Are We Gatekeepers?

I was recently having a conversation with a colleague in which they were talking about their experience with their high-school counselor, "back-in-the-day."  This colleague described how the one time that they sought out their high-school counselor for some advice on the post-secondary process that they were told they were "not college material."

This colleague has gone on to get a Master's degree and an Education Specialist degree and is having a strong impact upon their own students as a school counselor.

While there are many things that are concerning to me about this story, one of the points that gives me pause is that this experience was only about ten years ago.  As a school counselor, I have heard from many friends and acquaintances over the years of similar interactions with their own school counselors.  My own experience with my assigned school counselor was one in which she handed me my ACT scores, asked me if I was thinking of going to college, and pointed to some books on a shelf that was falling apart in the hallway in case I needed any help trying to come up with ideas.  However, these are typically indicative of situations that happened 20 or so years ago--we've come a long way since then.  Right?  As I pondered my colleague's story this week, I began to wonder if this happened to them only ten years ago, how much of this is still going on today?  Are we, as school counselors, supposed to be acting as "gatekeepers," telling students what classes they can and cannot take, and deciding if they are going to go to college, a trade school, or straight into the work-force?

The answer is a resounding, "no."  If you look at the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Code of Ethics, it states: 

From the Preamble: 

Each person has the right to receive the information and support needed to move toward self-direction and self-development and affirmation within one’s group identities, with special care being given to students who have historically not received adequate educational services, e.g., students of color, students living at a low socio-economic status, students with disabilities and students from non-dominant language backgrounds. 

Each person has the right to understand the full magnitude and meaning of his/her educational choices and how those choices will affect future opportunities. 

From A.3:

b. Ensure equitable academic, career, post-secondary access and personal/social opportunities for all students through the use of data to help close achievement gaps and opportunity gaps.

c. Provide and advocate for individual students’ career awareness, exploration and post-secondary plans supporting the students’ right to choose from the wide array of options when they leave secondary education. 

e. Promote the welfare of individual students and collaborate with them to develop an action plan for success.  (source: www.schoolcounselor.org)

Our code of ethics is telling us that we have a responsibility to make all of our students aware of all of their possible options but that the choice is ultimately up to them.  We collaborate with the student and the family to make decisions and plan for the future.  It is not enough, anymore, to choose on our own, what is best for a student with regards to class selections and post-secondary options.  Rather, as school counselors it is now incumbent upon us to educate a student and family about what options they have, what the possible ramifications and outcomes might be from their choices, and then to allow the student and family to make the best decision for them based upon the information they have been given.  As I've written about before, during academic advising my role would be to look at the available information (grades, test scores, teacher feedback) with the student, discuss the pros and cons of each choice, examine the student's post-secondary and long-term goals, and give my thoughts and recommendations.  Ultimately, though, the choice is up to the student and family as to how they would like to proceed.  Post-secondary planning is no different.  I work with my students to show them all of the available options to include four-year schools, two-year schools, military options, and gap years, we talk about how they stack up based on available statistics, and then they make their own choices as to where to apply and what they might do.

Our profession has transformed from one in which we guard the doors, deciding who gets to go through the one marked "college-bound" versus "trades" or "military" into one in which we provide students access to all of the possible doors and paths available, with a mind that some portals may be accessed at a later time.  This shift in our role is now more important than ever before.  The College Board recently released a study that discussed how many students are "undermatched" with regards to their college choice.  The study argues that there are students with the strong academic ability who do not access more "selective" colleges that would perhaps provide stronger rigor and educational opportunities.  Some of the factors that may be at play with this are the location of the school (city vs. suburban or rural), number of colleges and universities within a close radius of the school, and the number of adults in the area who have attained four-year degrees.  However, the study also acknowledges that more research needs to be done to determine why some schools have higher rates of "undermatching" than others.  Further, one needs to be careful with the idea of college-match and fit, as the best school for a student may not be the most competitive college to which they are admitted, as is discussed in this open letter.  Nevertheless, the study should give us pause as to think about whether we are challenging our students and encouraging them to take rigorous courses.  It should cause us to reflect upon whether we are providing our students with the full-range of post-secondary choices, including competitive state and private schools.

