(Adopted 1984; revised 1992, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2016, 2022) Show PreambleThe American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is a professional organization supporting school counselors, school counseling students/interns, school counseling program directors/supervisors and school counselor educators. These standards are the ethical responsibility of all school counseling professionals. School counselors have unique qualifications and skills to implement a comprehensive school counseling program that addresses pre-K–12 students’ academic, career and social/emotional development needs. School counselors are leaders, advocates, collaborators and consultants who create systemic change to ensure equitable educational outcomes through the school counseling program. School counselors demonstrate the belief that all students have the ability to learn by advocating for and contributing to an education system that provides optimal learning environments for all students. All students have the right to:
PurposeIn this document, ASCA specifies the obligation to the principles of ethical behavior necessary to maintain the highest standards of integrity, leadership and professionalism. The ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors were developed in collaboration with school counselors, state school counselor associations, school counseling district and state leaders, and school counselor educators across the nation to clarify the profession’s norms, values and beliefs. The purpose of this document is to:
A. RESPONSIBILITY TO STUDENTS A.1. Supporting Student Development School counselors:
A. 2. Confidentiality School counselors:
A. 3. Comprehensive School Counseling Program School counselors:
A.4. Academic, Career and Social/Emotional Planning School counselors:
A. 5. Sustaining Healthy Relationships and Managing Boundaries School counselors:
A. 6. Appropriate Collaboration, Advocacy and Referrals for Counseling School counselors:
A. 7. Group Work School counselors:
A. 8. Student Peer-Support Program School counselors:
A. 9. Serious and Foreseeable Harm to Self and Others School counselors:
A. 10. Marginalized Populations School counselors:
A. 11. Bullying, Harassment, Discrimination, Bias and Hate Incidents School counselors:
A.12. Child Abuse School counselors:
A. 13. Student Records School counselors:
A. 14. Evaluation, Assessment and Interpretation School counselors:
A. 15. Technical and Digital Citizenship School counselors:
A. 16. Virtual/Distance School Counseling School counselors:
B. RESPONSIBILITIES TO PARENTS/GUARDIANS, SCHOOL AND SELF B.1. Responsibilities to Parents/Guardians School counselors:
B.2. Responsibilities to the School School counselors:
B. 3. Responsibilities to Self School counselors:
C. SCHOOL COUNSELOR DIRECTORS/ADMINISTRATORS/SUPERVISORS School counselor directors/administrators/supervisors support school counselors in their charge by:
D. SCHOOL COUNSELING PRACTICUM/INTERNSHIP SITE SUPERVISORS Practicum/internship site supervisors:
E. MAINTENANCE OF STANDARDS When the absence of a settled opinion or conviction exists as to the ethical behavior of a colleague(s), the following procedures may serve as a guide:
F. ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING When faced with an ethical dilemma, school counselors and school counseling program directors/supervisors use an ethical decision-making model.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS Advocate: a person who speaks, writes or acts to promote the well-being of students, parents/guardians, school and community stakeholders, and the school counseling profession. School counselors advocate to create and maintain equitable systems, policies and practices. Anti-Racist: one who expresses the idea that race is a social construct and does not biologically exist while supporting policy that eliminates racial inequity and fighting against racism. Assent: to demonstrate agreement when a student is not competent to give informed consent to counseling or other services the school counselor is providing. Assessment: collecting in-depth information about a person to develop a comprehensive plan that will guide the collaborative counseling and service provision process. Bias Incident: use of hateful imagery, language or acts that are often noncriminal in nature motivated by bigotry, prejudice or hate toward individuals because of the targets’ perceived disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, nationality, race, sex or sexual orientation. Boundaries: something that indicates or affixes an extent or limits. Breach: disclosure of information given in private or confidential communication such as information given during counseling. Bullying: intentional, repeated harmful acts, words or other behavior such as name calling, threatening and/or shunning committed by one or more children against another. These negative acts are not intentionally provoked by the victims, and for such acts to be defined as bullying, an imbalance in real or perceived power must exist between the bully and the victim. Bullying may be physical, verbal, emotional or sexual in nature. Competence: the quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill, knowledge, qualification or capacity. Confidentiality: the ethical duty of school counselors to responsibly protect a student’s private communications shared in counseling. Conflict of Interest: a situation in which a school counselor stands to personally profit from a decision involving a student. Consent: permission, approval or agreement; compliance. Consultation: a professional relationship in which individuals meet to seek advice, information and/or deliberation to address a student’s need. Conventional Parameters: general agreement or accepted standards regarding limits, boundaries or guidelines. Cultural Sensitivity: a set of skills enabling you to know, understand and value the similarities and differences in people; modify your behavior to be most effective and respectful of students and families; and deliver programs that fit diverse learners’ needs. Culturally Sustaining School Counseling policies and practices that affirm and embrace cultural pluralism, promote cultural dexterity and actively advocate for equitable systems and outcomes. Custodial and Noncustodial: physical custody: a phrase used to determine which parent a minor student lives with as a result of a court order. A custodial parent has physical custody of the minor child while a noncustodial parent does not have physical custody of the minor child, as the result of a court order. Legal custody: both custodial and noncustodial parents have educational rights to their child’s records unless noted by court documentation. Data Dialogues: inquiry with others around student information to uncover inequities, promote informed investigations and assist in understanding the meaning of data and the next steps to have an impact on data. Data Informed: accessing data, applying meaning to it and using data to have an impact on student success. Developmental Level/Age: the age of an individual