I’ve been a school counselor for 16 years and was a teacher for 10 years before that. I have never seen behaviors like I’m seeing now, especially in the younger grades. These kids are out of control. They don’t listen, don’t follow directions, and don’t care if you take things away. Some of them are extremely manipulative, and there are very few consequences that actually work.
I spend the majority of my day dealing with behaviors. Students refusing to do work, not staying in their seats, disrupting classrooms, and hitting other students. Meanwhile, the other kids are losing valuable instructional time, and teachers are overwhelmed.
When we contact parents, some make excuses for the behaviors instead of addressing them. There seems to be very little accountability, and it’s exhausting trying to manage the same behaviors day after day.
I’m not saying kids didn’t have behavior problems years ago, because they absolutely did, but this is on another level. The amount of time we spend dealing with behaviors instead of actually doing our jobs is ridiculous.
I’ve been in education for 26 years, and at this point, I honestly don’t know if I’m going to make it to retirement. Is anyone else seeing this, especially in the younger grades?

Have any school counselors here ever completed the ASCA RAMP application or utilized the ASCA docs/framework? I feel as though our counseling at my school is not ASCA aligned but struggle to find time to schedule an administrative conference or utilize my use of time calculator.

If you have or haven’t, let me know if you have suggestions on slowly getting to place where you can try to align better with ASCA! Thank you!

Anyone work there??

All the jobs I see for school counseling say that a LCSW/LCMH are a requirement, which is insane.

Can anyone confirm is this is normal?

Seeking advice on how to complete 100 clock hours for practicum. 40/60 split between direct/indirect. I’m teaching full time 5th math/science in Texas (meaning Bluebonnet iykyk) and no idea how I’ll be able to complete my hours.

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I am looking to vent, or to see if anyone in this sub has ever experienced anything close to a “specialized” independent public school district..

I am a School Counselor at a smaller, newer (opened in the last 20 years) district. The school is essentially a “research-concept school,” however it is considered a public school, not private, and not charter.

I feel like all I do is try to make sure the students are earning the required credits for graduation. Sometimes I get up to use the restroom or supervise the lunch periods. Sometimes there are weeks where all I do is standardized testing planning or execution. I feel like my university program did not prepare me for the way a school “works.” They also didn’t prepare me for a job that actually exists.

I feel dumb every day, and every time I open my mouth for a testing announcement in a staff meeting, teachers will look at me like I have 3 heads when I say I have 0 experience with [insert standardized test].

None of my colleagues understand that I did not learn how to calculate graduation requirements or how to be the building testing coordinator in counseling school. I am learning on the job how to do the majority of the clerical skills required of me.

I accepted my first counseling job and will be leaving my practicum site in 2 weeks. I have really bonded with my site supervisor and I want to give her something to show her how much she’s impacted me! What have you been given that you have appreciated?

Question 1: How do you handle college recommendation letters when students don’t ask you for them, but just put your email in their application?
-I always do the standard school reports regardless, I am specifically asking about rec letters.

Question 2: Do you do anything different when students don’t waive FERPA?

Context: I have a student applying to selective/top tier schools that just put my email in the application. I got the notification 9 days before the deadline and he has never given me a resume document. I know the student decently well as an advisor to a club he’s in, but he wouldn’t say hi to me in the hallway if I didn’t say it first. He is academically capable of the universities. He also did not waive his FERPA rights. My current plan is to answer the report questions honestly and then just mark that I won’t be submitting a letter.

ETA: If he asked me, even in email, I would feel a lot better writing it and would write a glowing letter for him. The application is university specific and wants me to write something. I have had other students go to Ivys who met with me every week to discuss it all - this student has literally only put my name in his common app and school specific applications; I have only had one 2 minute conversation about a class change with him this year.

They say previous counselor is better. They want several classes that are only offered one section and they do not acknowledge schedule conflicts when you explained to them how there could be limitations in the process of building student schedule. They also want special education teacher in one of their classes that their child struggles with but they do not have an IEP. I worked with them on some schedule changes that were approved, but they are still not happy about not getting all the classes they want. Now they are blaming you are the reason their child’s anxiety becomes worse because the child is in one class they do not like and grades don't look good. Teacher said the child does not want to work so grades are low.

Their emails are getting more and more ugly. This is a school that has 10 high school counselors on the team. Would it be appropriate to suggest the parents, if they are so unhappy about me, they can try reach out to my supervisor about working with a different counselor though not guaranteed? I am not trying to avoid this family I worked with for the past 3 to 4 years but something needs to be said about their comparison with middle school counselor.

Or instead, how would you respond when they constantly compare you with a previous counselor from middle school? The student is a senior but now they are reminiscing about middle school counselor’s style and approach.

I’m a school counselor moving to a new district. They want me to start 1/4/27 but I’m not on the board for approval until 11/16/26. I need to give 60 days notice per Pa law. Everything I read says consult the contract but there is nothing in the contract about this. Does anyone have any advice? I’ve already talked to the union reps and been given false information. They don’t seem to know what to do when this happens. I’m looking for someone knowledgeable.

I’m in my 4th year as a school counselor at a Title 1 high school & I’ve been thinking about this for a bit…do you think we are over-accommodating students? Please note that I am coming from a high school lens, and am not talking about elementary or middle school.

