Job Outlook for School Counselors
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has projected an almost 8 percent growth rate in employment for school counselors.
The average salary for school counselors throughout the U.S. is $56,490 per year, but this pay rate varies considerably from state to state and from city to city. New Jersey is the best paying state and has the best paying city, with counselors statewide earning an average of $72,140 and counselors in Trenton earning an average of $90,090 per year.
Why School Counselors Are in High Demand
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends that schools have one counselor for every 250 students. A low counselor-to-student ratio is associated with a greater knowledge of options for postsecondary education and higher rates of college enrollment.
Students attending schools with a low counselor-to-student ratio are also more likely to take ACT or SAT exams. Approximately 70 percent of students at schools with lower ratios are taking either the ACT or the SAT, whereas only 59 percent of students at higher ratio schools are taking the same exams.
Counseling Mandates Across the U.S.
Counseling mandates can vary considerably from state to state. Over half of all U.S. states do not require counselors in schools for grades K–12. However, more and more states are beginning to understand how essential counseling can be and how it can positively impact students’ lives. At this time, 23 states require schools with students in grades K–8 and 9–12 to have counselors.
Five Examples of States that Recognize How Counseling Can Positively Impact Students’ Lives
- Tennessee
Tennessee has established a standards bill and framework for the requirements that school counselors must abide by when working with students from grades K–12. The state has a mandated ratio of one counselor for every 500 students in grades K–6 and a ratio of one counselor for every 350 students in grades 7–12. Approximately 70 percent of associated funding is provided by the state, and 30 percent is provided locally.
- Georgia
Georgia has a ratio of one counselor for every 450 students in grades K–12. Funding is provided at the state level and supplemented locally. Funds allocated by the state are dispersed based on full-time employees.
Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) line up with the standards of the ASCA for all levels of schooling, including elementary, junior high and high school. Dubbed “crosswalking,” this alignment is a replacement of standards that allows counselors to act as both a counselor and an educator “in an effort to meet the mental health and educational needs of all students.”
- South Carolina
South Carolina has a counselor-to-student ratio of 1:800 in grades K–5 and 1:300 in grades 6–12, with funding provided by the state. Certified counselors and certified career specialists both are included in mandated school-counselor ratios. However, counselors only can provide guidance and counseling. Current legislation does not allow counselors to perform administrative duties.
South Carolina designed its model to aid counselor-educators-in-training and to develop future school counselors. The three central student development points of South Carolina’s model are learning to live, learning to learn and learning to work, which teach students to balance their personal, social, academic and professional lives.
- Virginia
Virginia has mandated how counselor resource time is allocated based on the number of students in each respective school. Elementary schools require one-full time counselor for every 500 students in each school, middle schools require one counselor for every 400 students and high schools require one counselor for every 350 students.
Funding is provided by the state through legislative action. The Standard for School Counseling Programs in Virginia takes students’ academic, career, personal and social development into account at each grade level in a progressive manner.
- Maine
With a 1:350 counselor-to-student ratio for grades K–8 and a 1:250 ratio for grades 9–12, Maine has the lowest mandated ratio of any state. Funding is provided to each local district at the state level.
Effective Characteristics and Traits of Successful School Counselors
In order to be effective, counselors must possess unique characteristics and personality traits to guide, mentor and develop students at all levels of schooling.
Listening is the most essential characteristic that a school counselor can have. Counselors must understand that listening involves feeling, seeing, hearing and expressing. It also is important to avoid voicing any assumptions about a student’s feelings or responses.
Empathy helps a counselor understand the intensity of a student’s experience; the context of a student’s verbal and non-verbal behavior; and the importance of responding intentionally to a student’s behaviors, experiences or feelings.
Building a therapeutic alliance between counselors and students involves coming to a consensus regarding goals, collaborating on counseling-related tasks and emotional bonding.
School counselors engage in social justice advocacy and act as social change agents to remove educational inequalities and increase access in order to improve educational outcomes for all students. School counselors know that they must understand their own strengths, weaknesses, perspectives and biases to avoid diminishing their professional effectiveness.
Recommended Readings
How Counselors Can Achieve Work-life Balance
How Professional Counselors Can Help Address The Opioid Crisis
Bradley University Online Master’s in Counseling
Although ASCA recommends a 250-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors, the national average is actually 415-to-1 for the 2020–2021 school year (the most recent year for which data is available). See how the individual states stack up:
Why does ASCA recommend a ration of 250 students per school counselor?
Since 1965, ASCA has recommended a student-to-school counselor ratio of 250:1. Although this ratio may be optimal, grade level and socioeconomic factors require close consideration. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, the 2019–2020 national student-to-school-counselor ratio was 424:1. National ratios are higher in elementary schools and lower in high schools, based on estimates using the NCES data. However, because some states do not designate school counselors by grade level, average ratios can only be calculated in ranges: The national average for grades K-8 ranges from 419:1 to 1,135:1. The national average for grades 9-12 ranges from 164:1 to 347:1. (National Center for Education Statistics, //nces.ed.gov/ccd/elsi/)
Research dating to the 1950s indicates the school counseling role was much broader and much more clerical during that time. Analyzing the role of the school counselor, Hoyt (1955) determined that school counselors typically spent more than 55% of their time in counseling and group activities with students. The remaining 45% was spent working with teachers, conducting local research and performing clerical tasks. Based on his assessment, Hoyt concluded that school counselors should have no more than 400 pupils in their caseload. As the role of the school counselor became clarified further, ASCA adopted 250:1 as the optimal ratio, which reflects the goal that school counselors spend 80% of their time in direct and indirect student services.
Several studies have noted that smaller ratios support increases in standardized test performance (Parzych et al., 2019), attendance (Carey et al., 2012), GPA (Goodman-Scott et al., 2018) and graduation rates (Lapan & Gysbers, 2012), as well as decreased disciplinary infractions (Carrell & Carrell, 2006; Lapan et al., 2012). Additional studies have shown that lower ratios also increase the likelihood of students having conversations with school counselors regarding college-going and postsecondary plans (Bryan et al., 2009; Danos, 2017; Engberg & Gilbert, 2014; Hurwitz & Howell, 2013; Woods & Domina, 2014; Lapan et al. 2019). Further, in an ASCA-grant-funded meta-analysis of student-to-school-counselor ratio outcome studies, Kearney et al. (2021) found that a one standard deviation change in the ratio is likely to result in a 6% standard deviation in student outcomes, especially in terms of improving attendance, decreasing disciplinary infractions, and increasing high school graduation.
How have the student-to-school-counselor ratios changed over time?
While the national student-to-school counselor ratio has decreased, on average, by 1% per academic school year since the 1987–1988 school year, the national ratio remains well above the ASCA recommended ratio of 250:1 at 424:1 (2019–2020 data). For the 2019–2020 school year, only New Hampshire (214:1), Vermont (201:1) and the U.S. Virgin Islands (168:1) reported ratios within the recommendation. One quarter (25%) of respondents to the ASCA State of the Profession 2020 survey reported their caseload to be 250 or few students, while similar portions of respondents reported 251–350 (26%) and 351–450 (24%) students per school counselor. Many students lack sufficient access to school counselors and other support staff. In fact, students of color and students from low-income families are often shortchanged, receiving unequal access to school counselors or attending a school with too few school counselors.