determined by degree of emotional, mental and physiological maturity as compared with typical behaviors and characteristics of that chronological age. Disclosure: the act or an instance of exposure or revelation. Diversity: the inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation and the intersection of cultural and social identities. Dual Relationship: a relationship in which a school counselor is concurrently participating in two or more roles with a student. Empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts and experience of another without having the feelings, thoughts and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner. Emancipated Minors: minors who are legally freed from control by their parents/guardians, and the parents/guardians are freed from any and all responsibility toward the children. Encryption: process of putting information into a coded form to control and limit access to authorized users. Equity: treated fairly; educational equity occurs when educators provide all students with the high-quality instruction and support they need to reach and exceed a common standard. Ethics: the norms and principles of conduct and philosophy governing the profession. Ethical Behavior: actions defined by standards of conduct for the profession. Ethical Obligation: a standard or set of standards defining the course of action for the profession. Ethical Rights: the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention or ethical theory. Feasible: capable of being done, affected or accomplished easily or conveniently. Gender Expression: the ways in which students manifest masculinity or femininity in terms of clothing, communication patterns and interests, which may or may not reflect the student’s gender identity. Gender Identity: one’s personal experience of one’s own gender. When one’s gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the student may identify as transgender. Guardian Ad Litem: a guardian appointed by a court to watch after someone during a case. Harassment: the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted disturbing or troubling persecution. Informed Consent: assisting students in acquiring an understanding of the limits of confidentiality, the benefits, facts and risks of entering into a counseling relationship. Intervention: to provide modifications, materials, advice, aids, services or other forms of support to have a positive impact on the outcome or course of a condition. Legal Mandates: a judicial command or precept issued by a court or magistrate, directing proper behavior to enforce a judgment, sentence or decree. Legal Rights: those rights bestowed onto a person by a given legal system. Mandatory Reporting: the legal requirement to report to authorities. Minors: persons under the age of 18 years unless otherwise designated by statute or regulation. Oppression: unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power. Perception: a mental image or awareness of environment through a physical sensation; a capacity for understanding or a result of an observation. Peer Helper: peer-to-peer interaction in which individuals who are of approximately the same age take on a helping role assisting students who may share related values, experiences and lifestyles. Peer Support: programs enhancing the effectiveness of the school counseling program while increasing outreach and raising student awareness of services. Privacy: the right of an individual to keep oneself and one’s personal information free from unauthorized disclosure. Privileged Communication: conversation that takes place within the context of a protected relationship, such as that between an attorney and client, spouses, a priest and penitent, a doctor and patient and, in some states, a school counselor and student. Professional Development: the process of improving and increasing capabilities through access to education and training opportunities. Racial Bias: a personal and unreasoned judgment made solely on an individual’s race. Racism: when individuals, systems or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity. Relationship: a connection, association or involvement. Risk Assessment: a systematic process of evaluating potential risks. School Counseling Supervisor: a qualified professional who provides guidance, teaching and support for the professional development of school counselors and school counseling candidates. Serious and Foreseeable Harm: when a reasonable person can anticipate significant and harmful possible consequences. Sole-Possession Records: records used only as a personal memory aid that are kept in the sole possession of the maker of the record and are not accessible or revealed to any other person except a temporary substitute for the maker of the record and provide only professional opinion or personal observations. Sole-possession records are exempted from the definition of educational records and FERPA protection. Stakeholder: a person or group sharing an investment or interest in the students and/or school community (e.g., parents/guardians, school staff, administrators, business and community interest groups, school board members, etc.). Systemic Change: change affecting the entire system; transformational; change affecting more than an individual or series of individuals; focused upon the dynamic of the environment, not the individual. Supervision: a collaborative relationship in which one person promotes and/or evaluates the development of another. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972: a law that demands that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Universal Screener: gathers information regarding behavioral and mental health issues by either reviewing existing data/input from educators or by asking questions directly of students. Schools receiving federal funding that use a universal screener asking even one question from one of the eight protected areas under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) must obtain active consent from parents/guardians if a student is required to complete the screening and passive consent if the screening is voluntary (U.S. Department of Education, PPRA, 2022). Virtual/Distance Counseling: counseling by electronic means. When choosing people to serve on the board of directors entrepreneurs should consider those who have?622 Test 1. How a product or service is priced is a function of the company's ____?How a product or service is priced is a function of a company's goals. Price skimming is finding out what customers are willing to pay for the product and pricing it accordingly. Pricing is not designed to cover total costs but to maximize total contribution⎯that is, unit price minus unit variable costs.
Why do entrepreneurs avoid hiring employees as long as possible?Most entrepreneurs try to avoid hiring employees as long as possible, because employees are the single biggest expense in the business. Because consultants tend to be fairly expensive, they are best used for critical, one-time advising or problem-solving assignments.
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