SCHOOL COUNSELLING

Survey of School Counselling Services

ECC 514

O’Nesseia Edmondson

City University of Seattle

Instructor: Carol-Anne Haring

July 15, 2021

Introduction
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The role of the counsellor is to provide comprehensive support in the areas of

educational, personal and/or career counselling for students. The school counsellor is a

certified teacher and member of the school team. (Red Deer Public School Division, 2015).

School authorities have the responsibility to meet the needs of all students and enable their

success. This is provided through a number of supports and services; School-based supports,

such as school guidance and counselling, address students’ educational, personal, social,

emotional and career needs. Each school authority determines its approach based on its

learners, resources and community context. School guidance and counselling involve

collaborative partnerships that support learner success. This may involve a school counsellor

or other school staff and parents and/or guardians working together with community services

and professionals. (Guide to Education: ECS to Grade 12 2020-2022)

An effective school counsellor strives to ensure that learning is a positive experience

for every child. They know that a classroom environment that is good for one child may not

necessarily be good for another. School counsellors facilitate communication among teachers,

parents, administrators, agencies and students to ensure that each student’s interest and

concerns are dealt with, with urgency and confidentiality. They help individual students make

the most of their school experiences and prepare them for the future. (Encyclopedia.com,

2019).
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For school counsellors to adequately accommodate all students there needs to be a

reasonable ratio of counsellors to students in our schools. The average counsellor to student

ratio in Alberta in 1995 can be seen in the table below:

Level C:S Ratios Range Number

Elementary (ECS-6 1:875 206-2770 83

Junior High (Grades 7-9) 1:466 250-1000 50

Senior High (10-12) 1:477 140-882 38

Overall: ECS - 12 1:603 140-2770 171

Comprehensive School Guidance and Counselling Program and Services

In the first News Bulletin of the Guidance Council which came out in June 1964, it

was cited that one recommendation was “that counselling services be allocated on the basis of

at least one full-time counsellor to every 250-300 students.” (Alberta Teachers’ Association

2011). At that time that recommendation was not accomplished and as seen in the table

above, it still had not been recognized in 1995.

Being able to access counselling in a school is essential to students. Increasingly,

young people are affected by a wide range of social issues; as a result, students can develop

problems that adversely affect their schooling (Baruch, 2001; Holcomb-McCoy and Mitchell,

2005). Our school counsellors are that voice of reason from a non-judgemental point of view.

At root, counselling is based upon communication, listening and interpersonal skills. (Palmer

& McMahon, 2000).

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My School

With a student population of only 205 in the 2020-2021 school year, Destiny serves

Kindergarten to Grade 9 students and accommodates 8 part-time pre-schoolers. There are

currently 13 teachers on staff including the principal and vice-principal but this does not

include a guidance counsellor. At present, the school does not have a guidance and

counselling department. The school has done well to create a school environment based on

Christian principles and values. The students are taught from kindergarten to value prayer and

it is the means through which conflicts are resolved. Although the school has remained fairly

peaceful for many years it would be good to have a counsellor. Counsellors play a role that

teachers without such training may not be able to carry out effectively.

Due to the limitations at my school, I chose to survey a counsellor at another school

that could give a clearer picture of the needs of students and the services that are available to

help students maximize the opportunities of their educational journey.

School Setting

The school chosen is the Alternative School Centre which is a part of the Red Deer

Public School District. This school also has a unique school setting. The school houses

students from grades 7 to 12 and may see students from ages 12 to 20 years old with very

complex needs. For the 2020-2021 school year in the peak of the COVID pandemic the

school accommodated 388 students who attended physical school from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M. In
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semester 1 the school also accommodated 188 students who worked independently online in

the afternoons and 127 students in semester 2. This is a diverse school population with 30%

of its student population being identified as First Nations Metis and Inuit (FNMI) and the

remaining 70% is predominantly Caucasian. There is also a 50/50 split between students who

identify as male or female.

