The McKinney--Vento Act mandates schools to provide students experiencing homelessness or residential instability with access to a stable education by removing barriers to enrollment and attendance (National Center for Homeless Education [NCHE], 2014). Despite this federal legislation guaranteeing students the right to attend school without proof…

School counselors play key roles in recognizing and addressing students' social-emotional and academic needs and providing short-term counseling and crisis interventions focusing on mental health concerns. Research shows that play therapy is a developmentally responsive intervention for school-aged children (Ray et al., 2014). Many school…

Conflicts within the school setting include negative behaviors to include: withdrawing from class discussions, initiating physical altercations with other students to include fights, verbal disputes with other students and authority figures and damaging school property. Studies indicate there is a need for more research to determine whether…

The purpose of this study was to investigate novice school counselors' experiences of on-site supervision during practicum and internship in their graduate programs. The main objective was to understand the supervision process for school counselors-in-training (SCIT), which needs to be more well-defined and studied compared to other counseling…

Purpose: Post-COVID-19, public K-12 schools are still facing the consequences of the years of interrupted learning. Schools serving minoritized students are particularly at risk for facing challenges with academics, behavior and student social emotional health. The university counseling programs are in positions to build capacity in urban schools…

We developed a Creative Thinking Counseling Teaching Program (CTCTP) for Grade 7 students using the self-concept of the counseling curriculum as the primary development axis and investigated how this program influences creativity, creative tendency, and self-concept. We adopted a non-equivalent control group pre-test--post-test quasi-experimental…

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of 10 professional school counselors' usage of child-centered play therapy (CCPT). Research participants holding the CCPT credential means that they possessed former training to utilize play therapy in schools. At the time of this study, limited research existed about the experiences of…

Overall, the United States' population continues to substantially increase in cultural diversity (NCES, 2018; NCES, 2020a; NCES, 2020b), therefore increasing the overall diversity of students in school settings. Children from minoritized groups have a higher risk of experiencing poverty (US Census Bureau, 2017), problem behaviors (Post et al.,…

School counselors actively pursue postgraduate professional development to stay current with the best social-emotional learning (SEL) implementation practices. Professional development can vary depending on the school district. Despite these discrepancies, school counselors recognize how intentional professional development can further strengthen…

Despite widespread effects of parental substance use on children, little is known about the experiences of school counselors working with this student population. We examine the experiences of elementary school counselors working with school-aged children affected by parental substance use. Eight school counselors participated in semistructured…

Most military-connected students (MCS) with active-duty parents attend public schools in the United States. Due to the highly mobile military lifestyles of MCS, some are at risk for academic, emotional, and social challenges. School counselors are often charged with supporting and advocating for MCS; therefore, it is vital to understand elementary…

Student-teacher relationships and school belongingness are both strong predictors for students' academic success (Goodenow & Grady, 1993; Hattie, 2009). Experiences related to their cultural identities also inform how they perceive their educational environment (Kutsyuruba et al., 2015) and may also predict academic success. Although current…

School counselors in training receive support from their preparation programs; upon graduation, the expectation is that novice school counselors have the necessary tools to meet the needs of their students and the school-wide community. Understanding the collective experience of school counselors is crucial in determining if and how they were…

The mental health needs of K-12 students have grown significantly in recent years, necessitating innovative approaches to support their emotional, psychological, and social well-being. This article explores integrating Ecodaemonia, a nature-based framework, into school counseling programs. We provide a guide for developing, implementing, and…

This study explored school counselors' perceptions and knowledge of trauma-informed practices, self-efficacy in promoting these practices, and the extent to which school counseling programs provided relevant training. A majority of participants believed they were not sufficiently prepared in their school counseling programs. The culturally…