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I will take the perspective of an elementary school counselor. This legal Padlet may be used by school counselors as a resource on the total working time they must spend on counseling duties versus non-counseling duties in order to implement an effective counseling program.

I choose this topic because school counselors in Texas need to be aware of the amendment made to the current law relating to the work time of school counselors. The law was amended because of the increase of mental health in school aged children. The need for counselor to implement an effective comprehensive school counseling program is crucial. Counselors need to know the law, in order to advocate for the time needed to meet the needs of students social, emotional and academic needs.

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I interviewed Mrs. Shelby Garcia, school counselor at Voss Farms Elementary.

School Counselors must implement a comprehensive school counseling program. In order for this to occur school districts must ensure a counselor is spending at least 80 percent of their total work time implementing the components of the program. Unfortunately, this creates conflicts between counselors and districts.

Best Practices

School Counselors must continue to implement  comprehensive counseling programs in schools.

School Counselors must do what is asked of them by school districts.

School Counselors must continue to advocate for their roles and educate about what good can be done for students and families.

Our district is not sure how to implement the new policy or who to designate the non-counseling related duties too. Some districts are trying to find loop holes, or simply just ignoring the law. They continue to say they are working towards implementing this new law. Fortunately, for the students the Texas Legislature has taken a more aggressive approach to ensure that counselors are given ample time to work within their duties. This includes audits that will verify compliance of the law. As the school counselor, "I have decided to continue to advocate, but ultimately have to do what my district tells me to do in hopes that the state auditing system will eventually weed these districts out and address this issue" (S. Garcia, personal communication, August 2, 2022).

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Carolyn Stone, Ed.D., is a professor at the University of North Florida and chair of ASCA's Ethics Committee. The article explains the addition of standard B.2.c to the 2016 ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors.

Carolyn Stone (2017) explains standard B.2.c, school counselors advocate for a counseling program free of non-counseling duties. School counselors must be cautious of how they approach the topic with school districts and administrators. Knowing the ethical and legal roles and responsibilities is important to appropriately advocate for an effective comprehensive school counseling program. Stone (2017), shares legal guidance for appropriate and inappropriate ways to advocate for change while still following district policies.

Reference:
Stone, C. (2017, September 1). Appropriate vs.inappropriate duties. ASCA School Counselor. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Magazines/September-October-2017/Appropriate-vs-Inappropriate-Duties

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Lamm & Stuckey (2022), inform about the need for more mental health professionals in Texas schools.

Texas school districts do not meet the Texas Education Agency's (TEA) recommended counselor to student ratio, 1 to 250.

The Texas Model Comprehensive Counseling Program has a recommended 1 to 350 counselor to student ratio, but is not met in Texas schools.

The need for school counselors to focus their time on student mental health is crucial in schools.

Link: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/in-crisis/article/Texas-schools-mental-health-kids-students-help-17028620.php
Reference: Lamm, S. & Stuckey, A. (2022, April 11). Texas schools don't have enough mental health providers. As leaders fail to fix it, kids suffer. Houston Chronicle.

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Dodson (2019) describes how her team of counselors gained the support of administrators on their campus.

Implementing an effective comprehensive school counseling program using the ASCA National Model.

Building relationships with students, families and staff.

Keeping administration informed of what is being done in the program and the outcomes that occur as a result of the actions.

Link: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Magazines/July-August-2019/Tired-But-Content
Reference: Dodson, T. (2019, July 1). Tired but content. ASCA School Counselor. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/Magazines/July-August-2019/Tired-But-Content

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Federal Constitutional Law
The first amendment of the United States Constitution:

gives citizens the right to freedom of speech

Link: https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm

Reference: U.S. Const. amend. l

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State Statutory Law
Texas State Legislature enacted Texas Education Code (TEC) SB 179 which relates to the use of public school counselor's work time.

School districts should adopt a policy stating that 80 percent of school counselors work time will focus on a comprehensive counseling program.

If more than 20 percent of non-counseling duties are performed, the Board of trustees of a school district, must give reasons why counseling duties are less than 80 percent, list the expected non-counseling duties & give the percentage of work time set for counseling program.

