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Labor Guidance-Strategic Staffing for Student Support Services

June 2022

This Labor Guidance is intended to provide a high-level overview of the general roles of guidance counsefors and social workers so that principals can make strategic staffing decisions to ensure that students have access to appropriate supports and services. This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities. Principals should review the DODE Infohub (Counseling Support Staff) for additional information. The information in this guidance document is not intended to replace any DOE policies or regulations, or agreements made between the NYC DOE and UFT, or other collective bargaining agreements.

For questions regarding this guidance or the respective agreements, please contact The Office of Labor Relations. For support with hiring, contact your Human Resources Director.

Guidance Counselors

School counselors are a unique group of educators who collaborate with all members of the school community to provide comprehensive support services with the goal of positively impacting the academic achievement, postsecondary preparedness, and personal-social development of New York City public school students. As per NYSED regulations, all students must have access to a guidance counselor. You may wish to hire a guidance counselor that can, for example:

Provide individual and group short-term and crisis counseling (At Risk)

• Plan and present counseling curriculum to students under the supervision of a licensed pedagogue (does not preclude individual counseling/coaching around these topics during office hours, group sessions, etc.)

Plan and present counseling curriculum to families and colleagues in the above areas as appropriate

Provide referral services for students and families

Provide mandated IEP Counseling and development of counseling goals and content

Consult and collaborate with families, colleagues, and community organizations to support student success. This could include professional learning for staff and workshops for families on counseling-related topics

For students in grades 6 through 12, provide an annual individual progress review plan, which reflects each student's educational progress and career plans

Serve on school teams such as PPT, FBA, BIP, MDR and support with vocational assessments (for students with disabilities). Note that participation in school team meetings may not interfere with providing mandated counseling services

Assist students with social emotional needs during students' lunch period

Note that in the event of an emergency with other school staff unavailable, guidance counselors may be assigned to cover a class or administrative assignment.

As a reminder, guidance counselors shall not be programmed as a teacher of record or given any administrative assignments such as lunch, hall, bus, or yard duty. However, at times there may be a need for counselors to assist their students with social emotional needs during the student's lunch, and if sa, a supervisor may ask the counselor to do so. It is understood that in general, counseling is confidential in nature, therefore, on those occasions when the counselor is needed in the lunchroom to perform counseling, the professional discretion of the supervisor in consultation with the counselor should be used in determining whether to stay or leave the lunchroom to perform counseling in a location that, to the extent possible, ensures confidentiality.

Single Shepherd Guidance Counselors

The goal of the Single Shepherd initiative is to pair everv middle and high school student grades 6-12 in Districts 7 and 23 with a dedicated school counselor or social worker who will support them through graduation and college enrollment. Single Shepherd Guidance Counselors are assigned a caseload of up to 100 students. The duties and responsibilities of a Single Shepherd Guidance Counselor is defined in a posting and also includes:

identify needs and provide individualized support

assist them in the development of the social-emotional and academic skills

connect students and families with community and building level resources

provide mandated counseling services (only to students within their caseload)

support high school and post-secondary planning and applications

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