In addition, one of our goals is to help our students become college-and-career ready.  A recent review of data by ACT shows that many of our students are entering college without having met the benchmarks necessary in English, Reading, Math, and Science to be fully prepared for college-level work.  Those students who took a core-curriculum, defined as four years of English, and three each of Social-Studies, Math, and Science, met these benchmarks at a much higher rate.  As post-secondary training of some kind, whether it is a four-year school or a two-year school, becomes necessary for economic sustainability throughout one's lifetime, we must continue to strongly encourage our students to engage in a rigorous curriculum in order to insure that once they get to that post-secondary place, they are successful.  I have heard many times in education the comment that for those kids who are not four-year college bound (maybe not right away, and who decides this?), some of these higher-level classes and additional years of courses are not necessary.  I would counter that they are.  For example, here in Northern Virginia we have a very strong community college program with a variety of degrees and certificates available to our students.  However, regardless of whether a student's goal is get a degree that will allow them to transfer to a four-year school or to go through a year-long program that will allow them to work in an auto-body shop, they still have to meet minimum educational standards to begin taking courses that will count for credit towards a degree or certificate.  The math placement test for all students contains Algebra 2 content.  If students graduate without having taken this class and do not perform well on this test, they will have to enroll in and pay for non-credit skill-building classes until they have gained that knowledge.  This has become a real issue, as students graduate with high-school diplomas, but enter into colleges needing to take and pay for these skill-building courses for years, in some instances, before they can start on a degree or certificate.  Many of these students will simply give up, as a result, either of frustration or because of the cost.  As school counselors, we must insure that our students have access to these classes and advocate for systemic supports to help students be successful in these courses, perhaps double-blocking in the upper-level math classes, providing an additional support class, asking for classes that use these skills in real-world hand-on applications, or finding access to additional tutoring.  It is no longer enough the get them through a high-school diploma--they need to possess the skills and knowledge necessary to engage from the start in their post-secondary plan.

As we enter the season of academic-advising to include post-secondary planning, I would challenge you to think about your approach with students.  Do you stand by the gate, deciding who gets to enter and who does not, or do you open the doors for all of your students, giving them the information necessary to make informed choices for themselves, both for the short and the long term?  As we continue to build to a K-16 model of education, your answer is more important now than ever before.

The Road to RAMP: Goal Oriented

This is the third in a series of reflections on the RAMP process.

There are twelve components to the RAMP application.  Twelve.  Thirteen if you are re-RAMPing.  You would think that with that many components, you might be able to have some low scores on a few and still come out on top in the end.

You might be wrong.

The third section of the RAMP application is the one where you list your program goals, which should include goals that seek to close an identified achievement gap or gaps.  In my previous RAMP post, I talked about how to find data to determine where your school's needs are in order to develop appropriate interventions.  The program goals take this to the next step and formalize what this data is telling you and what your aspirations are with regards to improving and changing the outcomes.  The thing that you may not realize is that these goals will also take over your entire application.  I am finding that our goals are literally driving the majority of our RAMP train--they are a main part of not only the program goals component, but they also then appear in your annual agreement and as a part of your advisory council.  Additionally, you will very likely have have small groups and curriculum lessons that help to support your goals.  As at least one of your goals should seek to close an achievement gap, that takes care of component number eleven.  Finally, component twelve, the reflection piece, will no doubt also include some musings on your goals.  Thus, it is extremely important to make sure, from the start, that your goals are solid, because if they are not, they could cause your entire RAMP train to derail before it barely has time to get out of the station.

