Web-based resources for legal and ethical issues in school counseling

Professional School Counseling, Oct, 2003 by Lynne Guillot-Miller, Patricia W. Partin

Special Education Law and Advocacy Strategies http://www.reedmartin.com/

This site is provided by Reed Martin (2002), an education attorney. There is a free e-mail newsletter, numerous articles on special education topics, such as Section 504 and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Through this Web site, school counselors can also purchase manuals on special education and law topics.

Educational Institutions

UCLA School Mental Health Project: Center For Mental Health In Schools http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/

This site has a rich variety of resources related to legal and ethical issues that would be beneficial to school counselors. At http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/confid/conl.htm, school counselors can download an Introductory Packet on Confidentiality and Informed Consent (Taylor & Adelman, 1989) in either pdf or html format. This packet contains general information, state laws and regulations, and local school board policies. ACA and ASCA ethical guidelines would supercede or modify information and suggestions found at this site.

Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling http://home.okstate.edu/homepages.nsf/toc/ce-index

Dr. Wayne Lanning (n.d.) from Oklahoma State university hosts a Web site with 13 ethical and legal categories including links to various ethical codes, ethical decision making, a bibliography for ethics in counseling, and a listing of other ethical and legal sites. While the site is general in nature, school counselors will find valuable information that is easy to access from the home page.

The site of Dr. Wayne Lanning is only one of a number of counselor educator Web sites. Many counselor educators have ethical and legal course sites on the World Wide Web. Two other examples of these types of sites are http://www.library.eku.edu/mylibrary/cou813/default.htm (Naugle & Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, 2001) and http://www.bowiestate.edu/staff/cohen/psyc580.htm/reserve.htm (Cohen, 2001).

SUMMARY

Legal and ethical resources are becoming increasingly available on the World Wide Web. The Web provides professional school counselors with a wealth of knowledge that some may otherwise not be able to access through traditional methods. The proliferation of resources should be evaluated for accuracy, age of the information, completeness, and advocacy or bias. Web-based resources should be seen as another tool for school counselors and not as a replacement for scholarly journal articles, workshops, national and state conference sessions, or professional consultation.

With the Internet becoming increasingly available to school counselors around the world, the need for school counselors to both understand and utilize the Internet as a major source of knowledge is essential. The Internet should be used as an instant source of reference by all school counselors who can have access. In doing so, school counselors will be able to not only better serve their students, but also increase their knowledge of virtually every issue with which they are confronted.