Educational Requirements: Master’s degree from a regionally accredited college in an approved program in elementary or secondary school counseling.
Required Coursework: A minimum of 39 credits of graduate course work in the areas of: Introduction to School Counseling & Theories (3 credits); Human Behavior and Child Development (3 credits); Ethical Issues in School Counseling (3 credits); College & Career Readiness K-12 (3 credits); Testing, Measurements, and Research in School Counseling (3 credits); The Counselor as Consultant (3 credits); Special Education Law & the School Counselor’s Role (3 credits); Group Counseling (3 credits); Individual Counseling Skills & Strategies (6 credits); Family Counseling (3 credits); Principles and Practices of a School Counseling Program (6 Credits).
Experience Requirements: (1) Clinical experience of 700 hours in an elementary or secondary setting; or clinical experience of 350 hours at each level for dual certification.
Examination: Praxis I : Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators – Reading (156), Writing (162) and Mathematics (150) within the first two years of employment unless granted an exception. Praxis II School Counseling: Praxis II #5421 Professional School Counselor (156) (Required Beginning 1/1/17)
Institution Recommendation Required?: Yes, must recommend for certification.
Certification:
(1) Elementary Grades 1-6, valid in middle level schools grades 5-8. or
(2) Secondary: Grades 9-12 and valid in middle level school grades 5-8.
1) Contact your local legislators. Send your local legislators a quick email or postcard. One idea is to send them a message of congratulations if they won last fall. Introduce yourself and tell them you are a school counselor in their district. Let them know what you do as a counselor, that you will be contacting them again, and that you hope to meet them at our "DSCA Day on the Hill" in January. The first step is all about building relationships. Here is the page to look up who the senators and representatives are for your district.
The correspondence does not have to be long. It is recommended that you keep the communication short and to the point.
It is recommended that you use a private email address for communication with legislators. This ensures that your correspondence and efforts are private and do not conflict with or represent the views of your school district.
Effective_Ways_to_Communicate_with_Legislators.pdf 2) Attend your local legislative forums. Become involved and be present! You will especially want to go to the meeting that has an Education focus. We will be sending out emails with information on where to find the meeting locations and times, but you can also ask to be notified in your email to your local legislators for the information about the forums. 3) Please use "School Counselor" instead of guidance counselor on ALL of your mailings, signs, and signatures. Please visit the link below for an explanation of this shift in terminology. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/home/WhoAreSchoolCounselors.pdf
