NBPTS School Counseling key terms

A framework organizing school counseling programs into define, manage, deliver, and assess components, linking counselor activities to student outcomes and to the profession's ethical and professional standards.

Standards describing the attitudes and skills students should develop in academic, career, and social/emotional domains, used to write curriculum and to measure program impact on students.

Planned, sequential instruction delivered to all students in classrooms or large groups, addressing academic, career, and social/emotional competencies rather than responding only to individual referrals.

A layered framework providing universal supports to all students, targeted supports to some, and intensive supports to a few, with data used to decide movement between tiers.

Universal support delivered to every student, such as core curriculum lessons, schoolwide climate initiatives, and advisory programs, intended to prevent problems before they require more intensive services.

Targeted support for students showing early risk indicators, delivered in small groups or short individual cycles, such as study-skills groups, attendance mentoring, or brief check-ins.

Intensive, individualized support for students with significant or chronic needs, often coordinated with families and outside agencies and typically involving referral for clinical treatment beyond the counselor's scope.

A yearly document aligning the counselor's goals, duties, and time allocations with the school improvement plan, negotiated with the administrator to protect appropriate use of counselor time.

A record of how the counselor actually spends working hours, analyzed against recommended proportions for direct services, indirect services, and program management to identify misallocation.

Counselor contact that occurs face to face or live with students, including classroom lessons, small groups, individual counseling, and crisis response, as distinct from coordination done on students' behalf.

Work done on behalf of students without the student present, such as consulting with teachers and parents, coordinating referrals, and advocating with administrators or community providers.

A written plan targeting a measurable disparity between student groups, specifying the identified problem, the intervention, the data to be collected, and the expected outcome.

A brief summary showing whether an intervention changed student data, presenting pre- and post-intervention results, the perception data collected, and implications for future practice.

Information about what students, staff, or families believe, know, or can do, such as survey responses or pre/post test scores from classroom lessons, as opposed to achievement or attendance records.

Objective indicators of student performance and school engagement, such as grades, test scores, attendance rates, discipline referrals, and course completion, used to identify gaps and evaluate interventions.

A persistent difference in academic outcomes between groups of students, often associated with income, race, language, or disability status, that a program targets for closing.

Data broken apart by subgroup, such as grade level, gender, race, disability, or English-learner status, so that hidden disparities masked by schoolwide averages become visible.

A structured survey or data review used to identify priorities for the counseling program by gathering perceptions and outcomes from students, staff, families, and school records.

A self-study tool that rates the counseling program against a national model's components, revealing strengths and gaps to guide annual improvement planning.

Short-term, goal-focused work with one student addressing academic, career, or social/emotional concerns, distinguished from ongoing psychotherapy and bounded by the school setting's scope.

Planned sessions with several students sharing a common concern, such as grief, divorce, social skills, or test anxiety, using structured activities and monitored by data on member progress.

A structured lesson taught by the counselor in a classroom, tied to student competencies and school data, with a measurable objective and a brief evaluation of student learning.

The ethical and legal duty to protect information shared by students, with limits disclosed in advance, such as danger to self or others, abuse, or a court order.

Explaining counseling's purpose, procedures, risks, and confidentiality limits to students and, where appropriate, families, and obtaining voluntary agreement before services begin.

The legal obligation of school staff to report suspected child abuse or neglect to designated authorities promptly, without investigating the allegation themselves or notifying the family first.

The obligation, arising from law or ethics in many jurisdictions, to act protectively when a student poses a serious threat of harm to an identifiable person, typically by notifying authorities and the intended victim.

U.S. federal law governing education records, giving parents and eligible students rights to inspect and amend records and limiting disclosure without consent, with exceptions such as school officials with legitimate educational interest.

Private counselor notes kept only in the counselor's own memory or personal files and not shared, which may fall outside the definition of education records under FERPA.

A signed, dated authorization specifying which information may be shared, with whom, for what purpose, and for how long, revocable by the parent or eligible student.

A structured screening of suicidal ideation, plan, intent, and protective factors, followed by immediate safety planning, family notification, and referral according to district protocol.

A written, collaboratively developed list of coping strategies, support contacts, warning signs, and means-restriction steps a student uses when suicidal or self-harm urges escalate.

Directing a student or family to services beyond the school counselor's role or competence, such as clinical therapy, medical care, or community agencies, with follow-up to confirm connection.

A collaborative, non-supervisory problem-solving relationship with teachers, parents, or administrators to design supports for a student, drawing on the counselor's expertise without taking over the other's role.

Working as an equal partner with educators, families, and community providers toward shared student goals, sharing responsibility and decisions rather than merely exchanging information.

Action taken to remove barriers and change inequitable policies or practices on behalf of students, including speaking with administrators, presenting data, and connecting families to resources.

Fairness in access, opportunity, and outcomes achieved by allocating supports according to student need, rather than giving every student identical resources regardless of circumstance.

The counselor's ability to understand their own biases and to work effectively with students and families across cultures, languages, identities, and family structures.

Building respectful, two-way partnerships with families through accessible communication, flexible meeting formats, and inclusion in decisions about their child's education.

A Tier 2 mentoring routine in which a student reviews goals and receives feedback at the start and end of each day, with points or ratings tracked over time.

Frequent, brief measurement of a student's response to an intervention, used to decide whether to continue, adjust, or fade support.

Durable improvement in school policies, structures, or practices rather than only in individual students, often the ultimate aim of equity-focused counseling interventions.