Advocate for Appropriate Duties
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Author(s): Haley Wikoff, Ph.D.
March 1, 2024
As school counselors, we play a vital role in fostering students’ overall well-being, helping them overcome challenges and ensuring they have a positive and supportive school environment. There are times when school counselors are put into situations where they are asked to do things outside of their role and function. Using the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards for School Counselors to advocate for appropriate duties and ethical responsibilities can ensure we’re able to act according to our profession’s values, norms and beliefs.
I’m a new school counselor at a middle school. The school counselor before me had been in the position for about 20 years. She was well-liked and well-respected for the work she did in the building; however, she was assigned quite a few non-school-counseling tasks. In my graduate program, I was trained to develop a comprehensive school counseling program, and I want to advocate to remove some of these inappropriate duties from my plate. Are there any ethical responsibilities I can use to support my advocacy efforts?
It’s not unusual for school counselors to find themselves burdened with non-school-counseling duties that can distract them from their core responsibilities. Although it can be frustrating to have inappropriate duties assigned, it’s important to have a full understanding of the system and how those duties came to be assigned to the school counselor. Some of those duties can include lunch, recess and/or bus duties that may go beyond fair-share responsibilities. These types of tasks can divert school counselors’ attention away from direct student support and challenge their ability to build a comprehensive school counseling program.
As written in the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Stan-dards for School Counselors, “School counselors advocate for a school counseling program that is free of non-school-counseling assignments identified by ‘The Ï㽶ÊÓƵNational Model: A Framework for School Counseling.’”
To successfully advocate for the removal of non-school-counseling duties, gather evidence and use data to demonstrate how your delivery of research-based interventions can help close achievement, attainment, information, attendance, discipline, resource and opportunity gaps that might be affecting student success. Using the Ï㽶ÊÓƵNational Model annual calendar and use-of-time 5-day calculator templates, you can show how the non-school-counseling duties assigned to you take away opportunities to deliver a comprehensive school counseling program connected to school improvement goals.
School counselors are also responsible for collecting and analyzing participation, Mindsets & Behaviors and outcome data to determine if their interventions are working and to highlight the effectiveness of their program in achieving student outcome goals. By sharing both quantifiable and anecdotal data with key educational partners, you emphasize the positive impact you can have on students when you’re able to dedicate your time to school-counseling-related activities. In addition to the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards, you can use other Ï㽶ÊÓƵdocuments and resources, such as the Ï㽶ÊÓƵposition statements, to strengthen your position. Networking with other school counselors facing similar issues can provide additional insight and strategies to try.
Although non-school-counseling duties can distract us from direct service interventions with students, all school counselors will likely have some fair-share duties that are unavoidable and distributed among all staff, such as lunch, bus or recess duty. Be creative, and use those fair-share duties as a way to integrate yourself into other aspects of school life and build trust, rapport and relationships with students who might never enter the school counseling office. For example, if you must continue with lunch duty, use this opportunity to identify which students might be eating alone, and work to find ways to connect those students to the school community. Similarly, if recess duty is one of your responsibilities, help students use problem-solving skills when they encounter a disagreement over a game or activity. By using those fair-share duties as a way to connect with students in meaningful ways, we can continue to build relationships, enhance our holistic understanding of who our students are and work to contribute to students’ overall growth and success.
My administrator has asked me to transport minor students off campus, in my vehicle, to be questioned by local social workers at the request of a law enforcement agency. We weren’t told details about the questioning, and parent/guardian permission hasn’t been sought because this is an active investigation. Is it legal for me to transport these minor students without parent/guardian permission, and what are my ethical responsibilities in this situation?
In this scenario, like many others, school counselors find themselves at the crossroads of complying with the law and upholding their ethical standards. Finding a balance between legal obligations and ethical responsibilities while maintaining working relationships with parents/guardians is a delicate task. Your primary obligation is to the students, but we have to balance that with the right parents/guardians have to make decisions regarding their children. A request by administration to transport students from school without parent/guardian knowledge or permission puts the school counselor in a complex situation.
