Here are some tips for school counselors to keep in mind when dealing with administration and local boards of education:

• Focus on student results, not what counselors do.
• Data speak louder than words. Use charts and graphs to show results data.
• Build a booster club, better known as an advisory committee, that will speak on your behalf at board meetings.
• Use a student to speak on behalf of school counselors and follow that success story with numbers representing success with many students. For example, have a 19- or 20-year-old student address the board on how if it weren't for the school counselor that he/she would not be in college. Follow it up with a chart showing the percentage increase of students attending a four-year university over the last three years due in part to the efforts of the counselor.
• No matter what your administration proposes in cuts, it is the local school board that must approve them. The board needs to be lobbied, taken to lunch, etc. You, the community, elected the board members to represent you. Let them know what you want.
• Become politically active in community affairs.
• Frame the school counseling program as an investment in the students in that school. The board presentation is like an annual dividend meeting demonstrating the return on the investment in student results.

For additional information, check out this list of articles addressing the effectiveness of school counseling.