Speaking Up for School Counselors

On January 27, Teresa Majerus from Lewistown and I had the privilege of speaking on behalf of school counselors across the state at the MUS Two-year Commission in Helena on the role of school counselors in helping students navigate career and college pathways. The commission was particularly interested in what is happening in middle and high school settings. Since the commission members are professionals and lawmakers who may not have been familiar with the contemporary role of the school counselor, we started off sharing that school counselors are trained in providing counseling in academics, social/emotional counseling and college and career readiness. (In photo: Ellen and Theresa at the capitol.)

The commission asked many questions about what school counselors specifically do related to college/career readiness, as some policy makers expressed concern that school counselors are not doing enough in this area. In response to this, we shared that school counselors play a major role in helping students navigate college/career pathways through interventions that happen at all three MTSS tiers and through partnering with community and industry leaders.

The commission was also very interested in educating and steering students to the two-year schools. Commission members were not fully aware of the time, effort, expertise and knowledge that school counselors put into guiding students in their education.  Although it was clear that there is still work to be done educating others about the work of school counselors, one of the big successes of the day was that the committee plans to continue the discussion around topics such as decreasing the student-to-school-counselor ratio in the state and balancing the responsibilities put upon school counselors.

Another success was that we were able to change the perception some policy makers had of school counselors. One of the commissioners said that they had originally thought that school counselors were “dropping the ball,” but now thought that Montana students were very lucky to have such hardworking and dedicated school counselors.

Our advocacy efforts will continue in March when we meet with the Education Interim Committee to discuss mental health in schools and career/college readiness and the counselor's role. Please fill out this short advocacy survey on mental health. We will use the responses to inform our discussion with the Education Interim Committee. 

Ellen Ryter is the Advocacy Committee chair on the MSCA Board of Directors.