Here are some tips to help you formulate goals that won't cause you to jump the track:

• Base your goals in outcome data.  In my previous post, I talked about the differences between process, perception, and outcome data.  Your program goals for RAMP should be based on outcome data, meaning that they are based in academic data such as grades, test scores, graduation rates, or enrollment in advanced course work, as well as in attendance or school safety.  There is nothing wrong with perception data, but it is not as results oriented as outcome data.  Part of RAMP is showing how you and/or your department are able to effect systemic change within your school community--not just how people think or feel, but about how they act and achieve.
• Make sure there is a demonstrated need.  This ties into the previous bullet point.  Your outcome data needs to show that there is a demonstrated need that justifies your focus and time on a particular project.  Too often we set a goal for something without having a justification for why it is important.  If your goal is to try to decrease the number of suspensions by the end of the year, yet in your school there were only two students suspended the previous year, there may be better uses of your time and year-long focus.
• Use the SMART goal formula.  Many of us work on SMART goal writing and reflection with our students.  I have even heard of elementary students writing SMART goals.  We should expect the same of ourselves.  The SMART goal acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.  You want the goal to be very clear, simple, and precise.  For example, "The Smith High School Student Services Department will increase the enrollment of hispanic students in Advanced Placement classes by 10% from the previous year by June of 2013." "By June of 2013, the Chavez Middle School student services department will reduce the number of full-day absences by 15 % amongst students who have already amassed five or more in the first quarter.  If you are confused about SMART goals and want a place to start, take a look at this handout.  There is also more information in the ASCA National Model, 3rd Edition.
• Make sure they can be tied back to your Vision and Mission.  If your goals cannot be linked in some way to your Mission and Vision, one or the other (or maybe both) will need some serious reflection and discussion.  Hopefully, your Mission and Vision statements discuss your role as a school counselor or school counseling team in helping to remove academic barriers for all students and in creating a positive school climate for your community--this is a great place to start.
• One small-group or one classroom lesson do not a program or achievement goal make.  These goals should be large, over-arching goals that encompass large portions of the school year.  No matter how amazing you or your team are, the chances are very slim of a one-shot lesson or a four-session group in November being the sole agent of change with regards to an identified area of outcome data.  However, lessons and small-groups may certainly be a component of your full intervention plan and provide necessary support to your goals.
• Let the goal simply state the aspiration.  Let the program plan discuss the intervention, methods of data collection, etc..  The goals should be relatively short statements that explain what you hope to improve, with whom, and give some indication of why it may be necessary.  The interventions and the finer points are going to be flushed out in much more detail in the program plan that accompanies it.  You can access the achievement gap/program plan template here--they are also accessible with the purchase of either the hardcopy or digital edition of the ASCA Model, 3rd Edition.  
• Regularly review your progress through the year, and keep notes on your reflections.  We monitor our goals and check in regularly with each other through our department collaborative team meetings.  Through these conversations we keep notes so that as we approach the end of the year, we have information that helps to inform our RAMP narratives as well as our final reflections for our DATA reports.  Further, it helps to keep all of us in our department on track with where we feel we currently stand with the goals.  Because we are looking at outcome data, we are able to regularly see if we are on target to meet our end-of-year aspirations and adjust our interventions as needed.

My wish is that by the end of the year, we have been able to demonstrate, through hard data, our department's impact on the academic achievement of our students as well as our contributions to creating a positive, safe, and college and career going culture within our school.  By giving a lot of time to the writing and designing of our goals, and by having others review them and give us constructive feedback, my hope is that they not only reflect well in one component of the RAMP application, but shine through all twelve.

School Counseling Linky Party 2013

I am loving the chance to participate in something fun and creative--thanks to Marissa Rex over at ElementarySchoolCounseling.org for starting this (and supplying the graphics)!  For those of you who may be scratching your heads, many school counselor bloggers are taking some time to reflect on our 2012 blog posts.

