In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, school counselors played an essential role in helping students, teachers, and families pivot to new learning environments and implemented services to promote students' academic, social-emotional, and career development. In this study, we analyzed school counselors' (N = 589) delivery of program services and their individual and school characteristics to identify four approaches to school counseling: reactive, universal, consultative/collaborative, and comprehensive during the first wave of the pandemic. School counselors in the reactive profile spent most of their time engaged in noncounselor-duties and reported the highest levels of burnout. Conversely, counselors belonging to the comprehensive profile devoted the most time to delivering consultation, coordination, counseling, and curriculum services and limited engagement in noncounseling-related duties. This study emphasizes the importance of defining the school counselors' roles and responsibilities and the extent to which school counselors were able to deliver their school counselor services during the global pandemic.
We utilized a mixed-methods design to understand how a national sample of 589 school counselors adapted their approach to address K–12 students’ academic, social/emotional, and career development during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we examined how COVID-19–induced disparities influenced school counselors’ delivery of services. We identified six themes using thematic analysis and conducted a t test to further understand what services and strategies counselors were actively using 6 months after the onset of COVID-19. Our findings suggest that school counselors continued to adjust their comprehensive school counseling programs to address pandemic-induced disparities.
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