Why should I do it:
- IMPORTANT! You MUST get written consent & permission from the student’s legal guardian before proceeding with school counseling services
- Provides students with more one on one help, support, and intervention
- Increases specificity of interventions and supports and tailors them to the student
- Increases privacy for the student
- Removes the student from the situation or circumstance to discuss solutions to it
- Reduces anxiety and pressure on student
- Provides the student with the full attention of an adult
- Makes student feel secure
- Allows an adult to give a student undivided attention
- Frees the teacher up to continue teaching the rest of the class without having to stop to speak or counsel a student in the hall or away from the class
When should I do it:
- IMPORTANT! You MUST get written consent & permission from the student’s legal guardian before proceeding with school counseling services
- When students are over emotional and cannot calm down in an appropriate and brief amount of time
- When a student’s needs are greater than those the teacher can provide in the classroom setting
- When a student requires more support and attention to address or solve a problem, issues, etc.
- When students need more specific and individualized help, solutions, and plans to address issues
- When a student needs more privacy than a teacher can provide in the classroom
How do I do it:
- IMPORTANT! You MUST get written consent & permission from the student’s legal guardian before proceeding with school counseling services
- Counselor referrals may be planned or spontaneous
- For planned referrals, have the student set up a day or days and times to meet with the counselor ahead of time and provide the student with reminders
- For spontaneous referrals where an incident happens and the student unexpectedly requires counselor support, send the student down to the counselor with a note briefly explaining what happened, or send the student down and call and explain to the counselor the issue
- You may walk the student down or send another student to walk down with the student to the counselor
- The counselor may also come to the room to retrieve the student
- Be vigilant of students abusing counselor referrals as a means to avoid work or something else
- If you suspect students are abusing the intervention, create a card where they have to check off each time they see the counselor, limiting them to a certain number of visits per period, for example 3 visits a week or 1 visit a day, etc.
Resources & Support for technique:
(Items with footnotes link to external websites)