I guess the aspect of my blog that I'm most pleased with this year is the posts I am doing on the Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) process.  I am fortunate to work in a school district which provides a great deal of support to us as we compile data and narratives throughout the course of the year.  I think it is important to share what I am learning and what is giving me pause for reflection as I and my department navigate these waters with the hopes that other school counselors and school counseling departments will see that with some long-range planning, assessment of tools and supports, and a willingness to dig into their data and programming, they too can begin to move towards RAMP certification if they so choose.

My favorite post is the one entitled, Mirror, Mirror: The Importance of Reflection.  As school counselors, we work so hard throughout the year meeting the needs of all the various stakeholders that come across our paths--students, teachers, parents, administrators, and community members.  Yet, as we know, we are ourselves transformed with every new interaction, relationship, and event.  It is important to reflect each year, as much as we can, on the impact that we are having on our schools through our programming and interventions, as well taking stock of the impact they are having upon us as practitioners and people.  We must be well ourselves and with ourselves in order to be able to best serve others.

The post I previously mentioned was the second-most popular post with my readers.  The number-one post, though, were my reflections on the movie, Bully.  It was a very powerful movie that many of us in the school counseling community viewed, and that many of the people within our schools saw.  The high-volume of people who have read and continue to read this post leads me to think that this is a topic that is still very much on the front of our minds, and one to which we, as school counselors, are looked to for leadership within our buildings.

I read many blogs on a variety of topics.  Here are the ones I follow most for my work in school counseling:

The Counseling Geek

I love technology, but it is not always an intuitive process.  I can get quick tips and ideas from this blog that help me streamline my practice and use my time more effectively.  If I can cut an administrative task from 10 minutes down to 5, that is five more minutes I can devote to working directly with a student or family.

The Choice: New York Times

This is a must if you are a high-school counselor and working with students on the college-admissions process.  Some of the best posts are from actual high-school seniors documenting their journey through the admissions time-line.  Additionally, they are constantly featuring posts from people who work directly in college-admissions about everything from financial-aid to early-decision.  They also send out monthly check-lists for juniors and seniors that you can share with your students to help keep them on track.

Scrapbook of a School Counselor

The thing I admire most about this writer is her courage to bare her soul about how her work in school counseling makes her feel and the questions that it raises in her daily life.  You cannot do this work and not be constantly challenged and transformed, and she is not afraid to take you on that journey with her.  She gives voice to what so many of us feel, and in that way lets school counselors know that they are not alone in their experiences.  There is a lot of power in being willing to share your story.

Pikesville High School Counseling Department

This is a relatively new blog, and it is a departmental blog for Pikesville High School in Maryland.  I love the way that information is categorized for each grade level, and there are some great posts that not only inform you as a school counselor, but that you can share with your students and families.  So far they've covered topics from finding a good college match to interpreting PSAT scores in a healthy, positive way.  As school counselors, we are tasked with helping our students develop post-secondary plans that are realistic and that provide students with a pathway to a solid future.  This is a great model for any high-school department looking to develop a blog that can be followed by their school community.

School Counselor Blog

This is the first school counselor blog out there, and since it has been around for a while it is full of a ton of useful information.  If you need elementary classroom lessons, she has you covered.  If you need resources for crisis or using technology as part of your practice, it's all there.  She features guest bloggers that bring additional depth and perspective to a variety of issues and topics in the field.  Another must-follow.

There are so many more great blogs out there--I'm sorry I can't choose all of them.

If you are interested in starting your own blog for you or your counseling department, Danielle Schultz, the creator of School Counselor Blog, will be doing a webinar through ASCA on January 16th, 2013 at 4 p.m. that will break it down and give you tips to begin.  Sign up at this link and start blogging!