The school accommodates at-risk children/youth whose needs may range from simple

to extremely complex. The school accommodates kids who have been dismissed from the

regular school setting, and have experienced traumas of some kind. They may be struggling

with addiction, high anxiety, mental illness or they may be emotionally dysregulated. The

school has seen students who are blind or have other disabilities and others have come

because they are bullied in the regular school setting.

The school offers few programs, one being the Knowledge and Employability

Program which is the -4 courses (The lowest courses in high school). Regular courses are

facilitated by 4 other teachers who are available to assist students but they work

independently for the most part.

“Collaboration strengthens relationships among members of the school community

and allows staff to improve educational outcomes and find innovative solutions to problems.

Working together also supports a school community in which children and youth are

prepared to overcome challenges and experience success.” (Government of Alberta, 2021)

Counselling Program and Collaboration with Partners

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The guidance counsellor spends much of her time in individual counselling. There is

also a mental health worker and a psychologist that works in the school.

The school counsellor has a barrage of credentials. She is a licensed counselling

therapist which enables her to work with addiction, and to engage in child and youth

counselling. She holds a Master in Clinical Psychology Degree and a Bachelor of Psychology

from the University of Calgary. She also has a Specialized Youth Addiction Certificate from

the University of Arizona and she continues to acquire education credits from all over but

concentrates mainly on Canada.

The counsellor collaborates with the staff as well as several agencies outside the

school to ensure that students are being adequately supported. The development,

implementation and delivery of a comprehensive guidance and counselling program is a

“collaborative, multidisciplinary task that involves team members of the school staff, not

solely the guidance counsellor” (Alberta Education, 1997).

This past year has been challenging with the school seeing several of the agencies that

support their students closed or have shown little to no functionality in regards to supporting

the students who have been recommended to them. Some of these agencies are funded and

much of that funding was taken away this year.

The counsellor also makes referrals to Student Services but this year they did not

have the money so they could not provide the services students needed. McMan Youth

Family and Community Association is the organization who has the money and is supposed
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to disperse it to other organizations or create the programs themselves to fill the need that is

not being met. This however, was not done this year. The guidance counsellor believes that

more could have been done to fill the gap. At school, they did what they needed to to ensure

that their students were being provided for. They serve a population that needs constant

support. They have to ensure that they still feel supported regardless of what is happening

around them.

A great deal of time is spent dealing with crisis intervention while remedial

intervention is very little. In time past she would have spent a lot of time in preventive

counselling but now it is only a little. She feels the students are in crisis. She spends a lot of

time with parents, probation officers, children services; which would mainly be their youth

worker, youth justice worker, mental health worker (through Alberta Health Services) and

also RCMP (the school has a liaison officer). She has a heavy workload of 63 students an

average per month and she sees them multiple times). The 8 most severe mental health

students were taken over by the mental health worker.

She also meets with outside agencies/professionals such as Brendin programs which

are usually carried out through YMCA. She is able to obtain funding to help her students with

things such as damage deposits as they seek to find accommodations for themselves. She

also works with Employment Placement and Social Services (EPSS) as often as she can.

These agencies work with the counsellor to bridge the gaps.

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Bridging the Gap was one such program that helped students in the area trying to find

employment. They could not find jobs because they lacked the life skill experiences to go

into an interview and get that job. The counsellor was not able to do all that one on one and

they were not allowed to do groups so they went and found provincial grant money and they

created a program where for 22 weeks they would take in 11 youths. They would pay them

minimum wage to come in every single day until they learn those life skills. The program

provides access to counselling and other services. The program was successful and will

continue.

A new program; Step-Up Step-Down, is a mental health treatment facility started in

Red Deer recently. They were supposed to have 11 beds but they have 6 beds. They have an

in-house psychiatrist, psychologist, psych nurses, mental health therapist, Occupational

Therapist, social worker and a general medical practitioner. It is a 3-month residential

program where students/youths can live and have access to those services for three months.

The counsellor does not keep paperwork. If she gets called into court, she has nothing

to present. Her fears of losing her students’ trust far outweigh her fears of what might happen

in court if she has no notes.

