Readiness to serve students with disabilities: a survey of elementary school counselors

Professional School Counseling, April, 2002 by Natalie A. Wood Dunn, Stanley B. Baker

The roles and responsibilities of school counselors changed dramatically over the past 50 years. In the early 1950s, school counselors primarily provided vocational/career guidance for high school students (Neely, 1982). The role gradually expanded to a broader range of students (pre-school to high school) and of concerns such as delivering developmental guidance programs, providing consultation, engaging in therapeutic counseling, and coordinating referral services (Baker, 2000).

The changes created challenges, including the necessity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed in order to meet changing demands (Neely, 1982). For instance, providing services to students with disabilities contributed to the challenges confronting school counselors over the past half century. Students with disabilities are defined in this article as students who are identified by federal legislation as eligible for mandated services. Categories of students with disabilities include mental retardation, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, specific learning disabilities, deaf-blindness, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, autism, and traumatic brain injury (Snyder & Hoffman, 2001).

Two decades ago, Parker and Stodden (1981) noted that approximately 15% of the school-aged population in the United States had special needs. More recently, Parrish (1999) found that enrollments of these students have continued to rise virtually every year since data were first collected in 1976-1977. He reported that the proportion of these school-age children increased by about 19% over the decade of 1987-88 to 1997-98. Parrish's data appear to lead to a current estimate of at least 18% of the school-aged population as having special needs. Snyder and Hoffman (2001) reported that 6,055,343 children were served under the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-476, 104 Stat. 1103 (1991) in 1998-99. This figure represents 13% of the entire population who were disabled in 1998-99 and a 27.2% change, birth to 21 years of age, from 1990-91 to 1999-98.

These changes were primarily induced by federal legislation. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, Pub. L. No. 94-142, 89 Stat. 773 (1977) mandated counseling services for students with disabilities and their parents. Concern about so called "pull-out programs" that seemed to defeat the mainstreaming principle of PL 94-142 led to passage of the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-476, 104 Stat. 1103 (1991) in 1990. PL 101-476 espoused inclusion, a unified, coordinated system in which every student, no matter the severity of their disability, would be included in all aspects of school life (Greer, Greer, & Woody, 1995).

PL 101-476 specified expectations that influenced school counseling. School counselors are often members of multidisciplinary teams that attempt to develop appropriate educational plans for students with disabilities. In so doing, they may engage in advocacy; consultation; diagnosis; assessment; development of a delivery system; and provision of support services for students, parents, and teachers. Teachers may benefit from consulting with school counselors about modifying their expectations of students with disabilities who differ with their peers intellectually, physically, or emotionally. Parents of students with disabilities may need consultation about working successfully with the educational system and support in dealing with their attitudes and expectations.

Special services are required for working with students with disabilities, their parents and teachers, and school administrators (Reynolds, 1989). School administrators often assign coordination of the mechanics of school services for students with disabilities to their counselors. Accordingly, school counselors are challenged to be familiar with the resources available, to be able to contact and engage those services, and to understand the developmental needs of the students for whom they are coordinating the services (Baker, 2000; Neely, 1982).

As advocates for students with disabilities, school counselors are challenged to be aware of their own attitudes. Successful advocacy, consultation, diagnosis, assessment, delivery of programs, and provision of support services are contingent upon being able to accept students with disabilities. This is an ethical requisite (Herlihy & Corey, 1996).

Although the federal mandates about serving students with disabilities are clear, the role of counselors has been less clear. As noted, there is a place for school counselors in the process of implementing the federal mandates regarding students with disabilities. Several counselor educators suggested how school counselors can be involved. For example, Helms and Katsiyannis (1992) recommended that school counselors be familiar with the overall procedural safeguards of PL 94-142 and characteristics unique to students with disabilities. Hosie (1979) identified 14 areas of which counselors must have knowledge in order to provide comprehensive services to students with disabilities, assuming that well-prepared school counselors would be flexible enough to incorporate the new skills into their counseling techniques. In that vein, Tucker, Shepard, and Hurst (1986) assumed that counselors who are more able to understand the challenges for students with disabilities are also able to provide the students, their parents, and their teachers with accurate information. Parette and Hourcade (1995) offered a set of common courtesies counselors may use when interacting with students with disabilities and for helping other students, teachers, administrators, and parents develop their own forms of disability etiquette.