Resource: Small Town & Rural LGBT Students

The Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), recently released a report that looked at the experiences of LGBT students in small town or rural schools.  In their 2011 School Climate Survey, GLSEN found that for LGBT students across the country, overall levels of harassment are beginning to decline, while support and resources in schools for these students is on the increase (source: www.glsen.org).  However, as you read these reports every two years, you wonder how the experiences for students differ based on geographical location or locale.  Their latest report, Strengths and Silences, gives us this snapshot, with a focus on those students who live in smaller, more isolated communities.  Some key findings:

• 87% of rural LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 45% reported being physically harassed and 22% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation.  
• 68% of rural LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 31% reported being physically harassed and 16% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their gender expression.  
• Rural LGBT students who experienced higher levels of victimization were less likely to plan to attend college than students who experienced lower levels of victimization (85% vs 93%).  
• 27% of rural students reported having a GSA at school, compared to 55% of suburban students and 53% of urban students. But when there was a GSA at school, rural students were more likely to attend than urban and suburban students.  
• Rural LGBT students reported feeling less safe than students in suburban and urban areas and rural students living in the South and Midwest were more likely to feel unsafe based on sexual orientation than were students in rural areas of the Northeast or West.  
• Rural LGBT students were more likely to feel unsafe at school due to their sexual orientation (71% vs. 62% of suburban and 58% of urban school students) and gender expression (49% of rural students vs. 42% of suburban and 42% of urban students).  
• 36% of rural LGBT students had missed class and/or a day of school in the past month due to feeling unsafe, compared to 30% of suburban LGBT students and 30% of urban LGBT students. (source: www.glsen.org)

Overall, our LGBT students in rural and small communities need additional supports and resources.  One of the more interesting findings of this report, however, is with regards to school counselors.  52% of rural students felt that they would be comfortable talking to a school counselor about LGBT issues, higher than any other school personnel, including teachers, administrators, and other support staff.  In fact, even in suburban and urban districts, students felt that school counselors were the go-to people with regards to conversations about LGBT issues.  However, as the report discusses, students in reality are bringing up LGBT topics most with teachers, not with counselors (source: www.glsen.org).  

This information, I believe, tells us two things.  First, that we as school counselors need to be trained in working with LGBT students and families:  What Is Your LGBT IQ?  LGBT students across the board feel that we are the people they are most able to seek out to talk about these issues.  If you are a counselor at a small or rural school, seek out trainings at local, state, or national conventions.  Many school counseling conferences now feature sessions on working with LGBT students and families.  You can also look at webinars on LGBT topics sponsored both by ASCA as well as GLSEN.  Secondly, we need to consider ways to let students know that we are a safe-space for them to have these conversations.  This can be done by sponsoring or making a visit to your school's Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) or by posting a Safe-Space sticker somewhere in your office.  As the data in this report tells us, this is an issue of academic performance, post-secondary outcomes, school safety, and attendance.  By addressing this issue, you are helping to remove barriers to academic success for all students.

Read the full report here or view the webinar.

Reflection: Crisis

As we all have been, I have been deeply saddened and shocked by the events of Friday morning.  As school counselors, we all tend to be fairly empathetic, and so my thoughts have constantly been turned to the parents of those children who have been lost, the families of those school staff members who died, and to the larger community of Newtown who will need support long after the media trucks and national focus have left as the depths of grief, loss, and trauma begin to manifest themselves in the months to come.

Many years ago, when I was still teaching, I was at a school where, for the first time, I had to go through a lockdown drill with my students.  In going through the procedures of covering my window and trying to keep 30 energetic 7th graders quiet as security came by to check that our door was locked, the thought flashed through my head, "What if this was real?"  Instinctually, I immediately knew that I would put the kids into the instrument storage closet (I taught this choir class in the band room) and would put myself outside if need be to protect those kids.  This was not a question I wrestled with, this was not something where I thought about all the possible consequences.  I knew what I would have to do in the breath of an instant.