Although legal considerations are paramount in this case, we don’t want to overlook the ethical responsibilities at play. Our primary obligation is to ensure students are treated with dignity and respect through professional relationships that prioritize student well-being, safety and success. The potential emotional impact on the minors in this situation raises some important ethical questions. School counselors work to establish trusting relationships with students and their families, and transporting students to such an interview could certainly hurt those relationships. The Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards state that school counselors should, “avoid inappropriate roles and relationships” and “adhere to legal, ethical, district and school policies and guidelines regarding relationships with students.”
Although we know administrators have the power to assign duties to school counselors, collaborative relationships built on open communication are critical to the school counseling program’s overall success. This request puts the school counselor in a difficult situation, requiring the balance of legal and ethical responsibilities while also ensuring compliance with the administrator’s assigned tasks. You’ll need to assess the potential risks and benefits of complying with this request. Ultimately, students’ welfare must be your primary concern, and you must act to eliminate or reduce harm by using safeguards. Use the ethical decision-making model outlined in the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards to help process potential courses of action that would comply with legal obligations and ethical responsibilities.
You must be willing to engage in open and transparent conversation about your reservation to comply with this request and the ethical and legal responsibilities guiding your decision-making.
Given that this situation might be connected to an active investigation by law enforcement, legal authorities may have the right to set aside the need for parent/guardian permission to ensure the integrity of the inquiry. However, you should encourage administrators to consult with the school district’s legal counsel to understand the specific nuances of this circumstance and determine if school personnel are legally allowed to transport minors away from school grounds without parent/guardian permission.
Work with your administrator to identify school policy or state law that might speak to actions in such a situation. You could also provide alternative approaches that would prioritize the students’ safety and mental health, while also honoring your role and ethical responsibilities. For example, you might encourage the administrator and a school resource officer to transport the students to avoid compromising the counseling relationship, or allow the outside agencies to come into the school to interview the students, similar to what child protective services would do if there were a concern.
Navigating requests from administration to take on tasks that go against the profession’s ethical standards requires a careful and thoughtful approach. You must commit to using the ethical standards and an ethical decision-making process to navigate such complex situations, and seek consultation and supervision from other relevant professionals. Additionally, be clear about your legal obligations in such situations. A commitment to transparency and communication can serve as a guiding light through potentially murky waters.
Haley Wikoff, Ph.D., is co-chair of the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthics Committee and an assistant professor at Western Illinois University. If you have questions about school counseling ethics, email ethics@schoolcounselor.org.
I’m a new school counselor at a middle school. The school counselor before me had been in the position for about 20 years. She was well-liked and well-respected for the work she did in the building; however, she was assigned quite a few non-school-counseling tasks. In my graduate program, I was trained to develop a comprehensive school counseling program, and I want to advocate to remove some of these inappropriate duties from my plate. Are there any ethical responsibilities I can use to support my advocacy efforts?
It’s not unusual for school counselors to find themselves burdened with non-school-counseling duties that can distract them from their core responsibilities. Although it can be frustrating to have inappropriate duties assigned, it’s important to have a full understanding of the system and how those duties came to be assigned to the school counselor. Some of those duties can include lunch, recess and/or bus duties that may go beyond fair-share responsibilities. These types of tasks can divert school counselors’ attention away from direct student support and challenge their ability to build a comprehensive school counseling program.
As written in the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Stan-dards for School Counselors, “School counselors advocate for a school counseling program that is free of non-school-counseling assignments identified by ‘The Ï㽶ÊÓƵNational Model: A Framework for School Counseling.’”
To successfully advocate for the removal of non-school-counseling duties, gather evidence and use data to demonstrate how your delivery of research-based interventions can help close achievement, attainment, information, attendance, discipline, resource and opportunity gaps that might be affecting student success. Using the Ï㽶ÊÓƵNational Model annual calendar and use-of-time 5-day calculator templates, you can show how the non-school-counseling duties assigned to you take away opportunities to deliver a comprehensive school counseling program connected to school improvement goals.
School counselors are also responsible for collecting and analyzing participation, Mindsets & Behaviors and outcome data to determine if their interventions are working and to highlight the effectiveness of their program in achieving student outcome goals. By sharing both quantifiable and anecdotal data with key educational partners, you emphasize the positive impact you can have on students when you’re able to dedicate your time to school-counseling-related activities. In addition to the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards, you can use other Ï㽶ÊÓƵdocuments and resources, such as the Ï㽶ÊÓƵposition statements, to strengthen your position. Networking with other school counselors facing similar issues can provide additional insight and strategies to try.
