacy: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study. 2023. [s. l.], 2023. Disponível em: https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=854bf017-0558-38fa-a22f-8f043b437d8b. Acesso em: 3 jul. 2025.

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“We Are the Heartbeat of the School”: How School Counselors Supported Student Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The global pandemic, COVID-19, caused a significant shift in how school counselors see and do their job. For example, students were "stuck" at home, had no socialization, were going hungry, fearing illness, grieving the loss of friends and family, and had to learn via technology and for some students, this was a huge strain on them mentally. Counselors are still seeing the effects of the pandemic in students today.

A mixed-methods approach was used to finding out how school counselors effectively helped students throughout the pandemic as well as filling the gap today. A focus group was used with qualitative data by interviews in this study. Any school counselor was eligible to participate in the United States. Researchers wanted to gain insight to the lived experiences of school counselors.

Findings concluded that school counselors saw a huge need for mental health support. They also had an increased concern about students' well-being throughout the pandemic. A heightened demand for mental health counseling also was prevalent throughout the pandemic, but unfortunately school counselors were not always available via technology to help their students as some students did not have internet at home. Confidentiality was also an issue throughout the pandemic as counseling had to be done via zoom and leaves privacy lacking.

Overall, school counselors found new things to worry about throughout the pandemic in which so many were out of their control. Students are still working on closing the gap when it comes to their mental health today. They are still grieving the losses, trying to catch up academically as well as living with families who are still struggling financially.

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Alexander, E. R., Savitz-Romer, M., Nicola, T. P., Rowan-Kenyon, H. T., & Carroll, S. (2022). "We Are the Heartbeat of the School": How School Counselors Supported Student Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Professional school counseling, 26(1b), 2156759X221105557. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X221105557

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Roles and Functions of School Mental Health Professionals Within Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems

Due to the shortage in the workforce, service fragmentation, and poor time allotment, school counselors, among others are struggling to address the mental health issues youth are currently facing. The article is promoting more mental health training amongst anyone who may be working with youth. It seeks to implement comprehensive school mental health systems and services. School counselors, school nurses, school social workers, and school psychologists were all a part of this study to see where each of them stands in helping our youth and their mental health. The study looks at the professional competencies and time allocation for each of the four professionals. Next, each profession was cross walked within their clinical competencies and training. Findings showed that each profession had satisfactory training in mental health assistance but was underutilized on a day-to-day basis. Suggestions were to exchange tasks and allocate time equally for each profession to assist as needed and also, to integrate a model of school mental health services.

After COVID-19, school professionals saw the rise in mental health needs and continue to see the effects. In conclusion, each of these four professions are underutilized in the school systems and could have better time allotment for each one of them with their given skills.

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Zabek, F., Lyons, M. D., Alwani, N., Taylor, J. V., Brown-Meredith, E., Cruz, M. A., & Southall, V. H. (2023). Roles and Functions of School Mental Health Professionals Within Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems. School mental health, 15(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-022-09535-0

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Family Socioeconomic Status and Young Children's Learning Behaviors: The Mediational Role of Parental Expectation, Home Environment, and Parental Involvement

A study in China was conducted to see how the parent's expectations, home environment, and parent involvement compared to each other in a child's learning behavior. Socioeconomic status is found to be linked to the quality and quantity of parent-child interactions, this plays only a small role in learning behaviors. Parental involvement, however, made a bigger impact on children's learning. The parental belief system affects home environment and parenting techniques which ultimately affects child development and learning behaviors.

The study consisted of one-thousand three-hundred and forty-eight children ages three to five years of age. Researchers used mediation analysis to test several hypotheses. One of the hypotheses tested the middle-class parental involvement times versus the lower-class parental involvement times. The findings showed that one thousand to one-thousand seven-hundred hours were spent on the children by parents in the middle-class compared to twenty-five hours in the lower-class group.

The Likert Scale was also used by parents to report the importance of studying hard, checking homework, playing only after homework, concentrating on what they are doing, respecting rules, completion of projects, and keeping school things in order. The mean of each item was analyzed, and findings were that homework checking was the highest amongst parental involvement. Once again, going back to the quantity and quality of parental involvement. Ninety percent of these parents that participated expected their children to have a bachelor's degree in the future.

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Mao, W. (2022). Family socioeconomic status and young children's learning behaviors: The mediational role of parental expectation, home environment, and parental involvement.  International Journal of Chinese Education, 11(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2212585x221124155

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Understanding the Direct Involvement of Parents in Policy Development and School Activities in a Primary School

Parental involvement at home has the greatest impact on our students according to the opening of this article. The article looks at engagement with learning versus engagement with the school. The research was action based that explores the parents' inclusion and home values. To complete the study, there had to be involved parent-teacher collaboration, which allowed for exchange of knowledge, values, and cultural backgrounds. The study also pushed the whole school process which allowed parents to be a part of the policy development and school activities. The student had problems with the lack of involvement by the parents in policy making, creating a plan, implementing it, and continuing to monitor, evaluate, and review to ensure success in hitting their goals. The study found that at-home good parenting and good school quality made this study a success. Teachers need more planning time, communication with parents and stakeholders, alike, and consultation. If all of these items are in proper play, this study deems itself as a success.

