School Counselor's Role in the Social and Emotional Development of Students - School Counselor Pathway

Define and Deliver

We previously introduced the four components of the ASCA National Model, and established that these components help inform the approach and delivery of a school counseling program.

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The component Define encompasses a set of student standards that help foster the skills and attitudes students need to achieve academic success, college, and career readiness, and social/emotional development. This component also includes school counselor professional standards and competencies that serve as guiding principles, mindsets, and behaviors needed to support student development. The Deliver component describes the methods in which school counselors reach out to students to help meet student standards, such as direct and indirect service to students.

Direct Student Service	Indirect Student Service
Instruction  Appraisal and Advisement  Individual and Group Counseling	Consultation Collaboration  Referrals

School counselors are the primary resource for teachers, administrators, and parents about topics related to social-emotional development and mental health. School counselors support the social-emotional development of all students by providing a comprehensive and developmentally appropriate schoolwide curriculum based on Collaborative for Academic and Social-Emotional Learning (CASEL). The delivery of schoolwide curriculum-based instruction may vary by school size and grade level. Nonetheless, universal instruction on social-emotional development is often delivered by the school counselor or in collaboration with a teacher. School counselors also provide responsive services through a variety of methods, including individual short-term counseling, group counseling, and crisis response.

Click here Links to an external site. to learn more about the role of the school counselor in student mental health.