School counselors help identify and minimize roadblocks to student learning and promote student success by supporting academic, college/career, and life skill development.

Problems in and out of school can influence how students feel about themselves, behave, and function socially in school. These factors can affect learning. School counselors, certified professionals who hold Master's Degrees, help identify and minimize barriers to student learning and promote student success by supporting academic, college/career, and life skill development. Simply stated, school counselors help all students be more available for learning.
To prevent or remediate the effects that negative influences have on a student’s ability to learn, school counselors intervene directly or indirectly in three primary roles; Counselor, Consultant, and Teacher.

As a Counselor, school counselors directly help students learn the skills needed to cope with the many issues which can impede learning. Counseling, a helping process, provides students with a new way of perceiving and coping with a problem which results in improved cognition, affect, and behavior. Counseling is comprised of individual student planning and responsive services. Examples of individual student planning services include academic advising and scheduling; evaluating interests, abilities, and skills to set personal goals; career exploration and planning; study skills, and anger management. Examples of responsive services include grief group counseling, test anxiety, and crisis response - suicide risk assessment, safety planning, and threat assessment.

As a Consultant, school counselors indirectly help students by enhancing parent, teacher, and school administrator effectiveness in working with students and supporting their efforts to establish positive, structured, and safe environments. Consultation, a cooperative process, is a helping relationship where problem-solving and ownership is equally shared. At times, school counselors will encounter issues that are beyond the scope of their role and training. In such cases, school counselors can assist with a referral within the school to the school psychologist or the school licensed mental health professional or to a community agency.

As a Teacher, school counselors directly help students by evaluating a school and student data and designing and facilitating a comprehensive guidance curriculum addressing the developmental needs of all students. Examples of guidance lessons include; social skills, conflict resolution, coping skills, and bullying prevention.