Sen. Leising reintroduces bill to help school counselors focus on students

Monday, December 9, 2024 at 7:58 AM

By Staff report

Under the bill, beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, a school would have to ensure that at least 60% of a school counselor's time is spent providing direct services to students.

State Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) is again filing a bill to ensure that school counselors are able to spend most of their time providing direct services to students rather than performing clerical duties.

She introduced a similar bill last year that passed nearly unanimously in the Indiana Senate but did not receive a hearing in the House of Representatives. Leising is joined on the bill by Sens. Sue Glick (R-LaGrange) and Vaneta Becker (R-Evansville).

Under the bill, beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, a school would have to ensure that at least 60% of a school counselor's time is spent providing direct services to students, including classroom instruction, assisting in creating a plan for college and career readiness, dropout prevention, social and emotional supports and individual student planning.

"School counselors are trained to provide direct services to students, so it is unfair to them and their students to force them to spend a significant amount of their time on clerical work that could be handled by another staff member," Leising said. "This is especially important as we are dealing with a shortage of counselors and a burgeoning mental health crisis among the young people of this state."

Additionally, beginning with the 2027-2028 school year, a school would have to ensure that at least 80% of a school counselor's time is spent on providing these services.

Schools that have more than one counselor for every 350 students, however, are exempt from the requirements.

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