Mental Health Counselor

EQA Schools - Mental Health Counselor

EQA serves students who have dropped out, been expelled from, or have struggled academically or behaviorally in traditional settings and are looking for an accelerated path to graduation. There are three high school campuses, The NET:
Central City which opened in 2011, The NET:
Gentilly which opened in 2017, and a third high school campus, NET:
East / New Orleans Accelerated High School (NOAH), which opened in 2020 as a merger with ReNEW Accelerated High School. Students at the high schools earn a high school diploma and participate in internships, career counseling, and career training in various fields including construction, medical, and digital media. EQA also serves middle school students through The Bridge Middle School, a therapeutic program for 7th and 8th grade struggling students.

For all settings, our goal is that our students leave school with the skills, confidence and experience necessary to succeed in the career and education path of their choice.

EQA Schools seeks a highly skilled counselor to provide individual and group counseling to its students and to provide leadership to the school’s trauma‑informed approach.

More than half of EQA School’s students have behavioral struggles. A large percentage of students suffer from PTSD or C‑PTSD due to exposure to high levels of neighborhood violence. In a city and state which lack appropriate mental health, crisis, and wrap‑around services, EQA Schools believes it has more responsibility than schools normally do for providing high quality mental health services to its students.

This position is designed to join a team consisting of a combination of full and part time individuals such as: school counselors, deans of students, family coordinators, attendance coordinators, psychologists, and Special Education personnel. EQA School’s culture is based on restorative approaches and all staff are selected for and trained in working with students with high levels of need and trauma.

• Assessing student needs
• Connecting students to resources
• Designing and providing interventions and counseling
• Managing crisis prevention and interventions
• Training, consulting with, and supporting staff
• Maintaining high levels program management and accountability
• Serving as a member of the School Based Level Committee
• Coordinating wrap around services with community service providers
• Supporting drop out intervention programs
• Constantly developing your craft

• Assessment
  • Select psycho‑social assessments that are informed by a knowledge of the impact of race, gender and social in justice on the family and youth
  • Complete psycho‑social assessments on every student every semester
  • Effectively and appropriately assess needs, characteristics, and interactions of students, families, staff, and community
  • Use DSM V and current research to accurately assess student needs
  • Conduct compliant and productive Functional Behavior Assessments
  • Maintain electronic and paper records of assessments and share with students, families, and staff as appropriate to insure empowerment and appropriate interventions and in keeping with confidentiality mandates
• Resources
  • Research and vet resources and build partnerships with high quality providers
  • Collaborate with team to insure all students are connected with appropriate referrals, supports and resources
  • Track referral outcomes and advocate for students and families to insure they receive appropriate care
  • Assists students in accessing formal and informal community resources
• Interventions & Counseling
  • Design effective intervention strategies for students, parents, and staff which lead students to be more successful in school including but not limited to students with IEPs, 504s, and BIPs
  • Serve on SBLC to review student needs and make decisions regarding interventions, placements, and supports
  • Manage caseload of short and long term cases, insuring all students have appropriate treatment plans and that all students make progress on those plans
  • Provide high quality individual counseling using cognitive behavioral therapy or other best practices
  • Design and provide high quality group…