Deciding to become a school counselor was, in Renita Brooks’ estimation, “the best decision ever.”
“Connecting with the students, advocating for them—because I’m a big advocate for anybody—it’s just been really meaningful,” she said.
Brooks, a school counselor in Cincinnati public schools in Ohio, is Black, which puts her in a small group—approximately 11 percent—of school counselors nationally, according to membership data from the American School Counselors Association. About 10 percent of counselors are Hispanic. A majority—about 74 percent—of school counselors are white.
Meanwhile, the demographics of students are changing dramatically. Students of color make up more than half of the nation’s public school student population, but that’s not reflected by the educator force. School counselors are an important piece of that puzzle, researchers say, but recruitment and retention efforts are hindered by systemwide staffing woes, and many schools already don’t have enough counselors to meet ASCA’s recommended ratio of 250 students to one counselor.
Yet in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, students—particularly Black students—are facing significant mental health challenges and are struggling academically.
“When you have those dynamics, and you have a significant need, and yet you have teachers are white, school counselors who are white—that wall of accessing services, I think, it just lengthens,” said Wendy Eckenrod-Green, a professor in the school of teacher education and leadership for Radford University who trains counselors.
‘You’re white. You don’t understand.’
Eckenrod-Green’s research has shown that students who have a counselor or teacher who looks like them feel more safe and secure, and the student feels better about accessing mental health resources.
As a white woman, she’s seen the initial distrust among students of color firsthand, she said, noting she has had to work hard to build safety and security with students of color.
“They’ve told me that: ‘You’re white. You don’t understand,’” she said. “Or they have fears, that are real or imagined, that their families will be deported, or their families will be reported to social services, if they’re undocumented, as an example. It is a real fear they live with. … Because of that, they don’t access services that would be helpful for them.”
There’s a level of distrust students have toward counseling staff. The lack of cultural match is certainly a factor at play, said Kamla Modi, senior director of design and impact for The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit focused on youth mental health.
When studying mental health stigma and barriers to mental health supports, Modi found high school students had a “feeling of ‘they don’t really understand me’ when it comes to school counselors.”
Across all race and ethnicity groups, teens were more likely to say that they would go to their parents for support, followed by their friends, then another family member, Modi said. School mental health professionals—such as psychologists and counselors—were not listed near the top.
The percentages of Black and Hispanic students who needed mental health support and received it were significantly lower than of white students, Modi said, looking at the JED high school data set. There are many possible reasons for that—like where they prefer to go for help—she said, and that students of color are less likely to see counselors who look like them.
“Students don’t see school counselors, or even teachers for that matter, as people who they can trust in their circle. That’s pretty concerning and there’s much more work we need to do there,” she said.
Carletta Hurt, a school counselor in the District of Columbia’s public schools, has pushed for students to see her as an advocate. She moved from classroom teaching to counseling after witnessing and observing the challenges Black girls like her faced in the school systems. Even when students aren’t receptive at first to the support, she stays in their corner and tries to help bridge their experiences with educators.
“If students are able to have an advocate in the building, someone they know they can go to, even when stuff is bad—they can still say, ‘Hey, Dr. Hurt, can you help me?’ That’s been a powerful tool for us to make progress,” she said.
Her colleague Melva Mullins, a clinical social worker in the city’s school system who is Black, has also worked hard to build trust and break the stigma associated with getting mental health supports. She has her success stories: Two girls, fighting, each individually pulled her out of class to help mediate. One student, who caused trouble in class, came to her reflecting that he should apologize to the teacher.
“Oftentimes, we don’t see the efforts of all our hard work,” she said. “But what keeps me here is that hope, and also those shining moments. I’ve been earning my check all week, but this right here—worth it.”
An effort in recruiting and building the pipeline
There have been targeted efforts to increase diversity in the school counselor pool, including new pipeline initiatives.
For instance, the diversity of students in the school counselor program at Marquette University in Wisconsin wouldn’t be where it was without a $2.66 million federal grant aiming at bolstering counseling services, and creating a more culturally diverse field, said Alan Burkard, a school counselor educator there.
Typically, the program brings in largely white women and only about 15 percent students of color. Since receiving the grant about a year and a half ago, though, the current cohort of students is 80 percent people of color.
“It’s a really dramatic shift for our program in terms of students we’re attracting,” he said. “The scholarships help. It is really helping to provide opportunities for students to get this training, but then also to really help potentially diversify the workforce here in Wisconsin, which needs to happen.”
The grant helps fuel an accelerated program which allows students to take graduate classes as an undergraduate, allowing them to complete their degrees and get into the field faster.
For their field experiences, the counselor candidates are placed in four districts that mostly serve students of color. Schoolchildren have commented that the student counselors in the program look like them, Burkard said.
Those aspiring counselors have started leading group sessions in Spanish, making mental health services more accessible. And the counselors can help act as a bridge to offset disproportionate disciplinary practices.
“Our students are certainly having an impact,” he said.
