School councilors have legal and ethical standards that they are expected to adhere to. All councilors have a responsibility to stick to the provided guidelines but school councilors should be more aware of the legal and ethical standards as they are involved with minors. The legal and ethical standards in school counseling are quite complex but they have to be adhered to at all times by school counselors. There are legal and ethical standards that are put in place for counselors to adhere to so that all students get protected as outlined in this essay.
The aspect of confidentiality is an ethical issue outlined in the PK-12 setting. School counselors are expected to enhance confident relationships between them and the students as this helps in building trust (Huey, 2011, p. 6.). However, some school councilors break the levels of confidentiality especially when faced with circumstances that require one to adhere to the law. Other councilors break the rule of confidentiality in cases where the obligation could only favor the students, parents, or other third parties.
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Respecting other people’s differences and cultural values is another ethical issue in counseling (American School Counselor Association, 1992, p.84). The number of diverse students in the current school setting has left councilors with a challenge of how to handle diverse cultures. Some school councilors could become cultural bias and impose discriminative values on students that have different cultural backgrounds. This occurs because some of the school councilors do not have a good understanding of social and economic equalities; and how they could impact diverse students.
School councilors must report any form of child abuse among school-going children as a legal requirement. This is done through appropriate reporting channels and always involves the councilor's interaction with the child’s family. Additionally, the law requires school councilors to administer the children’s testing programs by providing advice to the policymakers about how they should use tests to gauge students (Mpofu et al., 2011, p.111) . This helps in determining whether there is any form of discrimination among students and whether such tests are appropriate to give to the students.
Confidentiality is essential to school counseling because it helps in building trustworthy relationships between counselors and students (Trice-Black, Riechel & Shilling ford, 2013, p.11) . This makes the students more open about issues that could be giving them challenges at school and share such views with the counselor. The legal requirement for counselors to respect cultural and traditional differences among students helps them to prevent biasness when that they could impose on diverse students. This avoids the negative impact that discrimination has on students. Gender, cultural, and racial biases impact students and their families. The legal requirement for school counselors to provide equal opportunities for all students to access counseling sessions provides the children will undivided attention as all their needs are met on an equal basis. No student would feel like they are left out or discriminated against.
School counseling programs are influenced by legal and ethical considerations as they have been modified in a manner to improve the general achievement of all students. The law has supported the role of school counselors and provided strict guidelines to be adhered to by the counselors. The law requires for Councilors to respect and treat students with dignity and to provide comprehensive canceling programs without any form of discrimination. The law and ethical standards require school cancellers to support students despite the background differences and provide them with the required information and support through the counseling programs. Privacy is a legal requirement to be honored by school counselors. The legal and ethical guidelines help in protecting students from diverse backgrounds so that they could get equal treatment.
References
American School Counselor Association. (1992). Ethical standards for school counselors. The school counselor , 84-88.
Borders, L. D., & Drury, S. M. (1992). Comprehensive school counseling programs: A review for policymakers and practitioners. Journal of Counseling & Development , 70 (4), 487-498.
Huey, W. C. (2011). The Revised 2010 Ethical Standards for School Counselors. Georgia School Counselors Association Journal , 18 (1), 6-12.
Mpofu, E., Maree, J. G., Kasayira, J. M., & Van der Westhuizen, C. N. (2011). School counseling. Counseling People of African Ancestry , 111-125.
Trice-Black, S., Riechel, M. E. K., & Shillingford, M. (2013). School Counselors' Constructions of Student Confidentiality. Journal of School Counseling , 11 (12), n12.
