Anti-LGBTQ+ school legislation has proliferated across the United States in recent years, with potential consequences for both students and school counselors. Florida's controversial 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act offers one such example. In this descriptive, phenomenological, qualitative study, we examined the experiences of 10 Florida…

Average American students are seldom aware of child and human rights principles and their impact globally and locally. School counselors are one logical group of school specialists skilled to facilitate school-based, rights-based (i.e., child and human rights) initiatives to promote students' awareness. Moving beyond their professional comfort…

This study used quantitative measures to explore child abuse reporting trends for early career school counselors and to examine factors influencing their decisions to report suspected child abuse. Thematic coding was used to analyze recommendations for additional training needs regarding child abuse reporting and for the challenges school…

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused myriad issues for early elementary students and their families. Those early in their educational careers, particularly pre-K-2 students, are especially vulnerable developmentally to abrupt disruptions. School counselors, in turn, are being called upon to respond to crises and provide trauma-informed care for these…

Despite efforts to reduce the occurrence of physical aggression in traditional school environments, some students persist in engaging in physical aggression and are assigned to alternative education programs as an alternative to expulsion. However, relatively little is known about the types of services that school counselors provide to help these…

Researchers analyzed data collected from elementary school students (N = 893) to further establish the psychometric soundness of the My Class Inventory--Short Form Revised (MCI-SFR). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted resulting in a good fit for a four-factor model, which corresponds to the instrument's four scales (Cohesion,…

The advent of virtual schools opens doors to opportunity for delivery of student services via the Internet. Through the use of structured interviews with four practicing Florida virtual school counselors, and a follow-up survey, the authors examined the experiences and reflections of school counselors who are employed full time in a statewide…

There has been a major paradigm shift in the professional expectations for the role of school counselors. The possibility that this shift is having a role in the hiring process for school counselors was studied. The research question was the identification of latent factors that are part of the decision process used by school administrators in…

Financial aid counselors are a primary source of information that many students rely upon to understand financial aid and how to pay for college. However, little is known about financial aid counselors at America's community colleges and their interactions with the students they serve. Using original survey data, this study examined the role these…

The purpose of the concurrent mixed methods study was to explore Minnesota principals' perceptive responses regarding the role and functions of Minnesota school counselors. A convenience sample of K-12 school principals was used for this study. Participant criteria was that each individual be a school principal in the state of Minnesota. School…

School counselors are called to be leaders to support the development of all students. The study in this article investigated the contributions of the values (Schwartz, 1992) and leadership practices (Posner & Kouzes, 1988) of 163 school counselors to their programmatic service delivery (Scarborough, 2005). Leadership practices made…

In the next decade, more than half of all new American jobs will require some postsecondary education, yet the current college attainment rate for the nation is 39 percent. The challenges appear well before students begin college: one in four public high school students fails to graduate on time, and of those who graduate, one-third need remedial…

While college enrollment rates have increased over the last 40 years, gaps still exist across groups. College enrollment rates are lower for high school graduates whose parents have not attended college, those with low-incomes, as well as Black and Latino/a students than for other high school graduates. One source of differences across groups in…

Research has shown that the support of school principals for counselors' roles is essential to the development, application, and maintenance of counseling programs, as well as to the success of these professionals and their programs (Brock & Ponec, 1998; Niebuhr, Niebuhr, & Cleveland, 1999). This study used a 140-item questionnaire to…

The practice of "inclusion" in the schools has created great change in the roles and tasks of counselors. Implications for counselors at different levels are explored. Counselors in Florida (N=569) were surveyed for their attitudes toward inclusion. Responses are discussed and presented. (EMK)