Legal and ethical issues in school counselor supervision - Special issue: legal and ethical issues in school counseling

Professional School Counseling, Oct, 2002 by Barbara Herlihy, Neal Gray, Vivian McCollum

Today's school counselors deal routinely with complicated situations in which students have acute counseling needs, including cases of severe depression and suicidal ideation, pregnancy, substance abuse, school violence, and child abuse (Page, Pietrzak, & Sutton, 2001). To respond adequately to these needs, counselors must have both strong clinical skills and a keen awareness of the legal and ethical ramifications of any actions they may take or fail to take. These mandates are particularly challenging when school counselors are isolated in their settings or are so burdened with clerical and administrative tasks that they are unable to adequately address the counseling needs of the students they serve. School counselors in these situations may feel stressed and overworked and may be experiencing professional burnout. As a consequence, they can become unsure of their abilities and effectiveness and may experience erosion in their skills and competence (Crutchfield & Borders, 1997). This process runs counter to their ethical responsibility to maintain and increase their competence (American Counseling Association [ACA] 1995, Section C.2.) When school counselors fail to practice competently, this can become a legal problem as well as an ethical issue, because a malpractice lawsuit could result.

Supervision can be an effective means of assisting school counselors to maintain and enhance their competence. Supervision can provide opportunities for continuing clinical-skill development, ongoing consultation regarding legal and ethical issues, and a professional support system that can mitigate against stress and burnout. According to Remley and Herlihy (2001), two types of supervision are generally discussed in the literature: clinical supervision and administrative supervision. Supervision that focuses on the development of counseling skills is known as clinical supervision. Within the counseling profession in general, clinical supervision has come to be recognized as essential to the continuing professional development of practitioners. The primary purpose of clinical supervision is to enhance the competence and increase the counseling skills of the counselor who is being supervised. Unfortunately, however, this is the type of supervision that school counselors are least likely to receive.

A second and more readily available type is administrative supervision, which is usually provided by the building principal or other administrator and is focused on compliance with school requirements and accountability (Crutchfield & Hipps, 1998). Administrative supervision occurs when a direct-line administrator provides direction to a counselor who is an employee. Administrative supervisors usually have direct control and authority over the counselors they supervise (Remley & Herlihy, 2001). Administrative supervisors face somewhat different legal issues than do clinical supervisors, because the purposes of administrative supervision are different and the law treats the two types of supervision differently (Remley & Herlihy).

In this article, we first describe the current status of school counselor supervision. This provides a context in which ethical and legal issues encountered in supervision of school counselors are examined. Although clinical supervision is the primary focus of our discussion, we also address ethical and legal issues that commonly arise in administrative supervision.

Current Status of School Counselor Supervision

As we have noted, although administrative supervision is widely available, the need for clinical supervision in school counseling has gone largely unmet. In a recent national survey, Page et al. (2001) found that only 13% of school counselors were currently receiving individual clinical supervision and only 10% were receiving group clinical supervision. Nonetheless, there is empirical support for the efficacy of clinical supervision for school counselors. Positive results have been reported, including enhanced effectiveness and accountability, improved counseling skills, encouragement of professional development, and increased confidence and job comfort (Agnew, Vaught, Getz, & Fortune, 2000; Benshoff & Paisley, 1996; Borders, 1991; Crutchfield & Borders, 1997).

One reason clinical supervision has been a neglected issue in school counseling may be a perception that school counselors do not have the same level of need for supervision as do clinical mental health counselors. School administrators, in particular, may continue to perceive the school counselor's role as being focused primarily on such activities as academic advising, scheduling, psychoeducation, and group guidance. School administrators may see clinical supervision as a less-than-useful reason for taking school counselors away from their time spent in such direct service to students (Crutchfield & Borders, 1997). To the extent that this is the case, little impetus will be generated by the administrative supervisors of school counselors to arrange to provide them with clinical supervision.