What Does a School Counselor Do?

Have you ever wondered what does a school counselor do? Specifically an elementary school counselor? The myths or perception of what they did decades ago is probably not truly what your modern school counselor does in the school. I’ve worked as an elementary school counselor for 6 years now. (More like 7.5 years. I worked an internship for a whole school year and was a full-time substitute counselor for several months in addition to the 6 years since I started my first contract position).

My day never looks the same. Here is a sample of what an average week looks like for the elementary school counselor:

I start my mornings at 7:15am doing the morning duty I am assigned to for the day. All staff members have a morning duty that helps the school function (think breakfast duty, car riders, etc). Most days a parent or child needs to speak to me in the morning, especially after a weekend.

The three primary duties of a school counselor is entering the classroom for classroom guidance, running small groups, or seeing individual students. I will go into more detail soon about those three categories. On top of that, here are some other things I do during the day:

1. Student behavior- help assist admin or a teacher if a student is having a hard time emotionally in class.
2. Parent concerns about custody/review custody papers. This might depend on the county/school, but this defaulted to counselors for my area.
3. Talk to any court appointed advocate or DFCS about child welfare.
4. Connect parents to food pantries, social services of some type, clothing, outside therapists, etc. We work closely with a social worker who can help connect with resources.
5. Handle a 504 caseload as the 504 coordinator.
6. Field parent emails about student concerns.
7. Work with teachers about student concerns.
8. Run the Backpack Buddies program at our school.
9. Collect school supply donations.
10. Attend teacher/parent meetings.
11. Optional activities- clubs after school. I am involved in two clubs.

Classroom guidance- Once a month (maybe more depending on your school), I push into every classroom for 30 minute blocks. I teach social/emotional, career or academic lessons.

Small groups- Groups are focused on social skills/behavior improvement or grief/loss. Groups last at least 6 weeks, once a week. This year I have been hosting more lunch bunch groups so I can see more kids.

Individual sessions- Sometimes kids come to school or upset, or something happens during the school day that might impact them. I am here for them when they need to talk.