TPC Journal V7, Issue 4 - FULL ISSUE

300 The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 4 chance to speak up for my profession, and by 2004, each school in our district had a clerical assistant. The assistant made it possible for me to conduct classroom guidance, provide more individual counseling sessions, and even host a career fair. I have been involved with graduate supervision for the University of Mississippi since 2000. Unfortunately, one common theme for the students who graduate as school counselors and go to work in Mississippi is that they are not able to practice counseling in the manner that they would prefer. Students specifically struggle with paperwork, secretarial duties, administrative duties, and testing responsibilities. The ASCA model for school counselors is not being followed in many schools. ASCA recommends that counselors spend 80% of their time in student-related services; these services include crisis intervention, classroom group guidance, and data interpretation and analysis as part of comprehensive guidance plans (ASCA, 2012). Throughout my career, advocacy for my work as a school counselor has been an important part of creating successful comprehensive guidance services. Working to have a positive relationship with the administration and keeping the lines of communication open are key factors in designing and carrying out a quality program in the school setting. Each week I send a lesson plan to my principal that details my weekly guidance. I include topics for classroom guidance, testing information, and group counseling sessions that I have scheduled on a weekly basis. This helps answer that question, “What is the counselor doing?” When counselors become overburdened with non–school counseling responsibilities, it is difficult to successfully implement a comprehensive guidance program. Proper communication with stakeholders such as principals, teachers, and parents can be highly beneficial to the work of school counselors. Hosting planning meetings with the principal, as well as the other important stakeholders, can be helpful in terms of executing a successful program. My principal appreciates getting a weekly lesson plan and has visited the classroom when I am conducting classroom guidance. I also have met with teachers to design an overall theme for the school year that structured my guidance lessons and field trips. I enjoyed a partnership with the music teacher and had the opportunity to sing to the veterans in the Mississippi State Veterans Home within my theme for the school year, “A Community of Helpers.” 3. In your view, what can be done, or needs to change, to address these challenges and barriers? Mississippi legislators have addressed the issue of changing policies within public education. In 2014, State Sen. Gray Tollison wrote a bill for school counselors to go into effect for the 2014–2015 school year. MS Code § 37-9-79 3 specifically states that counselors must graduate from a CACREP- accredited program and design a comprehensive guidance program utilizing data analysis (Mississippi School Counselor Law, 2014). It also requires that school counselors spend 80% of the school day in student-related services following ASCA’s model for school counseling. The fact that this bill has been passed is not widely known by school administrators or counselors, with the excuse of budget constraints as the rationale for why school counselors are not following the state bill as well as the ASCA National Model. Educating school officials about the state legislation regarding school counselor practice is a mission that I am passionately pursuing within my graduate studies and my public school setting. I am a member of the MCA, and there is an organized group within MCA that marched to the steps of the state capitol when decisions were being made regarding the funding and direction of Mississippi’s educational programs. I have made contact with Sen. Tollison, who wrote the law, to thank him and let him know that I am advocating for the law in my graduate studies and my school setting. My dissertation topic is a qualitative analysis of the work of school counselors in Mississippi and their alignment with the ASCA model.