Kentucky School Counselors Stretched Thin

AP Wire (Louisville, KY) Facing tight budgets and pressures to raise test scores, school districts are giving counselors more administrative duties and less time to meet students' social and emotional needs, some counselors say. In high school, for example, counselors often must work on class schedules, financial aid, college applications, testing, grading and education plans, and also must help with limited-English and special-education students. Some also monitor lunchrooms, help sick students and follow up on attendance problems. In between, they must find time to counsel students dealing with a myriad of problems such as divorce, eating disorders, family deaths, pregnancies and abuse. "Who suffers? Many times, it's the student," said Charles Patton, president of the Kentucky School Counselor Association. "We can't see them all." Jade Maddox, a Russell counselor and president-elect of the state counseling association, said Kentucky counselors are "doing bus duties, clerical work, calculating grade-point averages, doing discipline, following up on absences and completing registrations. It takes away from the children." According to Paula Wolf, a parent who heads the Jefferson County PTA, "They can't do everything ... you spread somebody too thin, they can't do anything well."