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October 7, 2024 26 mins

Ever feel like juggling the needs of special populations is pushing you to the brink? It doesn’t have to be that way! Join me, Steph Johnson, as we break down the often overwhelming world of school counseling and dive into real, evidence-based strategies for advocating for your students without burning out. We’ll talk about your ethical and legal responsibilities under ASCA standards, IDEA, and Section 504, and I’ll share ideas on how to lighten the load. Whether you're supporting students in special education, 504 plans, gifted programs, or English language learners, this episode will help you take care of your students and yourself.

00:00 Introduction: The Challenge of Serving Every Student

01:50 Understanding Special Populations

04:53 Ethical and Legal Responsibilities

08:12 Challenges Faced by School Counselors

14:51 Strategies for Effective Support

24:18 Conclusion and Encouragement

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Resources:

As mentioned in the episode, the resources list for this episode is too lengthy to post here. Email the show for a detailed list.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happens when you're asked to serve every
student in your school, butwithout enough time and
resources?
When we're talking aboutspecial populations, things like
special education, 504 students, gifted and talented, english
language learners, etc.
Etc.

(00:20):
It feels like the list ofschool counselor
responsibilities never ends.
But here is the big questionhow do you meet the needs of
every single one of thesestudents without burning out or
feeling overwhelmed?
We're going to talk about it inthis episode of the School for

(00:41):
School Counselors podcast.
Hey y'all, I'm Steph Johnson,host of the School for School
Counselors podcast.
Hey y'all, I'm Steph Johnson,host of the School for School
Counselors podcast.
So glad to be back with youthis week.
But before we jump into ourtopic, I wanted to share another
one of the amazing reviews thatwe received from our recent pod
party.
Now, you don't have to wait fora pod party to submit a review.

(01:03):
We love them, no matter thetime of year, especially if they
come with five shiny gold stars, and I'd love to share one with
you today.
This one is titled SC, and itdid come with five shiny stars,
and the review goes on to saythis this show gives me hope and
gives me a connection that Ididn't think I would need coming

(01:25):
in as a new school counselor.
I'm so grateful you are doingthis.
All school counselors shouldfeel connected in their roles
and this is the place to come.
Isn't that the sweetest reviewthat came from JDRDZ Soto, and
we appreciate your review morethan you know.
Thanks so much for taking yourtime to submit that.

(01:47):
It means the world to us Allright.
So back to our topic.
We are jumping into a bigchallenge that faces school
counselors and as we start toshift our focus from well-being
and professional identity.
Last month this we're going tobe talking about student special

(02:08):
populations and we know we havea mandate right to serve all
students on our campuses,regardless of their
classifications.
So we need to look today atsome of the roadblocks and some
of the specifics of each one ofthese pops and, most importantly
, talk about ways that we canrise to the challenge.

(02:30):
We're also going to talk aboutwhat to do if you're in a system
that's underfunded,understaffed and overwhelmed by
expectations.
Because you know and I knowyou're not the only one feeling
that way.
You know and I know you're notthe only one feeling that way I
will tell you this is one of mymost highly evidence-based
episodes that I think I've everdone 20 resources cited for this

(02:55):
episode.
At first count.
There may be one or two more orless I counted really quickly
but there is a ton of them hereand I'm honestly hoping that
they all fit in our show notes.
So if you don't see them alllisted, give us a shout.
Hello atschoolforschoolcounselorscom.
We'll be glad to connect youwith the information that you're
looking for, and I do want tomention also, before we get into

(03:20):
this, that this information isoffered with the caveat, and
that is that this is notsupposed to lead you into the
land of burnout.
As you're listening to some ofthese strategies, some of these
intentionalities, I want you togauge your resources, okay.
Estimate your bandwidth to seeif you have the ability to

(03:44):
pursue some of these things, andif you don't, that's okay.
Just like when we were talkinga few episodes back about being
a good enough school counselor,you need to know when the buck
stops and if you have way toomuch on your plate, don't add
more to it just because I'moffering some ideas about
special populations.

(04:04):
Keep them in mind, keep them inyour back pocket and when you
see the need on your campus oryou have a little bit of space
open up, then you'll know it'sthe right time to pursue those.
All right, so let's start atthe very basics here.
We know we have an ethicalresponsibility to provide

(04:25):
equitable services to allstudents in our school.
That includes and I'm primarilygoing to be focusing on special
education 504, bilingual andgifted and talented.
Now we know we have otherspecial student populations on
our campuses, but I think thiswill give us the variety to be

(04:46):
able to have a great discussionabout this while still being
able to get in-depth on it, ifthat makes sense.
Okay, so our ASCA ethicalstandards remind us that we have
to advocate for every student'saccess to a comprehensive
school counseling program tosupport their academic, career
and social-emotional development.

