This story originally appeared in the August 2024 edition of Town&Gown magazine.
Guidance counseling has evolved significantly from what older generations might remember from their time in school, according to Beth Burnham, school counselor at State College Area High School.
When Burnham was in high school, she says she might have seen her guidance counselor once or twice, and the conversation was largely one-sided: “go here” or “do this.”
Now, students regularly have sit-down, deep conversations with their school counselors about such varied topics as adjusting to a new school, mental health concerns, life and career planning, help with managing stress and social groups and academic concerns.
While students sometimes approach counselors with problems, that’s not always the case, Burnham says.
“There doesn’t have to be something wrong,” she says. “You don’t have to be upset to come into the office. There could be a question, or you could want to talk about your day, or applying to colleges, or filling out a job application. Those things can be fun and exciting.”
Stephanie Beaver, director of student services at State College Area School District, says that as the guidance counselor’s role has evolved, many schools have adopted the more general term of “school” counselor over “guidance” counselor.
“Years ago, when I was in school, the role of a guidance counselor was mainly to provide vocational support, but it has evolved into so much more,” Beaver says. “Schools are not just about academics; we have to look at the whole student. The school counselor provides those levels of support, looking at that social, emotional, academic and career focus of the student. They wear many hats.”
Public school counselors follow the American School Counselor Association’s code of ethics, which sets the preferred caseload ratio for each school counselor at 250 students.
“Anybody can provide advice on something, while school counselors follow a mission and a code of ethics,” Beaver says. “School counseling really encompasses all of the supports within the school.”
Mental health matters
Students’ mental health has been a priority across the board, area school counselors emphasize, particularly in the last few years.
“There has been an increased need to help those with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts,” Drew Bryan, school counselor at Bellefonte Area High School, says. “We don’t want our students to feel alone. There has been an increased need to help students build coping skills to combat the ups and downs of life. Student mental health is going to continue to be a primary focus for school counselors.”
In response to more widespread difficulties surrounding mental health, schools have gotten creative in how they help students thrive.
Several area schools now have onsite mental health clinicians, employed by the district. Students visiting the counseling office more regularly for mental health concerns can be referred to an onsite mental health counselor, according to several counselors, including Mike Laskowski, school counselor at Gray’s Woods Elementary School.
“Within our district and throughout all education, mental health is now a big piece of what we do every day,” says Laskowski, who has been with SCASD for eight years. “We didn’t used to have full-time mental health counselors at every school. These initiatives provide opportunities for students to access mental health services, which is a positive change, as accessing outside mental health counselors can be a concern for families. These are things I wasn’t seeing when my career first started.”
Laskowski explains that school psychologists, who are part of the overall school counseling team, typically have a different focus and job responsibility than that of a school counselor or mental health clinician. They have the qualifications to test for learning disabilities, for example.
Other schools, like Bellefonte Area High School, work closely with outside agencies for mental health services, facilitating telehealth appointments with counselors employed by CenClear or other private practice providers, Bryan explains.
“Students come to our guidance office for their telehealth appointment that they access on their school-issued Chromebook,” Bryan says. “The convenience and flexibility of having telehealth available to students is a game-changer as it takes the stress out of the logistics and transportation to appointments for the family and it allows students to not miss as much instruction in the classroom.”
Puppy therapy
One of the more popular support services among State High students is Lilly, a 14-year-old poodle mix whom her owner, Burnham, trained and certified as a therapy dog. Lilly joins Burnham at work most days and visits with students in the hallways and in the school counseling office.
“Honestly, it was the greatest thing,” Burnham says. “I stand out in the hallway between classes, and kids walk by and say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I needed! I just had a stressful chemistry test.’ Other kids just walk by and smile at her. My theory is that if you can make a high school kid smile at 8 a.m., you’re doing pretty good.”
Some students come in throughout the day just to ask to pet Lilly, or other guidance counselors will ask to bring the dog to student meetings.
Ultimately, the goal would be for teachers to sign Lilly out so they can have her in a classroom for students to visit with before a high-stakes exam, like the SAT or Keystone Exams, Burnham says.
One other therapy dog in the district, goldendoodle Lucy, helps students at Park Forest Middle School in the nurse’s office alongside her owner, school nurse Allison Snyder. But Burnham says other employees are interested in getting their own dogs certified as therapy dogs to increase the number of therapy dogs on school campuses.
“Every school should have a therapy dog,” Burnham says. “It really alleviates students’ anxiety. They just see her and feel better. … It’s that unconditional kind of love.”
Other initiatives, like State High’s Mental Health Matters days, bring awareness to mental health concerns and help equip students to handle them. The school regularly takes a few hours after midterms or end-of-quarter exams for students to do activities that promote mental health wellness.
These activities, like coloring, yoga, spending time in the gym, reading or taking time to themselves, allow students to practice coping methods in group settings which they can then utilize when they are alone and having a difficult time, Burnham says.
Data-driven services
Brooke Knight, school counselor for Bald Eagle Area High School, highlights a data-driven approach to serving the needs of her students.
Bald Eagle uses the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener to assess students who may be at risk for social, emotional or behavioral problems. Three times a year, students complete the screener by self-assessing how they are doing socially and emotionally. Their homeroom teachers then complete the screener at the same time, answering questions based on their observations of the students’ behaviors over time.
“There is so much benefit to it,” Knight says. “With the academic side of school counseling, it’s easy to track numbers and data. But on the social-emotional side, it’s been hard to track those things in the past. Screeners allow us to make data-driven and informed decisions and offer data-specific resources and supports to students.”
The screeners allow the counseling office to track individual students and prepare for the incoming class of students and what services they might need, Knight says.
Both Bellefonte and SCASD use similar universal screeners to proactively identify students who may need extra help.
“Having accurate data allows us to go back to that holistic approach, viewing all of the areas of development of students, not just seeing them as a transcript or a classroom grade,” Knight says.
Kayla Yearick, also a school counselor at Bald Eagle Area High School, highlights the growing need for good school counselors. Post-pandemic, she says, the number of applicants to school counseling jobs has decreased.
“When students are coming to us, the problems are the same [as before the pandemic] but are more widespread,” Yearick says. “You have days when you say, ‘This is why I do this’: When you reach a student, when you reach a family, when you’ve made a difference. Then you have days where you say, ‘This is tough, this is really hard.’” T&G
Mariah Lucas is a freelance reporter living in Bellefonte.