Link to Law: https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB179/id/2366308
Reference: Tex. Educ. Code § 33.006

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State Administrative Law
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) school counseling job description states:

A Texas School Counselor follows "The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs".

Duties outside the 80 percent spent on implementing a comprehensive school counseling program must be limited to 20 percent or less.

Reference: Texas Education Agency. (2022). School counseling - job description & evaluation. https://tea.texas.gov/academics/learning-support-and-programs/school-guidance-and-counseling/school-counseling-job-description-evaluation

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State Judicial Law
In Williams v. Rogers (2019) Commonwealth of Kentucky Courts of Appeals ruled:

the school counselor was not liable for injuries the student sustained

The school counselor was assigned to supervise students in lunch which is a non-counseling duty, but per her contract she performs other tasks assigned by the principal. The court found she performed a ministerial act and was not held liable for the students injuries.

Link to Law: https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2019/2017-ca-001945-mr.html
Reference: Williams (Julie) vs. Rogers (candy), as mother of next friend of Z.R. Justia Law. (2019, May 17). Retrieved May 5, 2022, from https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2019/2017-ca-001945-mr.html

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New Braunfels Independent School District (NBISD) Student Handbook states that the district provides a comprehensive school counseling program for students.

Guidance Curriculum

Responsive Services

Individual Planning System

Systems to Support

Link: https://www.nbisd.org/upload/page/0221/docs/Student%20Services/2021-22/NBISD_Student_Handbook_English_2021_22_%20211004.pdf
Reference: New Braunfels Independent School District Student Handbook. (2021). New Braunfels, Texas. Retrieved from https://www.nbisd.org/upload/page/0221/docs/Student%20Services/2021-22/NBISD_Student_Handbook_English_2021_22_%20211004.pdf

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The ASCA Ethical Standards for Counselors (2016), B.2 Responsibilities to the School, informs stakeholders of counselor roles and responsibilities. B.2.c states school counselors, "advocate for a school counseling program free of non-school-counseling assignments identified by "The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs" as inappropriate to the school counselor's role"(ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors, 2016). A school counselor needs to be knowledgeable of ethical standards in order to appropriately advocate for what is right.

Link: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

Reference: American School Counselor Association. (2016). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

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A research on school counselors, conducted by Brasfield et al. (2021), showed the amount of time elementary, middle and  high school counselors spend implementing each part of the counseling model.

Elementary counselors spend a majority of the time on guidance counseling.

Secondary counselors spend more time planning with individual students.

School counselors who were asked to perform non-counseling duties did not meet 80 percent guidelines for a comprehensive counseling program.

Link: https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.easydb.angelo.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=13&sid=2b94e9c3-c597-4ef6-9523-a673c9b7a818%40redis#

Reference: Brasfield, M. W., Lancaster, C. & Burke, M. F. (2021, October 30). Exploring factors that affect school counselors' use of time. Journal of School Counseling. 19(30), 1-35. https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.easydb.angelo.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?

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The following are recommendations for school counselors to use in order to advocate for the time needed in schools to implement an effective comprehensive counseling program.

As a School Counselors work collaboratively with principals to take non-counseling duties away, to be able to implement an effective school counseling program.

Become a member of a school counseling association and actively engage and collaborate with other school counselors about ways to ethically and legally advocate for roles and responsibilities of a counselor.

If the district board of trustee determines that a counselor can not perform 80 percent of counseling duties due to staff shortage, they must include the following in the policy: a reason why, a list of non-counseling duties expected to perform and the percentage of time that will be used for counseling duties. If this action is not in compliance with state mandate, ask to revisit the law with administration to ensure documentation is in order.

School counselors need to self advocate to make sure the appropriate time is given to meet the social, emotional and academic needs of all students.

Knowing which tasks are categorized as non-counseling duties is important when advocating for the time needed to support students using a school counseling program. See the 5th edition Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs pp. 117-119. Link: https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/Pub_2018_Texas-Model_5th-Edition.pdf

Create a detailed plan on the comprehensive counseling program that will be implemented in the school. Share the plan with administrators so they are aware and can collaborate on student needs if needed.