(05:07):
So this includes our specialeducation students and all the
other populations that we'vetalked about.
And our ethics also say that wemust advocate for the equitable
treatment of all students inall aspects of education.
That means we have to be awareof our responsibilities for

(05:27):
students.
We have to not only ensure thatthey receive counseling
services, but that they're beingequitably treated anywhere they
go on our school campuses.
That's a tall order, isn't it?
We're changing a lot of heartsand minds sometimes with this,
and it makes me sad that thateven has to happen, but that's
just the way it is.

(05:48):
Now, beyond our ethicalresponsibilities, we also have
some legal responsibilities.
There are federal laws at playhere that we need to be aware of
.
One of them is IDEA, theIndividuals with Disabilities
Education Act, and that comesinto play with special education
and IEPs or IndividualizedEducation Programs.

(06:10):
That's where we are planningappropriate interventions and
modifications to meet students'needs.
We also need to be aware ofSection 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Section 504 is where wecollaborate to make sure that
students with disabilitiesreceive accommodations in the

(06:32):
classroom.
We need to know about FAPE Free, appropriate Public Educations
through IDEA.
We need to be aware of theCivil Rights Act of 1964, which
not only prohibitsdiscrimination based on race,
color or national origin, butalso ensures that students with

(06:54):
limited English proficiency haveequal access to educational
programs.
So we have a role in addressinglanguage access for bilingual
students.
And then, as far as our giftedand talented students, you
likely have state guidelines aswell to ensure that gifted and

(07:15):
talented students receiveservices that appropriately
challenge them while alsoaddressing their social and
emotional development.
So we've got a lot going onalready right here, don't we?
And then, on top of all that,the ASCA national model calls on
us to be advocates for equityso that all students can benefit

(07:40):
from their educationalopportunities.
That means we need to be partof data-driven decision-making
to help find those achievementgaps and figure out what to do
to close them on our campuses.
So we have ethicalresponsibilities, we have legal
responsibilities and we also, inmy opinion, have a moral

(08:02):
responsibility to provideequitable services to all
students, including those inspecial populations.
Now, in doing this, we have somechallenges.
For sure.
There are four big ones that wehave.
One is time constraints.
When we're serving all students, when we're serving all
students, we have these ungodlyschool counselor to student

(08:27):
ratios.
It often feels like we don'thave enough time to look at our
special pops right.
With an average caseload of 464students to one school
counselor, according to ASCA, itmakes it difficult to feel like
we can really get in there andprovide the individualized

(08:48):
attention that these studentswith specific needs require.
It just feels overwhelming andlike how in the world am I going
to get to all that right?
When you add in all of thenon-counseling duties that we do
, all of the administrativetasks, clerical responsibilities
, scheduling, testing,coordination the list goes on

(09:10):
and on.
Then we further feel like we donot have time to really get
intentional with our specialpopulations.
The second big barrier we haveand we've kind of talked about
it already are these largecaseloads, and when we're
serving hundreds of studentsacross our campuses, we don't

(09:32):
have the time to workintensively with students that
have IEPs or 504s, even thoughthese students usually need some
more focused and personalizedinterventions.
Now, in many areas theseresponsibilities are cast off
onto another person a schoolpsychologist, an outside mental

(09:52):
health practitioner, someonelike that.
But the down and dirty realworld story is that those folks
often aren't available everyschool day for students to
access.
But guess what we are?
And so we have to beintentional in our approaches

(10:16):
for our special populations,even if we think it's not within
our purview, because it may bemore appropriate for us than we
even want to admit.
We tend to want to focus on ourTier 1 and Tier 2 interventions
, with classroom guidance,individual counseling,
consulting with parents andstaff.
Those kinds of activities andthose get harder and harder to

(10:36):
balance and achieve as ournumbers increase.
So if you have a lot ofstudents who are bilingual or
who come from low socioeconomicbackgrounds or who have IEPs.
You're going to feel like yourcandle is lit at both ends,
right.
And then, beyond the time andthe numbers of students that

(10:58):
we're serving, we also have aneed for specialized knowledge.
Parusi, goodnow and Noel, in2004, found that school
counselors often feel unpreparedto address the unique
challenges of specialpopulations.
Because we need specializedknowledge about disabilities,

(11:21):
cultural competence, howstudents acquire language, what
gifted education should reallylook like.
Language, what gifted educationshould really look like.
For example, if you're workingwith students in special
education, you have tounderstand what IDEA mandates or
how accommodations work under504.
Bilingual students may needmore language and cultural

(11:44):
support.
You may not have sufficienttraining in ESL or
cross-cultural counseling right,maybe you've never had the
opportunity to develop those.
Hanson Baca and McClure, 2012,found that school counselors
might not have sufficienttraining in English as a second
language instruction orcross-cultural counseling to be

