Introduction to the Special Issue on School Counselors Addressing Education, Health, Wellness, and Trauma Disparities

Abstract

This special issue is on school counselors addressing education, health, wellness, and trauma disparities. The focus is on current and former school counselors’ collective experiences to contextualize the impact of the pandemic(s) on the lives and work of school counselors and the disruption to the lives of the students and families served. The collection of nine articles provides a window into the experiences of school counselors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effects of Student Success Skills on attendance and emotion regulation

“…This suggests that time is needed for some skill sets to be practiced and utilized, subsequently permeating the environment where lasting effects are noted. Also, this finding is consistent with the ASE premise that school counselors must implement counseling interventions that promote encouraging, safe, and nurturing climates to help build trust among students, teachers, and counselors to reduce the immediate barriers limiting students' growth (Johnson et al, 2022). Research on attendance shows absenteeism can affect all students, and understanding the barriers faced by minority students (linguistic, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic) is necessary for implementing interventions that promote positive learning environments and encourage student engagement.…”

“…From a social determinant of health viewpoint, access to education is essential for students to reduce social, occupational, economic, and health disparities (Johnson et al., 2022). School counselors must consider the multidimensional factors that affect students’ absence from school and their ability to communicate with their caregivers (immigration status, generation status, fear of deportation, cultural mismatches, institutional mistrust, acculturation, and language barriers, among others) rather than reducing students to reported data (Johnson et al., 2022; Salgado de Synder et al., 2021). Student attendance can be viewed as an immediate barrier that impacts students’ academic growth and development (Ginsburg et al., 2014), engagement in the social context of the school, and a sense of school connectedness to other peers and educators (Johnson et al., 2022).…”

“…School counselors must consider the multidimensional factors that affect students’ absence from school and their ability to communicate with their caregivers (immigration status, generation status, fear of deportation, cultural mismatches, institutional mistrust, acculturation, and language barriers, among others) rather than reducing students to reported data (Johnson et al., 2022; Salgado de Synder et al., 2021). Student attendance can be viewed as an immediate barrier that impacts students’ academic growth and development (Ginsburg et al., 2014), engagement in the social context of the school, and a sense of school connectedness to other peers and educators (Johnson et al., 2022). Furthermore, students from low‐income and minority backgrounds are more likely to access mental health professionals and services while in school (USDOE, 2021).…”

Antiracist school counseling: A consensual qualitative study

“…anti-Blackness, antiracist, consensual qualitative research, school counseling Antiracism inherently and actively deconstructs racist policies, procedures, and systems to allocate resources and power equitably (Johnson, Brookover, et al, 2022;Johnson, Ieva, et al, 2022). Holcomb-McCoy (2021) described the practice of antiracism within education as the interrogation and destruction of educational policies that uphold racist perspectives, such as Eurocentric curricula, standardized testing, and discipline.…”

Preparing school counselors for social justice group counseling: Examining, power, privilege, and intersectionality

“…Given the extensive rise in childhood exposure to trauma and the myriad of community responses to COVID‐19, many students across the country might be experiencing co‐occurring ACEs (Johnson et al., 2022). To mitigate the effects from trauma for all students, school counselors (SCs) work as frontline mental health professionals in educational settings to counsel, educate, and empower youth development.…”