A study of legal issues encountered by school counselors and perceptions of their preparedness to respond to legal challenges - Special issue: legal and ethical issues in school counseling

Professional School Counseling, Oct, 2002 by Mary A. Hermann

School counselors are encountering many legal issues (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 1998; Fernandez, 1992), and various authors have discussed the areas of school counselors' legal vulnerability. Lawrence and Kurpius (2000), Remley and Herlihy (2001), and White and Flynt (2000) explained that failing to report suspected child abuse can result in civil and criminal liability. Lawrence and Kurpius noted that confidentiality can be a difficult legal issue, especially when counseling minors. Remley and Herlihy posited that counselors can be subpoenaed to produce records and appear at court proceedings. Failure to effectively manage a client's threats of violence and acting negligently when counseling suicidal clients can result in malpractice lawsuits as well (Ahia & Martin, 1993; Corey et al.; Glosoff, Herlihy, & Spence, 2000; Remley & Herlihy; Remley & Sparkman, 1993).

Researchers have identified laws of particular relevance to school counselors and assessed school counselors' knowledge of these laws (Davis & Mickelson, 1994; Herndon, 1990; Rawls, 1997). Herndon reviewed laws that may have an impact on school counseling. Rawls studied school counselors' knowledge of school law, and Davis and Mickelson studied school counselors' knowledge of their legal and ethical responsibilities. According to these studies, school counselors face legal dilemmas in the areas of student privacy, reporting suspected child abuse, counseling students who pose a danger to others, and ensuring the safety of students.

Variables potentially related to counselors' knowledge of legal and ethical issues have also been identified. Rawls (1997) studied the possibility of a relationship between school counselors' knowledge of school law and demographic variables including the type of education in school law, recency of school law education, years of experience as a counselor, memberships in professional organizations, and highest degree obtained. Gibson (1992) explored the relationship between counselors' knowledge of and confidence in ethics beliefs and credentials, membership in professional organizations, year of graduation, highest degree obtained, and amount of instruction in ethics.

Though the literature contains references to potential legal issues facing school counselors and school counselors' knowledge of these issues, no studies to date considered which legal issues were most prevalent. The current study assessed the types and frequency of legal issues being encountered by school counselors. This study also examined school counselors' perceptions of their ability to respond to prevalent legal issues. Whether participants' perceptions of their ability to respond to these issues were related to having completed a course in ethics or legal issues, having completed continuing education in ethics or legal issues, degree held, years of experience, whether licensed by their state, and whether certified by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) was also considered. The results of this study are intended to help determine whether school counselors need more exposure to legal issues as part of their graduate program and through continuing education in order to practice in a legally sound manner and thus avoid unnecessary litigation.

Method

Participants

Five hundred members of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and 500 members of the American Mental Health Counselors Association (AMHCA) were selected to participate in this research project. The respondents included 273 school counselors. The data provided by the 273 school counselors were analyzed for this article.

The sample of school counselors consisted of 23.1% males and 75.8% females. The participants were African American (6.6%), Native American (.7%), Hispanic American (1.1%); European American (87.9%), and Asian American (1.1%). Although 88% of the respondents held master's degrees, 8% of the respondents also held specialist degrees, and 4% of the respondents had earned doctoral degrees in counseling. Counselors from every state except Montana, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Wyoming participated in the study. One school counselor from the District of Columbia and one school counselor from outside of the United States also participated.

Two percent of the participants reported that they worked in elementary schools, 28% indicated that they worked in middle schools or junior high schools, and 60% reported that they worked in a high school setting. Three percent of the participants indicated that they worked in a school for both elementary and middle school students. Furthermore, four percent of the respondents reported that they worked in a school for both middle and high school students and three percent of the participants reported that they worked in a school for elementary, middle school and high school students.

The respondents' years of experience as school counselors ranged from one to 35 with a mean of 11.83 (SD = 9.84). Thirty-six percent of the participants had less than 5 years of experience and 64% of the participants had 5 or more years of experience as school counselors.