MOST NON - PRIVATE ADVISORS DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING:

• conduct your research for you

• contact the colleges on your behalf

• review your financial aid paperwork

• organize any job shadowing or interviews

• provide access outside of school hours

• read all of your essays for content review

• provide detailed scholarship information

• inform about work and study exchanges

• determine how certain courses will transfer

• discuss testing other than SAT and ACT

• arrange campus visits for their students

• teach how to use government resources

For a listing of topics covered, please click Outline of Services.

STATE MANDATES

Each state legislature establishes the guidelines for the school districts it oversees. Guidance services fall under the auspices of the regional government as well. In Florida, the districts are required to have a written guidance plan, but they are NOT mandated to actually have counselors in the schools. To this end, one high school in Boca Raton became the first public school to stop using certified guidance staff. Responsibilities were shifted to the Dean of Students and teachers-on-assignment. The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) has documented this information at the following link: MANDATES BY STATE.

GUIDANCE DOMAINS AND DUTIES

School counseling programs are broken down into three national domains: Academic, Career, and Personal/Social. To get a nice overview of what counselors do, please open the following document and read through it: ASCA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. You will see that college advising isn't specifically mentioned, but counselors are kept more than busy with an array of duties. Page 3 of 4 provides more information about the three domains and the last page highlights many of the administrative challenges that are presented to the time and schedule of counselors.