Senate Bill No. 20
(By Senators Edgell and Minard)
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[Introduced January 8, 2003; referred to the Committee on
Education.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eighteen-b, article five,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to school
guidance counselors; clarifying duties; and defining
"counselor-related administrative activities".
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eighteen-b, article five, chapter eighteen of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-18b. School counselors in public schools.
(a) A school counselor means a professional educator who holds
a valid school counselor's certificate in accordance with article
three of this chapter.
(b) Each county board shall provide counseling services for each pupil enrolled in the public schools of the county.
(c) The school counselor shall work with individual pupils and
groups of pupils in providing developmental, preventive and
remedial guidance and counseling programs to meet academic, social,
emotional and physical career and personal/social needs, including
programs to identify and address the problem of potential school
dropouts, in accordance with the rules established by the state
board. The school counselor also may provide consultant services
for parents, teachers and administrators and may use outside
referral services, when appropriate, if no additional cost is
incurred by the county board.
(d) The state board may shall adopt rules consistent with the
provisions of this section that define the role of a school
counselor based on the "National Standards for School Counseling
Programs" of the American school counselor association. A school
counselor is authorized to perform such services as are not
inconsistent with the provisions of the rule as adopted by the
state board. To the extent that any funds are made available for
this purpose, County boards shall provide training for counselors
and administrators to implement the rule as adopted by the state
board.
(e) Each county board shall develop a comprehensive drop-out
prevention program utilizing using the expertise of school
counselors and any other appropriate resources available.
(f) School counselors shall be full-time professional
personnel, shall spend at least seventy-five percent of work time
in a direct counseling relationship with pupils, and shall devote
no more than one fourth of the workday to counseling-related
administrative activities: Provided, That such activities are
counselor related.
For the purpose of this section only
"counseling-related administrative activities" includes:
developing and implementing counseling-related events such as
orientation and transition programs, financial aid workshops,
career and college planning processes, developmental guidance
activities, preventive-focused programs, and other student-centered
activities; writing letters of recommendation containing
discriminate information; supervising the maintenance of student
records; and maintaining accurate counseling case notes. For
purposes of this section only, "counseling-related administrative
activities" does not include activities of a clerical nature such
as data entry, the filing of student records and forms, and the
duplication of documents and materials for distribution.
(g) Nothing in this section prohibits a county board from
exceeding the provisions of this section, or requires any specific
level of funding by the Legislature.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify the duties of
school guidance counselors and to define "counseling-related
administrative activities" as those activities related to school
guidance counselors.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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