The School Counselor's Role in Special Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was (a) to survey school counselor preparation and perceived and projected role in serving special education students in the southwestern region of the United States; and (b) to determine the status of counselor education programs throughout the nation in preparing counselors to effectively serve exceptional students. The results indicated that 50 percent of the school counselor sample advocated additional involvement with exceptional students, 43 percent felt inadequately prepared to deal effectively with exceptional students, and 60 percent would be more willing to serve exceptional students if their training in special education had been more extensive.

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

“…It seems logical that individual instructors believe children with disabilities are successfully attended to in counseling curricula. For example, historically, counselor education and ASCA have addressed school counselor preparedness to serve students with disabilities (Korinek & Prillaman, ; Lebsock & DeBlassie, ; Milsom, ; Milsom & Akos, ). Nevertheless, just over half of the participants in our study believed that too little time was spent on disability‐related issues and guidelines.…”

“…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.…”

“…Moreover, we recommend counseling programs explore ways to increase students’ exposure to practical experiences during their training (Milsom & Akos, ). Research has established that these experiences are essential to build competencies working with IWDs (Milsom, ) and to prepare students for roles and expectations postgraduation, which may help reduce the inconsistency between training and occupational demands (Korinek & Prillaman, ; Lebsock & DeBlassie, ). In addition, as our findings indicate, the more disability‐related experiences, the greater level of disability competence as a counselor educator.…”

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.…”

Guidance of Handicapped Students: Counselor In‐service Needs

“…Despite the lack of preservice preparation in special education (Lebsock & DeBlassie, 1975), school counselors throughout the country have been expected to play major roles in providing services to handicapped youth, their parents, and teachers (Lombana & Clawson, 1978). It seems that to provide counselors with the skills and knowledge they need about the guidance of handicapped students, comprehensive in-service training programs will have to be developed and implemented (Humes, 1978).…”