Search

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the School Counselor 504 Activities Scale, a practical tool to assess how often school counselors engage in various ASCA recommended and non-recommended duties. Utilizing a sample of 379 practicing school counselors, this process resulted in two subscales: (a) Collaboration, Advocacy, and Development and (b) Consultation, Clerical, and Administrative Tasks. This instrument can serve as a vital resource to support school counselors' role congruence and advocacy efforts specific to Section 504 involvement. We describe implications for preparation and practice, and discuss limitations and future directions for research.

The purpose of this phenomenological investigation was to explore the lived experiences of rural high school counselors when providing career development services. Several key themes emerged, including (a) contextual factors, (b) direct services, (c) indirect services, (d) rewarding aspects, and (e) challenging aspects. The findings support increased attention centered on rural career development in both preservice and in-service settings. We offer implications for school counselor practice and preparation, and discuss limitations and future research areas.

This promising practice describes an innovative collaboration between West Virginia University, a land grant institution situated in the middle of rural Appalachia, and Kanawha County Schools, located in Charleston, WV. The partnership aimed to assist the rural school district by supporting children in three elementary schools and by providing the university’s school counseling students an immersion experience in rural schools, with the hope of retaining them in the school district following graduation. The collaboration fulfilled the original mission of the program in two ways; first, the school district retained one-third of the school counseling students who participated. Secondly, the collaboration was met with overwhelming support by district leadership, resulting in an increase in school counseling students entering the program in the next academic year.