The School Counselor and Discipline

ASCA Position

School counselors have specialized training and skills in promoting appropriate mindsets and behaviors for student success and preventing disruptive student behavior. School counselors are not disciplinarians; they collaborate with school personnel in developing individual and schoolwide support systems and programs that encourage positive student behavior where effective teaching and learning can take place.

The Rationale

Disruptive student behavior is one of the most serious, ongoing problems confronting school systems today (National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Schools are adopting proactive approaches by establishing, teaching and reinforcing a shared set of behavioral expectations for all students and are moving away from a one-size-fits-all discipline model in favor of a more data-informed, individualized and positive framework. Hence, school counselors can promote these best practices to foster long-term effective learning environments for each and every student (Lloyd et al., 2023). 
 
To effectively promote life-readiness and academic success for each and every student, school counselors must maintain a relationship with students that fosters wellness and success (ASCA, 2022). Therefore, school counselors should not be involved in administering discipline. It is especially crucial for schools to move away from punitive disciplinary practices, which conflict with current understanding of trauma and its impact on student well-being (Brown, 2025). School counselors understand the impact of trauma and how it might influence student behavior.
 
School counselors have the skills to be an impartial and resourceful consultant, mediator and student advocate. Furthermore, school counselors understand that disparities in disciplinary actions may occur that disproportionately affect students of color, male students and students with disabilities (Cruz et al., 2021) and can address these disparities through leadership, advocacy and collaboration promoting systemic change. 
 
School counselors have training in positive mental health development and prevention efforts for school discipline. Therefore, school counselors support students by understanding the motive behind their behaviors and are best positioned to serve as guides for discipline procedures (Fisher & Devlin, 2023). 

The School Counselor's Role

School counselors provide school counseling programs that promote life-readiness and academic success for each and every student. These programs promote positive student mindsets and behaviors, which create a safe, effective learning environment for each and every student and focus on positive, healthy behaviors. 
 
Within a multitiered system of supports, school counselors:

• Promote and lead wellness and prevention efforts to create safe, supportive school environments
• Provide instruction on topics contributing to safe classrooms 
• Lead individual and small-group counseling that encourages positive behavior choices and responsibility for self and actions
• Coordinate and facilitate programs beneficial for positive behaviors
• Participate in student return-to-school meetings to create plans for student support after a prolonged absence 
• Provide teacher support in the use of appropriate classroom management strategies
• Consult with families, teachers, administrators and other education partners to understand and promote developmentally appropriate student behavior
• Collaborate with teachers and other education partners to design and implement positive behavior and intervention support plans for individual students 
• Collaborate with school partners to develop, implement and maintain a developmentally appropriate schoolwide discipline program
• Serve as a mediator for student-to-student and student-to-staff conflicts
• Support practices that facilitate student well-being while accounting for family’s cultural perspectives
• Provide staff development on trauma-sensitive approaches to address student behavior, de-escalation practices and emotional regulation of students and adults (Brown, 2025; Fisher & Devlin, 2023)
• Remain informed of school, district and state policies related to student discipline
• Advocate for use of best practices for schoolwide discipline, including ensuring objective and equitable disciplinary practices that prevent implicit biases
• Understand system-level change in schools and may help inform schoolwide climate and culture that ultimately shapes the approach to discipline (Goodman-Scott & Ziomek-Daigle, 2021)

Summary

School counselors have specialized training and skills in promoting appropriate student behavior and preventing disruptive student behavior School counselors maintain positive relationships with students to promote life-readiness and student success. The school counselor is a significant contributor to the development of the prevention and intervention programs through which problem behaviors are managed and positive behaviors are nurtured.