Perhaps for this reason, I keep thinking the most about the principal and school psychologist who attempted to stop the gunman as well as the 1st grade teacher who hid her students and gave her own life to protect them.  When you go into education as a career, you do not necessarily think that you may have to give your life as part of your profession.  Yet, that is what the six adults who died on Friday did.  I think all of us who work in schools know that when it comes to the safety of our students, dare I say, "our kids", that chances are pretty high that we would do the same.  Our educational professionals have taken quite a few hits in the public arena in the last decade.  However, the vast, vast, vast majority of adults in schools that I have met in the last thirteen years are highly committed individuals who work excessively long hours, nights, and weekends, often making difficult choices between their own work and personal lives.  They are in education because they love kids, they love watching kids learn, and they love helping to facilitate that process.  They would do anything for their students, and I think we should take a moment to really acknowledge just what that could mean.

I have been inspired in the last several days by the school counseling community and their quick response with regards to sharing resources so that we all have support in working with our students, families, and school communities through this time.  The mother of all school counselor bloggers, Danielle Schultz, began to collect resources at School Counselor Blog and share them with her followers.  I am inspired by this, and believe that all of us who are school counseling bloggers have a responsibility, as collectors and sharers of information, to have these resources at hand to share with our followers whenever they are needed.  As such, I have created a page on my blog dedicated to crisis resources, and would love if other bloggers did the same, so that no matter where a school counseling professional turns, they find information to support them in their work talking to students, staff, and families in these difficult moments.  In this way, as school counselors we can continue to be prepared to lead in times of great challenge.

Transgender Kids: Inspiration and Advocacy

I am a little obsessed with NPR.  I listen to it in the car on the way to work, on the way home from work, and subscribe to multiple podcasts.  It is my secret dream to someday do something worthy of being interviewed on Fresh Air by Terry Gross.  However, my favorite hour of radio is Tell Me More, a program that seeks to explore modern life, issues, and news from a multi-cultural perspective, and multi-cultural from the broadest possible lens.  Not coincidentally, it is also my secret dream to do something worthy of being interviewed by Michel Martin, the host.  So many secret dreams, so little time.

I was driving to a meeting on Monday at just the time that Michel Martin was doing an interview that pulled me in from the moment it started.  Andy Marra is a transgender woman who was adopted by an American family from South Korea.  She recently wrote a blog entry at the Huffington Post about her experience of finding and coming out to her birth mother in Korea.  As she was going through the coming out process, she chose to delay her full transition (hormones, surgery) until she found her birth mother:

"I could never find the will to move forward with my transition -- taking hormones or surgery -- despite the opportunity to do so. And my hesitation was largely due to my unknown family living far away in Korea.  Like me, more than 200,000 Korean babies and children have been sent overseas. But less than 3 percent of us are able to find our families. The odds were clearly not in my favor. But what if I did find my family after all these years? And how would they handle meeting a young woman instead of a baby boy who should have grown into manhood? I was left with few ideas to reconcile my concerns." (source: www.huffingtonpost.com)

As she continues with her story, she finds her mother literally in the span of a few hours, and the two are reunited.  Like so many kids who are contemplating the coming-out process, she is nervous to share her gender-identity with her birth mother, a woman she has just met.  However, the turn in this story is that it is her birth mother who first broaches the subject.  She instinctually knows that there is something weighing Andy down, and after some questioning, Andy tells her that she is a transgender woman.  Her birth mother responds:

"'Mommy knew,' she said calmly through my friend, who looked just as dumbfounded as I was by her response. 'I was waiting for you to tell me'...'Hyun-gi," she said, stroking my head. 'You are beautiful and precious. I thought I gave birth to a son, but it is OK. I have a daughter instead.'" (source: www.huffingtonpost.com)

It is this moment, in this highly-charged situation of a reunited birth mother and daughter, that Andy begins to find her own self-acceptance and an ability to move forward in her own life.  You can listen to the full audio interview here.

