School Guidance Counselor

Job Description

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS:
The school counselor works with individual students, small student groups, and in the classroom to enhance student changes for success both inside and outside the separate day-school setting. Providing proactive and intervening counseling services will ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve and reach their goals. The school counselor must have the ability and skill to work with students with emotional disabilities and other disabilities that affect their capacity to learn as their non-disabled peers.

The school counselor must possess in-depth knowledge of counseling theory and services, possess the ability to counsel individuals and small groups of students, have a working understanding of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) principles, and be able to apply ABA principles within a public separate day school setting. The school counselor will provide professional development to colleagues in the areas of trauma and social and emotional learning (SEL).

The school counselor will also engage parents through parent trainings in the areas of trauma and SEL in after-school evening sessions. The counselor must attend work regularly and is supervised by the assigned Re-ED principal or designee.

• Masters Degree in School Counseling.
• In possession of or eligible for Virginia Department of Education licensure with appropriate endorsement(s).
• Evidence of ability and skill to work with small student groups.
• Tuberculin skin test certifying that the individual is free of contagious tuberculosis.

This position reports to the location Principal.

• Work with individual and small student groups to enhance positive self-concept development.
• Engage students to motivate greater behavioral and academic success.
• Provide counseling to students to prevent them from dropping out of school.
• Engage students in individual and small groups to strengthen decision-making skills.
• In small student groups, provide conflict resolution techniques.
• Counsel students in coping with personal problems related to family, peers, and community environment in individual and small group sessions.
• Holds ongoing individual and small group sessions to address student trauma, Social-Emotional Learning, and Anti-Bullying/Harassment.
• Develop and provide professional development to staff on SEL curricula utilized by SECEP.
• Support case managers and other professional staff in the development of functional behavioral assessments (FBA) and/or behavioral intervention plans (BIP) through professional development activities and consultation on difficult student situations.
• Periodically sits in with teaching teams when discussing targeted students.
• Confers with parents regarding access to other community resources to address students' needs, mental and emotional health, as well as other family issues concerning trauma.
• Participates with crisis team and intervention services, as appropriate and as needed.
• Some work is completed outside of normal working hours to facilitate parent groups/training.

• Performs all other duties as directed.

• Data Utilization:
  Requires the ability to review, classify, categorize, prioritize, and/or analyze data and/or information.
• Human Interaction:
  Requires the ability to maintain a cordial and effective relationship with co-workers, visitors, and clients.
• Equipment, Machinery, Tools, and Materials Utilization:
  Requires the capacity to use equipment, devices, and/or materials used in performing essential functions.
• Verbal Aptitude:
  Requires the ability to utilize a wide variety of reference, descriptive, and/or advisory data and information.
• Mathematical Aptitude:
  Requires the ability to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; ability to calculate decimals and percentages; requires the ability to utilize principles of fractions and/or interpret graphs.
• Functional Reasoning:
  Requires the ability to exercise independent judgment to apply facts and principles for developing approaches and techniques to identify problem resolution.

Physical Ability:
Tasks may involve the regular and, at times, sustained performance of moderately physically demanding work, typically involving some combination of climbing and balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, and crawling and that may involve the lifting, carrying, pushing, and/or pulling of moderately heavy objects and materials. Tasks may involve extended periods at a keyboard or workstation.

Sensory Requirements:
Some tasks require visual perception and discrimination. Some tasks require oral communication ability.

SECEP will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities to allow them to perform the essential functions of the job when such individuals request an accommodation.

Performance on this job will be evaluated in accordance with the provisions of the Board's policy on the evaluation of personnel.