Your first year as a school counselor can be intimidating. Having a plan in place can help reduce the overwhelm. Use this road map to navigate your first 30, 60, and 90 days as a school counselor. Download the checklist here so you can follow along!
This is a great way to assess the needs of your student population. Send a few questions out to teachers and staff to assess student needs and determine which topics to base your small groups and SEL class lessons around. You can use Google Forms to create a quick questionnaire. Check out my needs assessment template here.
Meet with your admin to discuss your expectations and role as the school counselor. Remember, it's never too early to start advocating for your position. You can even bring this 30, 60, 90 day plan to the meeting as a discussion guide. If you're able to contact the previous counselor, they can provide you with a wealth of information about previous students, programs they implemented, etc. Just be sure to take it with a grain of salt and get to know students yourself rather than judge them based on what the previous counselor shares.
You can play a fun game show like this one to make the content engaging.
If your school has a Back to School Night or Open House set up a table. You can explain the program, what preventative services you'll be offering, and introduce yourself to parents. This is a great way to share what the role of the school counselor is, further advocating for your position.If your school doesn't have one consider hosting your own!
You will determine which students to see based on referrals from teachers, parents, or possibly the students themselves! Check out the referral form I use here. You will need to clearly communicate how people can make referrals. You can have a digital form on your website or a paper based system.
Figure out if your school has a curriculum and what you're going to use to teach lessons. Determine how often you will be teaching lessons, which topics you'll cover, and when you will teach each topic.
This is the fun part! The work you do as a school counselor is so valuable and while decorating your school counseling office is definitely not a top priority, it is a fun, simple way to make students feel welcome and accepted.
Remember, you want to create a proactive and preventative comprehensive school counseling program.
So in addition to collecting parent, teacher, and student self-referrals, try the following methods when forming your caseload to ensure no one slips through the cracks.
You can organize all of this information using a caseload spreadsheet. See this post for an example.
I set up this system of teacher sign-ups and love it! I have used it at multiple schools for multiple years. Taking the time to do the legwork upfront helps you avoid the back and forth yo-yo and eliminate the logistical nightmare of trying to plan everything individually.
Tech Tools for Teacher Sign-Ups
The initial set-up for teacher sign-ups can be time-consuming, but it’s way better than feeling stressed and crunched for time throughout the year. Plus you are likely seeing less kids in August so it’s a good time to get your systems in place before referrals start coming in.
Determine how you will be collecting pre and post counseling services data so you can measure your program’s effectiveness and later advocate for your position. Read this post to see my favorite data collection methods.
Figure out which groups you plan on leading based on referrals you have received. Ask your school to purchase a curriculum, work with what you have, or create your own! Check out my small group curriculum here.
