Beyond Compliance: Assessing Administrators’ Commitment to Comprehensive School Counseling

Abstract

The New York State Education Department recently passed legislation that requires school districts to implement a programmatic, data-driven approach to school counseling. This change moves the state toward comprehensive school counseling and away from traditional “guidance”; however, these policy changes often do not translate into practice for some time, if ever. This exploratory study includes survey data from district administrators, school building leaders, and supervisors of school counselors pertaining to their perceptions of the roles and expectations for practicing school counselors. There were significant differences between groups in the expectations and perceptions of the frequency of specific activities performed by these professionals, demonstrating a lack of agreement on important areas of the new regulations. These data have implications for the translation of policy changes into practice and shed light on gaps among key stakeholders that have limited the role of school counselors for decades. Implications for administrators and practicing counselors, especially with regard to communicating and understanding the benefits to students of comprehensive, data-driven practice, are included.