Carolyn Stone, Ed.D., is a Professor Emerita of Counselor Education at the University of North Florida (UNF). Dr. Stone is a Past President of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Dr. Stone was ASCAs Ethics Chair from 2002 to 2022 and chaired the last four revisions of the ethical standards. Prior to coming to UNF, Dr. Stone spent 22 years with Jacksonville, Florida’s Public Schools as an elementary and high school counselor, middle school teacher and Supervisor of Guidance Services for 225 school counselors.
School counselors must negotiate the competing interests of the overregulated school environment, student’s need for confidentiality and the legal rights of parents to be the guiding voice in their children lives. Updates on these competing interests will be discussed through recent state legislation and court developments. Legal rulings will be highlighted in areas relevant to student service professionals such as academic advising, child abuse reporting, student privacy, parental rights, educational records, artificial intelligence, first amendment rights, qualified privilege, and boundary issues. The goal is to facilitate participants’ legal literacy and provide guiding principles to support best practice.
A boundary crossing is a departure from the verbal and physical boundaries normally maintained between a student and a school counselor. Extending boundaries while recognizing the need to carefully evaluate a boundary crossing before proceeding is an important consideration in the counseling profession. School counselors may sometimes demonstrate support or loyalty by softening professional distance. Explore the school counselor’s role in balancing the complex work of providing support to students while remaining vigilant about the responsibility to ensure students’ emotional safety. Learn how to evaluate the risks and benefits before extending a relationship beyond your professional role, time, and setting. A deviation from standard practice should prompt school counselors to reflect carefully on the rationale for their actions before proceeding.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs student educational records, including information relevant to school counseling practice. The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) addresses the collection of student information in eight protected areas and in circumstances that require parent/guardian notification, consent, or the opportunity to opt out. Focus on role-specific case analysis that addresses these two federal laws, including sole possession and school counseling records, legitimate educational interest, information sharing, parent/guardian and student notification, privacy considerations, protected areas, substantial interest, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), disclosure and consent exceptions. Gain a heightened awareness of FERPA and PPRA requirements to help prevent unintentional breaches and resultant consequences.
School counselors can be powerful strategists when applying legal muscle to problems that impact the educational environment. Federal and case law can protect victims of trauma and marginalized youth. Intervening on behalf of students is infinitely easier if there is a law that provides leverage. This session focuses on the rights of students who are in foster care, victims of dating violence, trauma survivors, without permanent housing, witnesses to domestic violence, sexually harassed, bullied, abused, pregnant or parenting and/or neglected. Legal understanding coupled with our ethical imperative to advocate is a formidable combination and increases the odds that counselors will have sway in systemic change and individual support.
School counselors know and accept without equivocation their responsibility in suicide intervention. The role is clear and appropriate given the hundreds of students for whom they are responsible. Any time it comes to the attention of the school counselor that a child is in danger of suicide the absolute obligation is to call parents/guardians. Counselors do not wait for certainty, rather, even a remote possibility of suicide is enough to establish duty. However, more and more school districts are requiring school counselors to do the impossible, quantify suicide. Determining the lethality of suicide is problematic on so many levels not the least of which is the fallibility of assessing suicidal risk. This presentation will discuss the standard of care for school counselors when being required to quantify suicide risk. Court cases and extensive research will be discussed which cement the dangers in trying to judge the likelihood of suicide. Participants will gain information about best practices in working with students who might possibly be suicidal.
School counselors enjoy protected speech as given to them by the First Amendment. Yet, school counselors’ position of trust and authority can result in having their speech checked at the schoolhouse door. School counselors’ private speech can also result in grounds for dismissal. Case law has implications for school counselors’ verbal, symbolic, and written expression. Can school counselors display in their office support for LGBTQ+, Black Lives Matter, or Human Rights? Can their diversity curriculum have a decided point of view and if so, whose? Courts have issued case law guidance ranging from personal social media use to public rantings against school board policies and everything in between. School counselors’ voices are critical and made more powerful when they know and honor their limitations and freedom to speak.
The school environment poses competing interests between a student’s need for confidentiality and the legal rights of parents as established by the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court of the United States, and state statutes to be the guiding voice in their children lives in value-laden issues. Participants will develop an ethical decision-making framework for analyzing and resolving ethical issues through the application of ASCA ethical standards, case and statutory law, school board rules, and community standards. Through discussion of case studies, participants will be given the opportunity to increase their understanding of the juxtaposition of respecting a student’s confidentiality with an understanding of parental rights. Participants will develop an awareness to consider their actions in context of each situation.
School counselors must negotiate the competing interests of the overregulated school environment, students’ need for confidentiality and the legal rights of parents to be the guiding voice in their children’s lives. Updates on these competing interests will be discussed through 10 primary court rulings that guide legal work of counselors in schools. Legal rulings will be highlighted in areas such as parental rights, academic advising, child abuse reporting, educational records, first amendment rights, and student privacy. Particular attention will be given to the developing laws regarding cyber speech and other uses of social media that are difficult to address without offending the first amendment. Through case study and the application of federal, state, and judge made laws, participants will actively dialogue in a lively forum. The goal is to facilitate participants’ legal literacy and provide guiding principles to support best ethical practice.
In recent years, twenty-six states have passed a version of a Parents Bill of Rights (PBR) law. Thirty-two states have in legislation or court proceedings the strict scrutiny (SS) doctrine which means the government cannot enforce a law that infringes on a fundamental right such as parenting. These laws along with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) have underscored what school counselors have long held as a truth, that parents have a right to be the guiding voice in children’s lives in value-laden issues. School counselors have always held that parents are critical in student success, however, well-meaning, these laws make it difficult to negotiate when they demand a one-size-fits-all when competing interest of these laws take away a student’s opportunity for a safe place. Updates on these competing interests will be discussed through court rulings and the ASCA Ethical Standards. Particular attention will be given to school counselors as defendants. The purpose of this discussion will be to facilitate participants’ legal literacy and provide guiding principles to support best ethical practice for both parents and students.
Artificial intelligence has had a dramatic impact on school counselors’ advocacy work and students’ college admission submissions. AI is bringing unique challenges, but more importantly, greater opportunities in the advising, assessing, and advocating roles in college admissions. AI is impacting how admissions officers are evaluating applications, school counselors supporting the college admissions journey, and how students are preparing their submissions. This session brings together the recent research in the ethical and legal use of AI in college admission along with practical strategies to uphold the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the ASCA Ethical Standards, and the ASCA, College Board and the National Association of College Admissions best practices in AI. The common thread throughout this presentation will be how to legally and ethically use AI as a powerful advocacy tool to level the playing field in college admissions.
