School Counselors - The Finest Contemporary Collaborators

“As this chapter points out, we believe that it is essential to collaborate with professionals from other areas of specialization.” (Chung, Bemak ,2012, p 196). It has been my professional experience that school counselors and the other professionals within a school are outstanding collaborators. I would be both happy and proud to invite any professional from the community to come and observe a team of school professionals collaborate.  I have attended countless I.E.P meetings, 504 meetings, SST meetings, and recently PBIS meetings.  The goal of all these meetings is to improve the educational experience of an individual student, a group of students or the climate of the school.  Perhaps these collaborations are so successful because all of the professionals involved care about the students more than money or power or because there is a protocol involved in the way the meeting is carried out.  I am not certain but they do work!

In an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) meeting, parents, teachers, administrators, school counselors, students, para-pros, social workers and school psychologists work to create the best plan for insuring a student is able to accommodate a curriculum and we create a process to level the playing field through a series of modifications and accommodations. Disagreements are allowed, discussions ensue and plans are made to create a working document which assist the student.  Each person on the team takes an active role both in participation and responsibility. Student support meetings are similar in nature, with a timekeeper, a note taker, dates for follow up and action plans. 

I don’t enjoy making DFCS reports, or the subsequent meeting/s but they are a part of a school counselor’s job.  Recently, I had a meeting with a student victim, our school social worker, the DFCS worker, my AP, our school resource officer and a detective from the sheriff’s department.  We each had an area of responsibility in this meeting and we all respected one another’s roles the result was getting my student the safety and support she required and needed.  “Incorporating social justice and human rights is a major shift that challenges contemporary practice and beliefs in counseling and psychology” (Chung, Bemak,2012, p 197). 

I agree there is a need for professionals to come together and create needed change.  There are groups of people in the United States that are marginalized and there are inequities and there is an imbalance of power.  School counselor’s jobs are one of constant teamwork, whether it be with another school counselor, a social worker, a teacher, parents or family’s and depending on the grade level with a student or a group of students.  Our jobs are one of the finest examples one may observe to learn about collaboration with other professionals. 

            Chung, R.C. & Bemak, F.P. (2012). Social justice counseling: The next steps beyond

                        multiculturalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.