(12:09):
able to effectively servebilingual students.
So it gets messy, right, it getscomplicated and there are all
of these skill sets that come inplay as we seek to serve
special populations on ourcampus and then beyond.
Even all of that is findingtime to coordinate with other

(12:31):
professionals like specialeducation teachers, speech
language pathologists, bilingualteachers, social workers,
outside mental health supportsthese folks are essential in
supporting our students inspecial populations.
In supporting our students inspecial populations Most
especially, I think, if studentshave IEPs or 504 plans, we may

(12:54):
need to coordinate servicesacross a lot of folks.
But that's hard because we havescheduling conflicts.
Sometimes it's difficult tocommunicate.
Communicating by email isoverrated in my opinion, and
there's a lot of room formisunderstandings, for dropping

(13:14):
the ball.
But then, too, we have toconsider what Brian and Griffin
2010 called differingprofessional priorities, meaning
that, for example, specialeducation teachers would be
focused on the academicaccommodations that a student
needed, while school counselorsare looking at the social,

(13:34):
emotional well-being of thestudent.
So when we have all thesedifferent focuses going on at
the same time, it requires someskill, some time and some
intentionality to coordinate allof these facets of education
that we really honestly feellike we don't have.
And then Bauman and team 2004found that language barriers and

(13:59):
cultural misunderstandings canreally harm collaboration when
we're working with bilingualstudents and their families.
So then we have to startserving as the mediators between
families and the school to makesure that everybody feels like
they're being seen and heard.
And we're adding this on top ofan already full workload of all

(14:22):
of our national modelexpectations, all of our extra
duties, all of the jobresponsibilities we can and
should have.
It just becomes overwhelming.
So what do we do then if we feellike we're unable to meet all
of these needs?
What do we do?
How do we address the needs ofour student special populations

(14:45):
without feeling like we are justbeing buried alive?
Well, research says there aresome things that we should be
looking toward if we want to beeffective.
Number one is building a teamapproach.
One of the most effective waysthat we can meet the needs of

(15:05):
our special populations isconsidering them through a
collaborative team approachwhere everyone gets around the
table and shares theresponsibilities of the
situation and shares theirexpertise.
If we can come together inthese kinds of teams, bryan 2005

(15:26):
says that we can ensure thateach student receives
comprehensive andwell-coordinated services.
Teams like your student supportteams can review students to
look at interventions, look atstudent data and problem solve
together.
When you do that, you've got tomake sure that all relevant

(15:49):
people are there.
So if a student with a 504 planis struggling, even though they
have classroom accommodations,we can work with the teacher and
the administrators to considersome new strategies.
If we're working with bilingualstudents, we need to make sure
that our ESL or bilingual staffare at the table and that we

(16:11):
have other people there who arecultural experts to help us
address language and culturalneeds, and we need to have teams
that can maintain opencommunication.
This is a tall order, y'all, Iam not going to lie, and I think
it's one that is often not donewell in schools.

(16:32):
Ssts or student support teams,whatever you might call yours on
your campus they're all oftensubpar, they don't follow up.
It's kind of a one and donemeeting and then we hand them
off to somebody else becausethey're time consuming, they
require lots of work and theyrequire someone to coordinate

(16:52):
them, which we know is not anappropriate role for us.
But on the flip side of that, Ican tell you I have seen
firsthand the rewards of awell-run consultative campus and
I can attest to the tremendouseffects that are gained from a
very methodical and intentionalapproach with students.

(17:15):
Two, I will say so many times,when we go to the table for
something like a student supportteam, we assume that we already
know what the problem is, andso we only invite the people
that we think we need to inviteinstead of inviting all the
perspectives.
And while that seems efficientand like it's streamlining, it's

(17:36):
actually not.
I was privileged to serve on arural campus that was very, very
strong, with their studentsupport team, and it was time
consuming and we did meet a lot,but the upside to that was we
were giving students amazinglevels of customized supports

(17:59):
and one of the greateststrengths of that team was that
all areas of expertise were atthe table and I cannot count how
many times we'd be indiscussion about a student and
all of a sudden someone from theother side of the table would
kind of say hey, hold on, wait aminute, I've got a thought.
I think we might be headed downthe wrong road, and they would

(18:21):
offer their professionalexpertise and instantly we all
had a whole new take on theproblem, which ended up being
right on target.
Had we not had all thoseperspectives around the table,
we would have missed it and wewould have wasted time trying to
provide some sort ofaccommodations or interventions

(18:41):
for the student that they reallydidn't need because we weren't
addressing the root of theproblem.
That's the beauty of thesewonderful consultative and
collaborative teams.
Second, to meet our students'special population needs, we
need to leverage our communityresources.
We don't have to do everything,we don't have to provide all

(19:04):
the services, we don't have toprovide all the interventions.
Sometimes we can connect kidswith community organizations for
additional support.
If we have students who haveemotional disturbances or mental
health concerns, let's connectthem to local mental health
agencies for additionalcounseling services.

