Build Your Advocacy Confidence and Skills

School counselors are skilled at advocating for students. We advocate for our students daily by recognizing unfair or inconsistent discipline practices, personal circumstances that interfere with academic work or attendance, by helping students consider careers that may be non-traditional or previously thought out of reach, when abuse or neglect occurs in their home and for many other circumstances that may affect students reaching their full potential. Advocacy is a theme of the ASCA National Model (2012) and makes the point that “school counselors advocate for students’ academic, career, and personal/social development needs and work to ensure these needs are addressed throughout the K-12 school experience” (p. 4). Student advocacy is what we are trained to do best and comes easy for most school counselors.

What seems to be a greater challenge for school counselors is the macro-level advocacy that requires us to advocate for our school counseling program at the local, district, state and national levels. Although promoting the interest of others is easy, we find it more difficult to promote our interests, which is what advocating for the profession feels like at times. It feels selfish and self-serving, which goes against the values of most school counselors. However, advocating for the profession is equally as important as advocating for our students. In fact, when we advocate for the profession we are simultaneously advocating for our students because our students are better served when they have access to a comprehensive school counseling program.

The ASCA Ethical Standards call on us to advocate for the profession. According to our ethical standards, we advocate for “a school counseling program free of non-school-counseling assignments” (B.2.c), “for administrators to place in school counseling positions certified school counselors who are competent, qualified, and hold a master’s degree or higher in school counseling from an accredited program” (B.2.h), and for school counselors to advocate “for equitable school counseling programs policies and practices” (B.2.i).

It takes courage to speak up and speak out, but doing so is critically important. Start with a reminder that the purpose of advocacy efforts is to benefit students, not the counselor. When advocating to decrease non-counseling assignments like coordination of testing or 504 committees, partner with administration and help create solutions. Share data that demonstrates how students benefit from the school counseling program.

If you struggle with professional advocacy, there are ways to improve this skill. Start by attending a workshop or seeking professional development at a state conference, the ASCA National Conference, or try one of the many webinars on demand offered by ASCA. Find a mentor who advocates for the profession, talk to them, and ask them questions. Read professional peer-reviewed journal articles on the topic of professional advocacy. Get involved in ASCA, LSCA, LCA, or local associations. Check out many advocacy resources in addition to those offered by ASCA such as Chi Sigma Iota, ACA on effective advocacy and developing skills, NBCC, and the website of Dr. Russell Sabella of Florida Gulf Coast University.