Counseling Team
Meet Our Team
SCHOOL COUNSELING AT MEADOWLARK
School counselors provide support to all students in K-8th grades to improve their success at school by working with them to develop social/emotional skills, academic skills, and career plans and in alignment with BVSD and (ASCA) guidelines. Students are assigned a school counselor based on their grade. In addition to ongoing learning community activities provided in collaboration with teachers, students may access counseling services through self-referral, teacher referral, or parent/guardian referral.
TYPES OF COUNSELING SERVICES
Individual counseling: School counselors provide brief, short-term counseling to individual students with the goal to help students develop the skills to be successful at school. Students in need of long-term therapy and or who have ongoing mental health needs should access mental health supports in the community.
Small group counseling: Counselors provide short-term group counseling to students to address the development of specific skills, but require more targeted instruction or repeated practice.
Learning community counseling: Counselors provide support to learning communities through collaboration and teaching of specific skills to support the social/emotional, academic, and career development of all students.
AREAS OF COUNSELING SUPPORT
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Meadowlark School provides daily social and emotional instruction during huddle to all students. Huddle is based on the standards of the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the American School Counseling Association (ASCA)with the goal to proactively teach self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Strong social emotional skills are highly correlated with school and future career success.
ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
At Meadowlark, our counseling program implements strategies and activities to support and maximize each student’s ability to learn. School counselors’ role in supporting student’s academic development includes advocating for students and their individual needs, supporting the development of academic and 21st Century skills, and helping students become responsible for their learning. School counselors collaborate with teachers and families to identify student needs and help create plans of support.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Student-led learning is a core value of Meadowlark School. This includes helping students understand the connection between school and the world of work. Counselors help students explore connections between academics and future aspirations, as well as plan for successful transitions between learning communities and larger transitions, such as moving from 8th grade to high school. Students in grade 5-8 have access to Naviance, a post-secondary planning tool used across BVSD that helps students plan for high school and post-secondary education and career opportunities, and receive guidance from school counselors to create Individual Career and Academic Plans (ICAP).
MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE
Every BVSD elementary school has a Mental Health Advocate (MHA) to support acute mental health needs of students in grades K-8 through short-term intervention and/or support with referral to outside mental health supports. Students are referred to the MHA by the school counselors when immediate needs for support arise (such as recent grief or trauma impacting a student) or when mental health needs require more intensive or ongoing support than school counselors are able to provide through brief, short-term counseling.