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Tobin, B. Understanding the direct involvement of parents in policy development and school activities in a primary school.  International Journal for Transformative Research [s.l.], v.4 n.1, p.25-33. 2017. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=d16e8f7c-cb71-3993-bc4d-3d85c8ld9a9f

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School Counseling - Elementary School Counselor

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School Counseling - Elementary School Counselor

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My name is Angela Miller and I am currently working to get my school counseling certification. I graduate in December and begin my practicum this fall. I just accepted a job as an elementary school counselor at Goldthwaite Elementary for the upcoming 2025-26 school year!

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School Counseling - Elementary School Counselor

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Question 3 - What are some issues that school counselors are seeing post-pandemic? 

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Question 3 - What are some issues that school counselors are seeing post-pandemic? 

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When the Kids Are Not Alright: School Counseling in the Time of COVID-19

School counselors are needed more than ever as COVID-19 has clearly taken a toll on our students in public school. They have been socially, emotionally, and academically restricted due to the pandemic, which in turn, has caused a great deal of depression, anxiety, and uncertainty in our children. Surveys and focus group data were used with mixed method study documents involving school counselors' experiences during the crisis. Prior to COVID, literature shows that school counselors depended greatly on social and emotional development for children while at school. However, the pandemic put a stop to all socialization via face-to-face and ceasing the ability to learn personal social skills in children. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to research the question, and the best data was taken from the school counselors' answers. Open-ended questions were used to further assist researchers with qualitative data. Findings showed that school counselors had obstacles during the pandemic to carry out their duties, changes in how they spent their time, and adaptations to new work challenges. School counselors did feel supported by their administration during the pandemic through training and communication. Many counselors felt they spent most of their time on anything but counseling when the pandemic first hit the nation.

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Savitz-Romer, M., Rowan-Kenyon, H. T., Nicola, T. P., Alexander, E., & Carroll, S. (2021). When the Kids Are Not Alright: School Counseling in the Time of COVID-19. AERA Open, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211033600 (Original work published 2021)

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School Counselors’ Lived Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this article was to see how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the perceptions of the school counselor in Kentucky school districts. Ten counselors participated in this study. It was a phenomenological study based on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, which looks at the individual and the environment around them. Data was collected via virtual interviews. Items that were included in the study were how children and counselor's used technology, limited services online from the counselor, and consequences of the pandemic lockdown on children's mental health. Requiring students to migrate from the classroom to the home learning environment has a profound impact on students and counselors, alike. Getting food to the students was another important factor throughout the pandemic as some students did not get to eat as school was their only meal they received. Many students were at higher risk of receiving maltreatment by the parents due to stress over financial status, lack of food, illness, or even death. School counselors had to become major advocates for their students to receive the best services possible throughout COVID-19. School counselors also became leaders in the communities as many people turned to them for assistance with various needs.

Through qualitative interviews, the study shows that three main ideas arose from the main question, which was how counselors lived experiences changed their perception about being a school counselor. The first finding was that role perception changed, and counselors found themselves not doing as many non-counseling duties when they returned to school face-to-face. Secondly, school counselors were responding to an increased number of mental health issues with children. And lastly, school counselors have created better technology to interact with students and their families as well as community stakeholders. Although the pandemic had so many negative impacts, it was found that the school counselors played a huge role in students' lives throughout that time, making it a positive change for school counselors and their roles.

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Guzman Dunn, Katie M., "School Counselors’ Lived Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 6823.https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6823

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The Hidden Pandemic: School Counselors’ Insights on Post-Pandemic Socialization

Post-pandemic effects in the school socialization world have become paramount due to many factors. Some of these factors include societal, economic, and cultural shifts. The pandemic not only affected students at home, but also upon their return to the formal school setting. A study was done to explore the school counselors' experiences related to post-pandemic socialization issues. Good social skills and high academic achievement have been connected for many years. So, after the pandemic, many school counselors began to see a drop in grades upon the return to school along with poor social skills. Quantitative and qualitative data was used in this study to see where students were in the academic and social fields post-pandemic. Forty-eight school counselors participated in the study. The focus group paid particular attention to the counselor's knowledge of and experiences with social development in school curriculum. The constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze data because it focuses on social contexts, interaction, and social understanding. The findings of the study showed that students regressed in social skills due to isolation and emotional regulation. The study also found that students went strictly online with everything from schoolwork to social media. In turn, counselors have found a need for social and relationship curriculum as well as lessons on emotional regulation and digital citizenship. This study allowed for deeper understanding of how the pandemic continues to affect our students, families, teachers, and school counselors.

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Lee, J., Haberski, J., Hovey, S., Mirielli, L., Williams, M. S., Wachter Morris, C., & Slaten, C. D. (2024). The Hidden Pandemic: School Counselors’ Insights on Post-Pandemic Socialization. Professional School Counseling, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X241304425 (Original work published 2024)