Although non-school-counseling duties can distract us from direct service interventions with students, all school counselors will likely have some fair-share duties that are unavoidable and distributed among all staff, such as lunch, bus or recess duty. Be creative, and use those fair-share duties as a way to integrate yourself into other aspects of school life and build trust, rapport and relationships with students who might never enter the school counseling office. For example, if you must continue with lunch duty, use this opportunity to identify which students might be eating alone, and work to find ways to connect those students to the school community. Similarly, if recess duty is one of your responsibilities, help students use problem-solving skills when they encounter a disagreement over a game or activity. By using those fair-share duties as a way to connect with students in meaningful ways, we can continue to build relationships, enhance our holistic understanding of who our students are and work to contribute to students’ overall growth and success.
My administrator has asked me to transport minor students off campus, in my vehicle, to be questioned by local social workers at the request of a law enforcement agency. We weren’t told details about the questioning, and parent/guardian permission hasn’t been sought because this is an active investigation. Is it legal for me to transport these minor students without parent/guardian permission, and what are my ethical responsibilities in this situation?
In this scenario, like many others, school counselors find themselves at the crossroads of complying with the law and upholding their ethical standards. Finding a balance between legal obligations and ethical responsibilities while maintaining working relationships with parents/guardians is a delicate task. Your primary obligation is to the students, but we have to balance that with the right parents/guardians have to make decisions regarding their children. A request by administration to transport students from school without parent/guardian knowledge or permission puts the school counselor in a complex situation.
Although legal considerations are paramount in this case, we don’t want to overlook the ethical responsibilities at play. Our primary obligation is to ensure students are treated with dignity and respect through professional relationships that prioritize student well-being, safety and success. The potential emotional impact on the minors in this situation raises some important ethical questions. School counselors work to establish trusting relationships with students and their families, and transporting students to such an interview could certainly hurt those relationships. The Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards state that school counselors should, “avoid inappropriate roles and relationships” and “adhere to legal, ethical, district and school policies and guidelines regarding relationships with students.”
Although we know administrators have the power to assign duties to school counselors, collaborative relationships built on open communication are critical to the school counseling program’s overall success. This request puts the school counselor in a difficult situation, requiring the balance of legal and ethical responsibilities while also ensuring compliance with the administrator’s assigned tasks. You’ll need to assess the potential risks and benefits of complying with this request. Ultimately, students’ welfare must be your primary concern, and you must act to eliminate or reduce harm by using safeguards. Use the ethical decision-making model outlined in the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthical Standards to help process potential courses of action that would comply with legal obligations and ethical responsibilities.
You must be willing to engage in open and transparent conversation about your reservation to comply with this request and the ethical and legal responsibilities guiding your decision-making.
Given that this situation might be connected to an active investigation by law enforcement, legal authorities may have the right to set aside the need for parent/guardian permission to ensure the integrity of the inquiry. However, you should encourage administrators to consult with the school district’s legal counsel to understand the specific nuances of this circumstance and determine if school personnel are legally allowed to transport minors away from school grounds without parent/guardian permission.
Work with your administrator to identify school policy or state law that might speak to actions in such a situation. You could also provide alternative approaches that would prioritize the students’ safety and mental health, while also honoring your role and ethical responsibilities. For example, you might encourage the administrator and a school resource officer to transport the students to avoid compromising the counseling relationship, or allow the outside agencies to come into the school to interview the students, similar to what child protective services would do if there were a concern.
Navigating requests from administration to take on tasks that go against the profession’s ethical standards requires a careful and thoughtful approach. You must commit to using the ethical standards and an ethical decision-making process to navigate such complex situations, and seek consultation and supervision from other relevant professionals. Additionally, be clear about your legal obligations in such situations. A commitment to transparency and communication can serve as a guiding light through potentially murky waters.
Haley Wikoff, Ph.D., is co-chair of the Ï㽶ÊÓƵEthics Committee and an assistant professor at Western Illinois University. If you have questions about school counseling ethics, email ethics@schoolcounselor.org.