School Counselor Resources: March 2013

Attention Parents, Guardians, Grandparents:

School Counselors need your help!

The Florida Legislation is currently in session and considering the Student Failure Prevention Act (see http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0154). This bill will do several things which include:
• Defines the best use of these highly trained professionals;

• Requires every school provide at least one and sufficient additional full-time school counselors;

• Moves Florida's schools closer to the nationally recommended School Counselor to student standard ratio of 1:250 and thus to well-planned and accountable school counseling programs.
Step 1: Look up your legislators
Representatives:

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/myrepresentative.aspx

Senators:
http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/Find
Step 2: Use the template below as a guide to write them an email and/or fax. Also feel free to call their offices and speak to either him/her or his/her aid.

Step 3: Call your local media (e.g., news, radio) and make your voice heard.

Sample letter:

March 18, 2013

The Honorable ____________________
As a parent of a xxxx school student and one of your constituents, I want to voice my support for the Student Failure Prevention Act being considered in the current legislative session (SB 154 and HB 801). I believe that school counselors are vital partners in helping our children to achieve and succeed. In fact, I am very concerned to have learned that, on average, there is only one counselor to approximately 500 students in Florida schools and some schools have no counselor at all.

Perhaps a personal story or bit of information here ...

I want my tax money to support this bill which will put more counselors in more schools and help them to work directly with our children. Parents, teachers, administrators and others can help although cannot fully prepare our children to be college and career ready, to learn the personal and social skills necessary for the 21st century workplace, or to navigate intricate academic requirements. Without more school counselors who work directly with students, only some will get attention and other students will be robbed of the help they deserve.

School counselors are unique as the only specially trained professional to help ALL students meet academic, behavior and career standards. They help to protect bullying victims and teach bullies new behaviors; they focus on keeping students in school and moving toward college, careers, and jobs; and they teach the key skills and attitudes that build our future workforce.

By following national and state standards and evidence-based practices, school counselors work with individual and groups of students, teachers, administrators, and families, in and out of the classroom. They are experts who develop and deliver targeted programs to ALL students, Pre-K through 12. These standards and practices are supported by diverse state and national groups including Florida's DOE, both the Florida and American School Counselor Associations, Kresge, Gates, and DeWitt Wallace Foundations and the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

The time is now. We are facing a critical crossroads in education and for the first time in our history, this generation of students is at-risk of having lower educational attainment than that of their parents. Florida in particular is facing historic economic challenges and a high student drop-out rate that can only be cured by investing in its present and future workforce in this way.

My child deserves your support for the Student Failure Prevention Act.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXX

District name here