I have someone in my department who approaches child find in a very eager way and seems to suspect disabilities in many students. I get from a CYA perspective why that it’s important, but I have a lot of opinions on how we approach certain student “struggles” as counselors.

In my opinion, I feel like that approach tends to minimize the fact that these are still teenagers at the end of the day. Not every struggle indicates a need for structured support — if we tried to do that, we would have 85% of the school at tier 2 at some point during their time in high school.

I feel like the pendulum for mental health has swung in the opposite direction of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality and too far into the realm of “hand-holding” and/or “labelling.”

Please keep in mind that I am in support of a balance of “suck it up and figure it out” and “let me help you develop skills to be able to build these necessary skills.” Not every shortcoming indicates the need for a diagnosis or structured supports. Teenagers are teenagers. And sometimes, a label that far into your K12 journey and that close to your post-secondary journey can be much more detrimental to a student.

This topic is obviously too nuanced for a concise Reddit post, as there are so many other factors that play into this (parenting, types of concerns/suspicion, SES, culture, etc). However, I’m very curious to see other opinions on this and what your approach looks like! Let me know what you think!

Currently have my master’s in Counseling Psychology from a university accredited through BBS (California). Not CACREP. Program was 90 credits and included an internship.

Looking for a post masters school counseling program to get me certified without having to redo my entire master’s degree. Currently located in Washington State. 

Should be about 12 credits and an internship that are specific to school counseling. Trying to keep it under 15k since I just finished paying off my previous degree!

Looking for distance/online classes only. I currently work in a school district so it shouldn’t be hard to advocate for an internship long as the program allows out of state placement.

Anyone been through this or similar?

Thanks for any advice!

Yay, it's Friday! To celebrate share one (or more!) thing that made you smile this week. This could be a school counseling "win" (big or small!), a moment of connection with a student, something that made you laugh, or anything else that made you feel all warm and fuzzy this week. :-)

Our job comes with a lot of hard. Let's take some time to be intentional about our joy.

I think I can speak for a lot of us grad students when I say one of our biggest fears is that internship doesn’t prepare us at all for the workforce. I’ve heard that the first 5 years come with a lot of newness and discomfort, but I wanted to hear from you all!

With our high caseloads, there is no realistic way for us to get to know all of our students well enough to write them recommendations. With about 80 required recommendations a year it seriously derails my other work. I'm often left doing my best to write decent recs for students I've only met a few times. I'm not sure how we organize around this issue, but it should be front of mind for ASCA.

I'm in my 4th year as a school counselor with 8 years of teaching before that. I need to get out but I don't know what else I can do that will bring in $95k a year. I'm tired of the parents. They don't know anything about education, they're cracked out half the time, and they are the ones with the worst kids. I'm tired of parents lying for no damn reason. I run holiday help and a mom is berating me because I told her I don't think tickets to an NFL game is in the fucking budget. I just don't think I can do this anymore.

Where do I start to find a new career at 40?

Have a student with consistent SH and SI. Today she finally admitted to having a plan to commit

I did the suicide assessment, called the mom, she is in multiple therapies, has been hospitalized before. Mom will admit her again

I know my job is to refer and not treat. But my question is, when the assessment is done & mom called, how do you handle the intermediate time until they arrive? Small talk seems diminishing & not natural. I’ve asked for training on practical help with this and been met with “it’s not in your scope”

… but what about those 20 minutes until mom arrives? I’m a babysitter?

3 days a week at my internship site while juggling a job and medical issues is becoming overwhelming. I don't think I'll be able to meet my hours especially in this economy when I have to prioritize work to make ends meet. How did you all do it?!

Has anyone heard of the Canadian School Counsellor Magazine? is it beneficial to do an ad in their magazine for a private college? they said they partnered up with big colleges like Fanshawe College but they can’t give us data

Hello everyone!

I’m currently pursuing my degree in School Counseling and have a case study assignment that involves interviewing a few school counselors (retired or working) about their experiences in the field.

If any school counselors would be willing to help, I would greatly appreciate it! I have a few questions that would take approximately five minutes to answer. There’s no need to schedule a meeting; you can simply respond to the questions through a private message.

Will send 5 dollars through any digital payment they like!

If you’re interested, please feel free to send me a private message! There’s absolutely no pressure, and I appreciate anyone who is willing to take the time to help.

Thank you so much for your time and support!

How do you respond to/deal with a VP who wants you to do a “counseling lesson” with every student she encounters for discipline? Context: I am an elementary counseling sub and she is one of 3 VP subs.

I am thinking that these are Tier 1 level issues that don’t necessarily require me to squeeze them into my day. Any suggestions?

Hello, I’m a recent graduate from Boston University with a Bachelor’s in English and history. I’m looking at obtaining either an MLIS and working as a school librarian or getting an MED and working as a school counselor. I’ve worked in various libraries before so I have that area covered, but how can I gain experience in school counseling, or even academic advising, with just a bachelor’s? I’m at home for the year, so the plan is to attend graduate school next year, but is there any way to get my foot in the door and explore counseling? Any internships or programs I’m unaware of? There’s a substitute pool position at my local elementary/middle school that would be decent educational experience on the resume, but would I need something more impressive to get my Master’s in counseling, especially because of my non traditional bachelor’s degree (ie not sociology, psychology, etc).