Senate Bill No. 220
(By Senator Edgell, Unger, Hunter, Redd, Rowe, Mitchell, Helmick,
Caldwell, Anderson, Wooton, Minard, Kessler, Ross Snyder,
Jackson, Oliverio Sprouse, Minear, Facemyer, Boley, Chafin and
Tomblin, Mr. President)
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[Introduced January 16, 2002; referred to the Committee
on Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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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 the term
"counseling-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.
ยง18-5-18b. 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 chapter eighteen-a of this code.
(b) Each county board of education, by the school year one
thousand nine hundred eighty-seven--eighty-eight, 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 career and physical personal/social needs, in accordance
with the rules established by the state board; including programs
to identify and address the problem of potential school dropouts.
The school counselor may also 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 and regulations
regarding the activities of the school counselor, and the
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 therewith with the provisions of this article and
the national standards. County boards shall provide training for
counselors and administrators to implement the national standards
as provided in this section.
(e) Each county board of education 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 work day to counseling-related
administrative activities. Provided, That such activities are
counselor related For the purpose of this section only "counseling-
related administrative activities" shall include: 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" shall 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 herein shall prohibit a county board from
exceeding the provisions of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the state board
of education to adopt rules defining the role of school counselors
and to clarify the meaning of the term "counseling-related
administrative activities" to ensure that school guidance
counselors have sufficient time to devote to direct counseling
activities with students.
Strike throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.