This chapter provides a general foundation for the impact of developmental age on the presentation and treatment of co-occurring disorders, highlighting current understanding of how those of the younger lifespan and older lifespan compare to adults. Co-occurring disorders impact individuals of all ages and the counselors who can adapt to the unique biopsychosocial contexts across the lifespan will be in a better position to create meaningful change in partnership with their clients. The impact of chronic disease and disability at these ages is also emphasized in this chapter.

According to the American School Counselor Association, school counselors have both an ethical and professional responsibility to help all students meet or exceed academic standards by supporting them with academic, career, and social-emotional development, with consideration for both the strengths and challenges that result from working with students with disabilities or other special needs. However, students receiving special education services are often excluded from school counseling interventions. The purpose of this chapter is to address the need for school counseling interventions related to exceptional students. This chapter will highlight this issue and provide recommendations for school counselor collaboration with special education staff to ensure appropriate service delivery to all.

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) published a list of appropriate and inappropriate school counseling duties to serve as a guide for PK–12 education related to the intended role and focus of the school counseling profession. School counseling practicum and internship students, as well as recent graduates, are often surprised and frustrated with what they experience as an incongruency between their training focused on an aspirational model and real-life counseling practice. The reality of school counseling practice is that contracts almost always include an “other duties as assigned” clause for both classroom teachers and professional school counselors that require activities that seem unrelated to the training or role of school counseling. This chapter will provide a framework for understanding how these “inappropriate duties” can be embraced by practicing school counselors (while at the same time advocating for change) in order to make connections with students, encourage collaboration, and demonstrate creative approaches to various duties.

While the community mental health profession has provided online counseling interventions regularly in the form of telehealth counseling, this counseling platform is not as frequently offered, nor explored, in the scholarly literature related to school counseling. With the onset of online PK–12 instruction throughout the United States in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, school counselors were forced to adjust their reach to align with the virtual platform. This chapter explores the best practice recommendations related to providing school counseling interventions in an online/virtual format.

Classroom engagements and lessons are an important part of the role of school counselors. Classroom guidance allows for systemic change and collaboration with the teachers. Classroom guidance should be implemented in PK–12 settings and focus on academics, career, and personal/social domains consistent with a comprehensive school counseling program. This chapter will focus on developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant classroom guidance lessons/presentations for each level of school counseling. A discussion of relevance, scholarly support, best practice, classroom management strategies and practical application will be provided.

This chapter serves as an introduction to building a comprehensive school counseling program (CSCP). In a CSCP, school counselors serve as collaborative leaders advocating for systemic change using data and incorporating an equity lens with every decision made. CSCPs are developed, delivered, and maintained to promote student success in academic, career, and social/emotional domains. Examples of how varying school districts throughout the United States approach school counseling programs are included. This chapter also provides guidance for school counselors through the process of developing a CSCP. Scholarly support for the benefits of a CSCP are presented, and practical application of the model, including the benefits of a CSCP for multiple stakeholders, are discussed.

We present the benefits of collaborations with school staff to support student success from research-based and applied perspectives. We make recommendations for staff engagement regarding presentation of data, professional development training opportunities, and school community-building strategies. We discuss school counselor self-advocacy, specifically regarding situations in which school policy may conflict with ethical guidelines.

This chapter focuses on the role of professional school counselors as related to the importance of collaborating with the school and local community to promote family engagement. Systems theory is applied, and research addressing the positive academic implications related to family engagement is presented. Specific strategies and useful tips are discussed. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model carefully outlines the role of school counselors in consultation and collaboration engagement with families and community stakeholders. Additionally, ASCA tasks school counselors with addressing barriers to these partnerships, such as communication and access (2016). Ideally, school counselors in training gain knowledge and skills in this area during their graduate training programs, but many gain most of their preservice experience in this area during their field experiences (i.e., practicum and internship). This is because, in large part, CACREP standards do not currently require a graduate-level course in family–school collaboration, although some programs instill this content into other courses. As PK–12 student needs increase and school counselors must partner with families and communities more than ever, it is advantageous for counselor educators to add specific family-community-school coursework into graduate training programs. The authors of this chapter will use the terms parent, family, and caregiver to describe a variety of constellations that include caregivers, guardians, home environments, and other words used in related research and broader conversations as it relates to systems in which our students live.