Budget restraints and a changing society force school counselors in California these days to dispense advice on more than just academic issues

March 15, 2001

For decades, the traditional view of a high school counselor has been that of a caring adviser, someone to steer young adults through the challenges of graduation requirements, applying for college and mapping out careers.

But budget concerns and societal pressures have redefined the roles of these trusted guides in recent years. Counselors now routinely take on such weighty issues as teen suicide, drugs, unwanted pregnancies and violence.

The dramatic changes are perhaps most evident in California, where individual caseloads are the heaviest in the nation.

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At Santana High School in Santee, where a freshman is accused of killing two students and wounding 13 others last week, two counselors are responsible for more than 1,900 students.

That is twice as many students per counselor as the state average, and four times higher than the national standard.

No one can say whether additional counselors might have helped Charles "Andy" Williams," the 15-year-old charged in the Santana shooting.

But many experts across the country say school administrators should make high school counselors a priority.

"Having counselors available is a way of preventing problems," said Charles Lindahl, associate vice chancellor of academic affairs for the California State University system.

"It just makes sense to have people around who are trained to listen. They can anticipate problems and they can pick up the rhythm of the school. They can sense the changes in student behavior."

Counseling positions often are the first to go when money gets tight.

Once a staple of California schools, like nurses and librarians, counselors are spread thin. They often take on a number of unrelated tasks -- substitute teaching, administering tests and other duties that can keep them from their primary job.

"When things get tough, counselors often get pressed into administrative duties -- and that's the worst thing that could happen," Lindahl said. "If they can be kept out of those positions, then they can be seen by students as a neutral party they can trust."

Students can go a year without seeing their counselor, say some in the profession. Sometimes contact with students may be limited to graduation requirements and college plans.

And because counselors are optional in California, some say they are seen as a frill.

Twenty-nine percent of California's school districts, or 286 districts, operate without them. Of those districts without counselors, 5 percent are districts made up exclusively of high schools.

"There is so much expected of counselors that all they can do are random acts of guidance," said Paul Meyers, a consultant with the state Department of Education.

"After the (Santana) school shooting, I think people have become concerned about the impersonalization of our schools and the fact that some kids feel like no one cares about them."

When it comes to student-counselor ratios, California ranks last in the nation.

The American School Counselor Association recommends that counselors should have no more than 250 students. In contrast, the average counselor working at a California high school is responsible for 543 students, according to a 1999 survey by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Nationally, the average student-counselor ratio is 513-to-1.

"This state needs to look at mandated counseling programs," said Earlene Dunbar, a San Diego Unified School District counselor.

"As the state has lowered class sizes you have more new teachers with little experience in classroom management and a lot of probationary teachers. They look to counselors for help, but counselors are overworked."

Student-counselor ratios in San Diego County school districts vary. At 506-to-1, San Diego Unified has the lowest student-counselor ratio among the state's largest 30 kindergarten-through-high-school districts, state officials said.

At the Grossmont Union High School District, which includes Santana High, there is one counselor for every 785 students.

Since the shooting, Santana High has made counselors available to any student who needs one. The district may hire more counselors, said spokesman Mark Pettis.

Even the most dedicated team of counselors cannot prevent tragedy. Just ask Mike Askey, a 25-year counseling veteran at Hoover High School in San Diego.

Earlier this month, a distraught teen-ager from Hoover's class of 2000 returned to his alma mater to talk to Askey about his troubles. The young man put a gun to his head, ignored the pleas from Askey and killed himself in front of students and faculty.

"I will never forget the image of this kid with a gun to his head as I struggle to find the right combination of words," Askey said.

Santana High freshman Williams reportedly told at least five people about his plans. It haunts counselors that no one alerted a school official.

Since the Columbine High School shooting in April 1999, California lawmakers have made efforts to get more counselors in schools. In the nation's worst campus shooting, two teen-age boys opened fire on the students and faculty at their Littleton, Colo., high school. They killed a dozen classmates and one teacher before killing themselves.

"Post Columbine, there was a heightened awareness on the need to have more eyes and ears on campuses," said Karen Lowrey, a state education consultant. "That means establishing connections for students and making sure that at least someone knows each student well enough to write a paragraph about them."

In 1999, Gov. Gray Davis signed school safety legislation that gave schools $100 million to, among other things, hire more school counselors. State officials will know later this spring how many counselors were hired as a result of the bill. That same year, California trimmed its student-counselor ratio by 42 students from the previous year.

To reach the national average of one counselor per 513 students by 2005, California schools would have to hire roughly 1,189 counselors a year.

"The problem is a reflection of the lack of revenue school districts receive from the state," Meyers said. "But it also comes down to priorities and how school districts chose to spend their money."

Most districts allow school staffs to decide how many counselors they need. Because counselors often are grouped with teachers, hiring an extra counselor can mean one less teacher.

The Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista has a long history of making counselors a top priority. Each counselor works with fewer than 430 students, making it one of the lowest student-counselor ratios in the state.

Because of the lower ratios, counselors at some schools have time to run support groups, said Lynn Covarrubias, a Sweetwater district psychologist who trains counselors. In periodic meetings to talk about family issues such as divorce, counselors establish a rapport with students that may help prevent crises.

Most agree that lower ratios alone will not work. Schools have to deploy their counselors efficiently, too.

"We have got to stay in tune with our kids or we are going to see more trouble in our schools," said Askey, a counselor and administrator at Hoover High. "When I went into this business 25 years ago I would not have believed the kinds of situations I would be dealing with."