Students with disabilities: school counselor involvement and preparation

Professional School Counseling, June, 2002 by Amy S. Milsom

Legislation has greatly impacted educational opportunities for students with disabilities. Prior to the implementation of Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act [EAHCA] of 1975), many students with disabilities received either no services or inappropriate services in public schools (Smith & Colon, 1998; Zaccaria, 1969). For more than 25 years, however, disability legislation has mandated that public schools provide appropriate educational services to all students with disabilities. As a result, 95% of students with disabilities received services in 1996 (U.S. Department of Education, 1996).

In addition to impacting educational opportunities for students, legislation has increased the involvement of school counselors with students with disabilities. The passage of EAHCA resulted not only in greater numbers of students receiving special services in schools (Parker & Stodden, 1981; Tucker, Shepard, & Hurst, 1986), but also increased involvement of school counselors with students who have disabilities (Korinek & Prillaman, 1992; Sweeney, Navin, & Myers, 1984). More recent legislation, Public Law 101-476 (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] of 1990), a reauthorization of EAHCA, and Public Law 105-17 (the 1997 Amendments to IDEA) discussed the involvement of individual school personnel with students with disabilities. Williams and Katsiyannis (1998) stated, "A primary implication of the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the need for all educators to share in the responsibility for services provided for all students including those with disabilities" (p. 17).

Although legislation encourages greater school counselor involvement with students with disabilities, little research has been conducted to examine the actual roles that school counselors perform for those students. Helms and Katsiyannis (1992) found that the elementary school counselors they surveyed in Virginia provided individual, group, and classroom counseling for students with disabilities. The most common counseling issues involved self-concept, social skills, behavior, study skills, and career awareness.

In 1980, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) developed a position statement concerning school counselor roles with students with disabilities. That statement was revised in 1986 and again in 1993 (Baumberger & Harper, 1999). ASCA adopted two more focused position statements that discuss school counselor roles in relation to working with students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ASCA, 2000) and with students with special needs (ASCA, 1999). In those statements, ASCA suggested that school counselors advocate for students with disabilities in the school and/or community, assist students with disabilities in planning for transitions to careers or to post-secondary institutions, assist with the establishment and implementation of behavior modification plans for students with disabilities, counsel parents and families of students with disabilities, and make referrals to other appropriate specialists for students with disabilities. ASCA also suggested that school counselors provide activities for students with disabilities to improve their self-esteem, provide feedback on the social and academic performance of students with disabilities to the multidisciplinary team, provide individual and group counseling to students with disabilities, provide social-skills training to students with disabilities, serve as consultants to parents and staff on the characteristics and special needs of students with disabilities, and serve on the multidisciplinary team to identify and provide services to students with disabilities.

Given the variety of activities that school counselors might perform for students with disabilities, it is important to ensure that school counselors feel prepared to provide services to those students. It has consistently been suggested that education would help to increase school counselor competence for working with students with disabilities (Foster, 1977; Hosie, Patterson, & Hollingsworth, 1989; Isaacs, Greene, & Valesky, 1998; Margolis & Rungta, 1986; Tucker et al., 1986). Despite the acknowledged need for education to increase school counselor competence, however, most school counselor education programs in the early 1990s did not require either specific coursework related to students with disabilities or practical experiences with those students (Korinek & Prillaman, 1992). Furthermore, Korinek and Prillaman found that while most respondents (68%) indicated that their school counselor education programs would have to be altered to better prepare graduates to work with students with disabilities, only 11% had plans to make changes.

State departments of education and counselor educators have provided input concerning existing and desirable education related to students with disabilities for school counselors (Frantz & Prillaman, 1993; Korinek & Prillaman, 1992), but input from practicing school counselors has only been minimal. The purpose of this research was to obtain feedback from practicing school counselors in order to explore the activities school counselors engage in for students with disabilities and how prepared they felt to perform those activities as well as to examine recent trends in school counselor education related to students with disabilities. The following research questions were explored: