School Counselors Matter
As part of a school support team, school counselors provide critical social-emotional and academic supports. Through a comprehensive school…
February 01, 2019 by EdTrust 
February 01, 2019 by EdTrust
School counselors are just one part — but an important part — of a system that ensures students have excellent educational experiences.
As part of a school support team, school counselors provide critical social-emotional and academic supports. Through a comprehensive school counseling program that promotes success and achievement for all students, school counselors can help set students on a path for postsecondary success.
In particular, students of color and students from low-income families benefit from having more access to school counselors. For example, Black students are more likely than their White peers to identify their school counselor as the person who had the most influence on their thinking about postsecondary education. And research links the student-to-school-counselor ratios that meet the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommendation in high-poverty schools to better academic outcomes for students, such as improved attendance, fewer disciplinary incidents, and higher graduation rates.
Simply put: There are not enough school counselors in the U.S.
The ASCA recommends that schools maintain a ratio of 250 students per school counselor, and that school counselors spend at least 80 percent of their time working directly with or indirectly for students.
- Across all schools, the average student-to-school-counselor ratio is 464 to 1.
What’s more, nearly 1 in 5 students — about 8 million children — do not have access to a counselor in their school at all, and nearly 3 million of those students do not even have access to other school support staff, such as school psychologists or
social workers. - Across high schools, the average student-to-school-counselor ratio is 311 students to 1.
Only 1 in 5 high school students is enrolled in a school where there is a sufficient amount of school counselors. This means
there are 11 million high school students who are enrolled in a school without enough school counselors.
Too often, school counselors are not available to students of color and students from low-income families.
Students of color and students from low-income families have been overlooked and underserved for far too long. If anything, they deserve more access to school counselors than their peers — not the same, and certainly not less. And yet, the schools serving the most students of color or the most students from low-income families are shortchanged when it comes to school counselors.
- Across all schools, 38 states are shortchanging either their students of color, students from low-income families, or both.
- Across high schools, a school counselor who serves predominantly students of color has to serve 34 more students every year than a school counselor who serves fewer students of color, and 27 states are shortchanging either their students of color, students from low-income families, or both.