Preparing School Counselors to Work With Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Recent literature has demonstrated increasing roles for school counselors who work with students with disabilities, but it has also suggested that school counselors are not being adequately prepared to work with these students. In this research study, the authors investigated current courses and experiences focusing on disabilities offered in school counselor education programs. Results from the 137 participants suggest that school counselor education programs are incorporating more disability content into their training programs than they were in the past. Some disability content areas are included significantly more frequently in disability courses than in counseling program courses. Conclusions and implications are discussed.

An Initial Investigation of Individual Instructors’ Self‐Perceived Competence and Incorporation of Disability Content Into CACREP‐Accredited Programs: Rethinking Training in Counselor Education

“…N = 141. From the Disabilities Questionnaire (Smeltzer et al, ) and the School Counselor Education Questionnaire (Milsom & Akos, ).…”

“…This analysis included two dependent variables: total CCDS scores and the Perceived Skills scale scores (Strike, ). The independent grouping variable was SCEQ's (Milsom & Akos, ) Question 2 (“Do you incorporate disability content into your courses that specifically focuses on disabilities or special education issues?” with yes or no response choices). The analysis included 85 responses.…”

“…School Counselor Education Questionnaire (SCEQ) . The SCEQ (Milsom & Akos, ) is a five‐item instrument that focuses on descriptive information, such as counselor educators’ type of courses, content, and experiences related to students with disabilities and special education. Milsom and Akos () referred to instruments used in related research (Korinek & Prillaman, ; Lebsock & DeBlassie, ) to develop the SCEQ.…”

“…The SCEQ (Milsom & Akos, ) is a five‐item instrument that focuses on descriptive information, such as counselor educators’ type of courses, content, and experiences related to students with disabilities and special education. Milsom and Akos () referred to instruments used in related research (Korinek & Prillaman, ; Lebsock & DeBlassie, ) to develop the SCEQ. For the purposes of the present study, we used the first three items of the SCEQ: “Do you currently require students to complete a course specifically on disabilities?” “Do you incorporate disability content into courses and, if so, indicate which course (i.e., multicultural counseling, human development) and describe the disability‐related topics covered (i.e., general information about disabilities, advocacy)?” and “Do you recommend students complete elective courses that exclusively focus on disabilities?” We also used information from the SCEQ to illustrate how prepared CITs are to work with IWDs.…”

Individuals With Visual Disabilities and Substance Use Disorders: Recommendations for Counselors

“…Therefore, counselor educators must be prepared to integrate disability‐related information into counselor preparation programs (Feather & Carlson, ). For more than 40 years, researchers have argued that counselors are not adequately prepared to offer services to individuals with disabilities (Feather & Carlson, ; Korineck & Prillaman, ; Lebsock & DeBlassie, ; Milsom & Akos, ). Hence, counselor education must continue to implement appropriate curriculum to address concerns regarding individuals with visual disabilities and SUDs, as well as decrease the gap in the literature related to this population.…”