(19:25):
That doesn't mean that ifthey're written into the
student's IEP, that we don'thave to provide them anymore,
but it does mean the likelihoodof those counseling services
being long-term and intensivelessens because of the outside
supports.
In addition, think aboutnon-profit organizations,

(19:45):
community-based culturalorganizations and advocacy
groups that can benefit studentsby connecting them with
resources, with translationservices, sometimes even legal
support if they have languagebarriers or immigration concerns
.
We are in a unique positionwhere we can serve as liaisons

(20:06):
between those organizations andour students and families so
that they can get the wraparoundsupports that they need.
That, too, makes me think aboutthings like health clinics,
social workers, housing servicesright, because often our
special population students facesignificant socioeconomic

(20:27):
barriers, and so the more thatwe can do to lessen those
barriers, the more supportthey're going to receive.
And third, if you feel like youdon't have the time or resources
to meet the needs of all ofyour special population students
, we might need to look atadvocating with our
administration through datacollecting and analyzing data on

(20:51):
academic performance,attendance, behavior of specific
populations, for our studentswith disabilities, for our
bilingual students, et cetera,and so on, to show who's
struggling, what areas are theystruggling in and what kind of
interventions might be required.
And I'm going to challenge youhere and say how long has it

(21:14):
been since you pulled specialpops data for your campus?
If you ever have, how long hasit been?
Really, be honest with yourself.
Do you know how academicscompare among your sub pops?
Do you know how behaviorcompares when about discipline
or graduation rates?

(21:35):
These are things that we needto be looking at in our school
counseling programming.
Right, and then, last, I thinkthis is just sort of an ethical
imperative we need to pursueprofessional development
opportunities that are based onspecific populations.
We need to be learning andgrowing with respect to students

(21:56):
with disabilities, for we needto develop cultural competency
regarding the students that arepresent on our campuses.
We need to understand IEPimplementation.
What are the timelines, whatare the mandates, how do we
write goals and how do we knowif we've reached them or not?
And we need to be well-versedin trauma-informed counseling.

(22:21):
Peruzzi and team 2004 found thatprofessional development in
areas such as culturallyresponsive counseling and
special education law increasedschool counselors' ability to
advocate effectively and providerelevant interventions.
And you can also improve yourknowledge by engaging in peer

(22:43):
collaboration and mentorshipwith professionals who have
specialized knowledge in workingwith special pops, just like
our School for School CounselorsMastermind.
You hear me talk about it everyweek, but when you get in a
room with people who actually dothat work, they have similar
students to yours, they've beenthere, they get it.

(23:05):
It's a whole new understandingthat you begin to develop and
cultivate with regard to yourwork.
So y'all, meeting all of theseneeds, when we consider all the
special populations on ourcampuses, can be completely
overwhelming.
But if we think through thesestrategies, I think they're

(23:28):
gonna be able to help us takesome practical steps toward
better serving our studentsbuilding a team approach,
leveraging our communityresources, advocating for equity
among our students and engagingin professional development to
get the specialized knowledgethat we need.

(23:50):
Once we do that, we're going tosee benefits not only for our
students in the form of improvedacademic performance and better
social-emotional outcomes, butalso school-wide, we're going to
see a more positive schoolclimate.
We're going to see improvedstudent achievement and reduced

(24:10):
disciplinary issues and who doesnot want that?
I think that's all what we areaiming for.
Y'all, this episode is not acall to do all the things.
I know that you may be workingat capacity already just to get
the basics done, and even thenyou may be feeling like you're

(24:30):
falling short.
This episode really is anattempt to get you to think
about how some things could beshifted, maybe approached
differently or looked at with abroader mindset, to make sure
that we're meeting all studentneeds effectively.
Because, let's face it, servingall students on our campus

(24:53):
isn't just a goal, it's amandate.
The good news is, we've justtalked through some strategies
to help you begin addressingthose needs, but y'all, that's
just the tip of the iceberg.
So, again, if you want to learnmore about this, if you want to
learn about resources,opportunities for growth and
learning, or just engage in someconsultation, our School for

(25:16):
School Counselors Mastermind isat the ready and you can find
out more about it atschoolforschoolcounselorscom
slash mastermind.
Schoolforschoolcounselorscomslash mastermind.
All right.
Remember you make a differenceeach and every day.
Even when it feels like youdon't, you do so.
Take care of yourself too.

(25:38):
Don't feel like you have tojump into all these things at
once.
These are just ideas to keep inyour back pocket for when the
time is right, y'all.
I'll be back soon with anotherepisode of the School for School
Counselors podcast, so keeplistening, but in the meantime,
I hope you have the best week,keep being awesome and take care

(26:00):
.
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