Counseling Students Placed At-Risk
As the field of alternative education becomes more open to the needs of high-risk students, the role of the counselor has also changed to meet those needs. Traditionally, counselors have only provided career and academic counseling but in today’s society school counselors make a significant contribution toward the academic, career and personal/social success of all students. Professional school counselors work in a leadership role with other student service professionals including social workers, psychologists and nurses, in liaison with staff and parents, to provide comprehensive school counseling programs that focus on prevention and intervention of behaviors that place students at risk.
Adolescence is a time when young people experiment with many aspects of life - testing how things fit together and using this process to define and shape how they think and how they fit into the world. This is a time when teens are learning how to become their "own person." Teens are involved in risk-taking that is not always harmful. Frequently, risk-taking in teens is a normal, healthy, developmental behavior for adolescents. All schools and communities have students who could potentially drop out of school or engage in self-destructive behaviors that interfere with academic success. Behaviors including absenteeism, performing below academic potential or participating in activities that may be harmful to oneself and/or others such as substance abuse, bullying and threats, and physical violence are some behaviors that place students at risk. These behaviors can have devastating lifelong effects and often stem from personal and social concerns including low self-esteem, family and relationship problems, unresolved grief, trauma, involvement with drugs or alcohol, neglect or abuse. Students experiencing these concerns can often be helped by school counselors. Collaborating with parents, staff members and community agencies, the professional school counselor works closely with students demonstrating these behaviors to help them make appropriate decisions, stay in school or if needed; find alternative means of completing their education.