As a result of the growing concern for the well-being of children and youth,

governments across the globe have issued mandates and policies that hold schools and school

personnel responsible for the positive development of all students (Lam & Hui, 2010). School

counsellors are members of the staff and have a huge role to play in the growth and
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development of our students. For them to be able to carry out this mandate effectively and

proactively they need to have the support and collaboration of all staff members.

Survey analysis

The checklist was completed orally with the guidance counsellor at the Alternate

School. The school counsellor spends a significant amount of time on individual counselling,

consulting with others and developing or supporting peer facilitation programs. This can also

be seen with time spent in small groups for crisis intervention. She also spends time

collaborating with teachers, administration, aides/youth workers and support staff. A

tremendous amount of time is also spent collaborating with outside agencies/professionals

and parents. The opposite is seen with small and large group counselling time. Very little

time is spent in group counselling. I am unsure of the situation but the psychologist at the

Alternate school refuses to meet with the school counsellor. This aspect of the checklist is

therefore left without a rating as the collaboration time spent meeting with the psychologist

falls at a 0, which is not represented on the checklist.

She did not make many referrals this school year. The most significant referral was

made to the Mental Health professionals, Crisis Response Program. Referrals made to

Community Services and the Ministry of Children and Families were minimal.

The guidance counsellor is heavily involved in the curriculum aspect of program

development and delivery. All eight areas are rated between a 3 and a 4 with more

involvement in academic achievement, career choices, and course planning.

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Responsibility appears to be shared among specialty teachers, classroom teachers and

other workers in the school such as aides, counsellors, psychologists and administration.

Even the office staff play some significant role in the success of these students. The amount

of time the counsellor spends on professional development is minimal and rated at a 1. She

does the occasional presentation at conventions.

The survey results indicated that the guidance counsellor at the Alternate school is

playing a significant role in ensuring that the students are adequately served. Like any

program, there is room for growth and further development. One area that needs to be dealt

with is the issue that exists and is preventing collaboration between the school counsellor and

the school’s psychologist. The student should be the most important stakeholder and all

matters surrounding them should be rectified hastily. The need for more professional

development opportunities for teachers would also be another growth area. Many of the

outside services seem to have halted this year so hopefully as the pandemic subsides these

services will once again become fully functional.

Comparison of Alberta’s Guidance and Counselling Program with Children and

Confidentiality (CCPA) Standards of Practice, Nova Scotia and Northwest Territories

Alberta policy 1.6.3. Guidance and Counselling state that school boards should

employ professionally trained counsellors who have had successful teaching experience.

(Alberta Teachers’ Association, 2007) “Alberta Education has developed guidelines for

practice in cooperation with guidance and counselling specialists throughout the province.
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Guidelines are defined as statements providing direction for the establishment of quality

guidance and counselling programs based on local needs. These guidelines for practice are

designed to improve the quality of education, through access to excellent, comprehensive

school guidance and counselling programs, so that young people can lead fulfilling and

productive lives.” The comprehensive school guidance and counselling program address the

developmental needs of all students in three domains: career planning and development,

personal/social issues and educational planning. The four components of the comprehensive

approach are developmental guidance instruction, individual student planning, responsive

services and school/community support.

In Alberta counselling can be provided by teachers who are certified members of the

Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), social workers who are members of the Alberta

College of Social Workers or psychologists who are regulated members of the College of

Alberta Psychologists. (Comprehensive School Guidance and Counselling Programs and

Services, 1997)

The CCPA covers a wide range of dos and don'ts in counselling. These standards of

practise were developed by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association to

provide direction and guidelines to enable its members, and other counsellors and

psychotherapists in Canada, and counsellors-in-training, to conduct themselves in a

professional manner consistent with the CCPA Code of Ethics. In the case of children and

confidentiality, the CCPA standards of practice state that counsellors who work with children
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must protect the minor’s rights to privacy, while also respecting the parents or guardians right

to information. To ensure they stay within their rights the CCPA has outlined the guidelines

to follow. (p. 12-13). Counsellors are expected to maintain high standards of professional

competence by attending to their personal well-being, participating in continuing professional

education, and by supporting the development and delivery of continuing education within

the counselling profession. (p. 1).

