#NSCW17
What is it & why is it important to us?
National School Counseling Week 2017
School Counseling: Helping Students Realize Their Potential
What is NSCW?
Mrs. deQuevedo & Mrs. Valonis, pictured above, continue to advocate for their profession by educating their community and peers about their contributions to the educational development of their students. This week was not to "thank them" (though they did appreciate the kind gestures and recognition by their school community!), but rather to communicate the importance of having school counselors in our schools. Research continues to support our roles and profession when aligned with the ASCA National Model. Please take a moment to review the information below to learn more about their role!
Caseloads & Time with Students
Each day with students = 425 minutes (7:30-2:35PM)
- When you deduct 30 minutes for lunch, 30 minutes for prep time, 30 minutes for AM duty, SAP and Child Study time, we are already down to 299 minutes left to work with students.
723 enrolled students in LHS (7-12) = ~ 362 students per counselor
Assuming there was no other assignment, duty, or responsibility, that would = 49 seconds per child per day. This would mean, throughout the school year, each child would only have 147 minutes OR 2.45 hours with their counselor.
This is less than 4 times in the classroom & nothing else
If 1 student every day had an issue that required an hour of each counselor’s time, in addition to the time they already received with the counselor, this would reduce the time every other child had with their counselor to 39 seconds per child per day. If this occurs throughout the whole year, with just 1 student needing extra help for an hour a day, each child would only have 117 minutes OR 1.95 hours with their counselor.
We’ve had 333 students check in to see us, outside of our classroom lessons and pre-scheduled appointments, to date. This does NOT include teachers sending students to see us, parents asking us to see their students, students emailing us to see us, or those students who simply are in such a need they refuse to check in & require immediate attention. On average, these appointments last at least 1 class period or 43 minutes.
When writing this, it was only the 102 day of school. Which means, on average, we have at least 3 students checking in every day. If each of these check-ins last the 43 minutes as noted above, every other child in the building would only see their counselor for 28 seconds per day. If this trend continues, it would mean each child would only have 84 minutes OR 1.4 hours with their counselor each year.
These calculations are assuming that all 180 days are full days… which they’re not. We have half days, early dismissals, 2 hour delays.
We regularly participate in IEP and evaluation meetings. We’re assigned case managers for 504s; therefore, we write & hold meetings for students who don’t and do qualify for accommodations. We’re responsible for test administration, including, but not limited to: PSSAs, Keystones, PSATs, SATs, and AP. We’re responsible for scheduling, reviewing transcripts, monitoring students’ academic progress, and MORE!
We call parents. Parents call us. We email (a lot) and receive emails. Just this past month, Mrs. Valonis received 1,509 emails and sent 971. If she spends at least 3 minutes sending every email, she’d spend 49 hours only writing emails each month (not reading the ones she receives). If this occurs only during the school day (and this is while you have 3 kids checking in to see you a day) and we average that each month we have 20 school days, there is only 23 minutes left per day available to meet with 326 students on the caseload. This means each student on each counselor’s caseload will get 3.8 seconds per day. Throughout the course of the year, this would equal 11 minutes per year.
This means no classroom lessons
This leaves no time for crises
This means no parent meetings
This means no parent calls
- This leaves no time for all the above-mentioned responsibilities
Follow & Contact Us
Email: lhsguidance@lakelandsd.org
Website: http://lhs.lakelandsd.org/apps/pages/schoolcounseling
Phone: 570-254-9485
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lhscounselors/
Twitter: @MrsValonisLHS