Running head: GUIDANCE COUNSELING REFLECTION PAPER

Guidance Counseling Reflection Paper

Sandra E. Zaragoza

EDUC 5382 Special Programs

Professor Dr. Kristy Duckworth

East Texas Baptist University

August 8, 2017

Version 1.0
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Guidance and counseling in Texas schools is the whole umbrella of the titles of a Texas

school counselor. Guidance and counseling is part of the school health piece of the TAC.

Counselors in Texas must meet very strict training and professional development to earn their

counselors certificate. In reading the requirements, I see why counselors are stressed and

anxious. Counselors play a huge role in the well-being and accountability of the district they are

in. Guidance and counseling in Texas is locally funded by the LEA. TAC mandates that each

LEA have a counselor for every 500 students. In saying this, I can see where two or more

counselors would be needed at the high school level.

Counselors are charged with counseling students, seeing to the state assessment process

system, and special programs systems and processes on their campus. This job wears many hats.

Counselors do not get to meet with students as often as they would like. Teachers or parents

might request that their student or child meet with the counselor, however, the stress of whatever

else is mandated does not allow the school counselor to truly work with the student with one

hundred percent attention. All other duties are weighing down on the counselor. When state

testing comes around in the spring, then counselors are on edge. Schools are on edge. Strict rules

and security protocols keep the counselor away from doing what he or she signed up to do.

Counseling should be strictly counseling and not all the other.

I am pretty sure the district can assign a testing administrator to each campus just like

assigning a school librarian whose sole job is to handle all thins state assessment. The counselor

works closely with the assistant principal. There are confidentiality rules that keep counselors

from discussing any matters with others. In cases of child abuse, CPS is immediately called.

Dealing with cases like this needs to the full attention of the counselor. They do not need

everything else looming over them. Students come first. Without the students, we all would be
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nothing. Counselors at the high school have a much bigger population of students to counsel.

Much of the time, there are pods or cohorts of counselors per group of students. The goal is to

graduate these students. The goal is to guide these students in the right path. Initially the goal

was for students to graduate and go straight to college. Now, education has changed to meet a

variety of goals and aspirations. Guidance counseling is rarely being done due to the other higher

demands of the state. Counselors tend to receive the assignments of juggling all things at one and

correctly too.
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References

Texas Education Agency (2017). School guidance and counseling. Retrieved from

http://tea.texas.gov/Academics/Learning_Support_and_Programs/School_Guidance_and_

Counseling/School_Guidance_and_Counseling/