In the Northwest Territories school counsellors are certified as regular teachers or

they are given a Letter of Teaching Authority if they do not have educational requirements

for a teaching certificate. School counsellors are employed by the school board to work in

most schools in the Northwest Territories. School counsellors must have successfully

completed an approved counsellor training program in the Territories, have a bachelor of

education degree with a specialty in guidance or have equivalent educational qualifications

approved by the registrar. This authority would end at the end of the school year. There is a

school counselling model that can be used to act as a template for use throughout a School

Counselling Program (SCP). It can be used for assessments and interventions of children,

youth and families, program and planning and program assessment. (Canadian Counselling

and Psychotherapy Association, 2012).

In Nova Scotia, there are very specific qualifications that a person must acquire in

order to serve in the capacity of a school counsellor. Guidance counsellors are expected to

have a valid Nova Scotia teacher’s Certificate, have two years of teaching experience in the
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field and have a Master of Education Degree in Counselling from an accredited university.

There are also very specific courses that must be included in the studies such as individual

counselling theory and techniques, group counselling theory and techniques, assessment or

testing, career theory and techniques, professional practice issues and ethics, university

faculty and on-site supervised school-based practicum.

As a licensed teacher in Nova Scotia, the guidance counsellor must adhere to the

Code of Ethics of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union. The guidance counsellor’s role is to

assist students, parents, teachers, and school administration by providing counselling,

consulting, coordinating and managing roles. The guidance counsellor is expected to possess

certain skills, knowledge and professional attitude to be able to competently function in this

capacity. (Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, 2012).

Conclusion

“Counselling is a human activity which attests to the willingness of one person to help

another in their psychological journey through life...The counsellor opens him or herself up to

an empathetic experience of the hopes, fears and doubts of the client.” (Palmer & McMohan,

2000). Counselling is a team effort. Whether between a counsellor and a student or among

several individuals working together for the common cause of ensuring the safety and success

of a student or students.
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The counsellor at the Alternative School plays several roles in the lives of her

students. She is their advocate and their voice of reason. When there is nowhere else to go,

they go to her. “Today the school counselling profession appears to be operating in large part,

from a comprehensive model in which the focus is on the positive development of all

students, in contrast to the historical practice of providing only career counselling, academic

advice and remediation for at-risk students.” (Alberta Education, 1997).

References

Alberta Education, (2020) Leadership Quality Standards

Alberta Education, (1997). Comprehensive School Guidance and Counselling Programs and

Services. Retrieved from

http://documents.sd76.ca/Administrative%20Procedures/Section%20700%20-

%20Educational%20Program/Exhibits/Comprehensive%20School%20Guidance

%20and%20Counselling%20Programs%20and%20Services.pdf
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Alberta Education, (2020-2021). ECS to Grade 12 Guide to Education. Retrieved from

https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/d119dba4-36cd-4e41-927b-b436fb2e75b1/resource/

c9d6fa96-fbd4-433e-b193-b4281184e276/download/edc-guide-to-education-2020-

2021.pdf

Baruch, G. (2001). Mental Health Services in School: The Challenge of Locating a

Psychotherapy Service for Troubled Adolescent Pupils in Mainstream and Special

Schools. Journal of Adolescence, 24(8), 549-70.

Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Regulation for School Counsellors by

Province. (2012)

“Guidance and Counselling, School.” Encyclopedia of Education. Retrieved July 14, 2021

from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/encyclopedias-

almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/guidance-and-counseling-school

Holcomb-McCoy, C. & Mitchell, N. (2005). “A Descriptive Study of Urban School

counselling Programs.” Professional School Counselling, 8(3), 203-08.

Millar G. W. & Paterson J. G., (2011). The Guidance Council of the Alberta Teachers’

Association. https://www.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/ata%20magazine/Volume

%2092/Number-1/Pages/The-Guidance-Council-of-the-ATA.aspx

Palmer, S., & McMohan, G. (Eds.). (1997). Handbook of counselling. Psychology

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Press.

Red Deer Public School Division, (2015). Support for Students.

http://www.rdpsd.ab.ca/Supports%20for%20Students.php