An agreement between the school counselor and the administrator in charge of the school.  This agreement should be done every year to discuss the program, the goals of the program, and the goals of the school.  This agreement gives the administrator the opportunity to have a better understanding of the comprehensive school counseling program.  Each school counselor must develop an annual agreement with the administrator.  The program is managed and ran more smoothly when the administrator and the counselor meet, discuss program priorities, and new strategies for a successful program, (ASCA National Model,2012). 

Use of Time

School counselors spend majority of their time providing direct and indirect services to their students.  Direct services provide in person interactions and allows each student the opportunity to work on different skills discussed in the school counseling core curriculum, (ASCA National Model,2012).  Indirect services are ways for counselors to provide leadership, advocacy, and collaboration based on their interactions with others.  School counselors should spend majority of their time with direct and indirect services to help students develop and ensure they have a successful future.  Counselors should always put their students first and then use the other time for program management and other school services. 

Use of Data 

The use of data is an important aspect of the management service.  The comprehensive school counseling program is based on the needs and is determined based on the student data, (ASCA National Model,2012).  Data is used to help school counselors see the progress their students are making or not making, understanding what factors are causing problems for the student’s behavior, advocacy for different ways to promote program effectiveness, and help identify blocks to learning.  The management portion of the ASCA national model is there to assist counselors by providing the necessary tools for planning. 

Action Plan
School counselors must provide a specific plan to deliver a successful program. The plan should consist of school counseling curriculum, small groups, and closing-the gap activities, (ASCA National Model,2012).  The action plan should contain the goals of the program, the areas of the program, the timeline, each person involved in the process, how you plan on evaluating the data, and what you expect in the end.  The curriculum action plan is a way to help students with academic, career, and personal/social development.  Small group action plans are a way to help focus on academic, attendance, and behavioral goals.  Closing-the-Gap action plan, addresses ways to guide academic or behavioral discrepancies between student groups.
Journal 

Being a leader is a responsibility of all school counselors.  When implementing programs, a school counselor must know how to be a leader, to teach the program to others.  The management component of the school counseling comprehensive program allows counselors to show their leadership skills by, managing their time, staying knowledgeable on research, and having the ability to work with others.  Each program must be effectively and efficiently managed, which requires great leadership skills.  One of the four major themes of counseling is leadership, (Curry & DeVoss,2009). 

Reference:
Dollarhide, C. T, & Saginak, K. A. (2017). Comprehensive school counseling programs: K–12 delivery systems in action (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Gysbers, N.C., & Henderson, P. (2012). Developing and managing your school guidance program  (5th ed.). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.

American School Counselor Association. (2012). ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Author.

 

 

Collaboration within the school environment is where the professional school counselor works with the stakeholders and the community to better the achievements and well-being of their students. There are many ways to collaborate as a professional school counselor with teachers, parents, outside professionals, and the community. In the elementary setting, teaming and partnering collaborations would involve working with parents, teachers, and the community to achieve the goals of the professional school counseling program. This could include presentations to the students or faculty or having a formal partnership with a business or organization. Parent workshops would allow the parents to become involved in the school by presenting sessions that cover many different developmental issues and how to address them and further help the professional school counseling program achieve its goals (ASCA, 2012). 

In an article written about the collaboration for the success of students’ transitions, it is discussed that collaboration is vital for the students successfully transition from one school level to the next. While it is important for every level of education to support the achievements of the students in tat level of education, it is equally important that the students are prepared for the next level of education. One example of collaboration regarding this topic is working with other school counselors in the school district such elementary school counselors working with middle school counselors to help the transitions of elementary students. An event that was described was a barbeque or picnic on the weekend to introduce parents and guardians of the students to the stakeholders of the middle school and allow the students to see the next step in their education such as a tour of the middle school. This will acclimate the students to their new environment before the first day of school and allow them to socialize with their new teachers and staff to create familiarity (Dixon, DeVoss, & Davis , n.d.).

Consultation Practices
Consultation within the school environment involves sharing strategies with stakeholders about how to support the achievements of their students. The strategies that are discussed are a response to the needs of the students that have been identified by the professional school counselor and  the stakeholders (ASCA, 2012).

An article by Weinberg (1989), details about the process of training crisis teams within the school environment. Within the school, many staff are over worked and lack the experience to handle the aftermath of a crisis which has led to many school districts not implementing programs and interventions. The article goes onto describe a few methods that can aid a school in the aftermath of a crisis. Developing a consultation agreement is a proactive approach that should be implemented before the start of the school year so that the school staff and community are better prepared if a crisis does happen. This also builds confidence among the staff as they will knowledge of what must be done in certain situations. Intervention plans are vital to a school crisis as it is a set plan of action to be followed by every staff member in certain crisis’. The intervention plan is discussed and agreed upon by school officials and other stakeholders. Teaching crisis intervention techniques are critical to the safety of all students and staff within the school. Teachers and faculty will handle crisis’ appropriately and efficiently when they have the confidence and knowledge of knowing how to handle a variety of crisis within the school environment. In elementary environments, staff can feel overwhelmed handling a classroom of younger students who have yet to develop proper skills in handling stressful situations. This can lead to an unsafe environment. Implementing these methods will better prepare them to keep the elementary students safe during a crisis.