As I've written about before, finding acceptance and support is key to the well-being of our transgender students, and, right now, the deck is stacked against them:

• More than half of all transgender students have been physically harassed (pushed or shoved) because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
• More than a quarter of all transgender students have been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Almost half of transgender students report missing at least one class in the last month and one full day of school in the last month because of concerns for their safety.
• Transgender students who experience high-levels of harassment have an average GPA that is .5 lower than that of transgender students who experience low-levels of harassment. (source: www.glsen.org)

These students are at a higher-risk of truancy, bullying and harassment, assault, and poor academic performance.  Additionally, parent reactions to LGBT students makes a huge difference.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those students who experienced high-levels of parental rejection were:

• Nearly six times as likely to have high-levels of depression
• More than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide
• More than three times as likely to have used illegal drugs
• More than three times as likely to engage in unsafe sexual behaviors that put them at risk for sexually transmitted diseases (source: www.cdc.gov)

For students who experience more acceptance from family, such as Andy, they have a support system in place regardless of their school environment.  However, for those students who are experiencing high-levels of rejection at home and are thus at higher-risk for depression, suicide, and substance use, the school environment can be make-or-break for that child.  Transgender kids in schools can be a highly emotional issue, as currently being played out in the East Aurora School District, but the data shows that this is an issue of school safety, student achievement, mental health, and even life and death.  We, as school counselors, are charged with advocating for all students, with a focus on creating an equitable and safe environment so that every child can learn.   Our transgender students fall into this category.

For resources, I would recommend taking a look at the previously mentioned CDC website, which has tips for making schools safe places for all LGBT students.  Additionally, the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight, Education Network (GLSEN) has a sample transgender policy that can serve as a conversation starter amongst your stakeholders and give you ideas about what issues need to be addressed, from bullying/harassment policy to bathrooms and locker rooms.  All of our students should have the opportunity to do well in school and have access to supports that allow them to figure out their identity for themselves, just like Andy.

Resource: Children in Poverty

The PBS documentary program, Frontline, takes time to really go in-depth and explore topics, often filming over months or even a year to get a more thorough view of an issue.  A few weeks ago, they aired a program about poverty amongst American children.  Did you know that:

• 1 in 5, or 21.6%, of America's children were living in poverty based on Census figures
• Federal spending on children in 2011 fell for the first time since the 1980's by $5 million 
• 47.6% of children living with a single mother live in poverty
• The poverty rate for White and Asian children is below the national average (21.6%), while the rate for Black children is at 38.2% and Hispanic children is at 32.3%
• 45% of those who spent at least half of their childhood in poverty were still in poverty at age 35 (source: 2011 Census Report)
• Only three other countries in the developed world have child poverty rates higher than that in the United States (source: 2011 OECD Report)

The documentary, Poor Kids, follows six children and their families in the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois.  Through the program, you follow their struggles with housing, food, clothing, unemployment, and depression.  Additionally, there are some themes that emerge that directly pertain to our work as school counselors:

• Loss: In the documentary, one family has to take their young girl's dog to the pound as they can no longer afford to keep her, plus they are moving from a house into a hotel room where they can only have one pet.  Children in poverty are constantly having to say goodbye, whether it is to their home, friends in a neighborhood they are leaving, pets, or even family members.
• Hunger:  Almost every child talks about being hungry at points in the program.  We know that children who are  hungry do not perform as well in school, thus we have a national school breakfast and lunch program.  However, those programs only go so far, and are not always able to address meals outside of school and on weekends.  Thus, while a student may be full and able to focus in school, homework to be done on the evenings and on the weekends may be more of a struggle, as children need a lot of nourishment through their growing years.  One program that is highlighted is a backpack food program where kids get food on Friday that can fit into their backpacks to take home over the weekend.
• Educational Impact: They do not really get to this until the end, but if you have worked in a school long enough, you have probably observed this directly.  Kids in poverty are often moving around, as they are able to get into a house but are then evicted, move into a hotel, back into a house, then an apartment, etc.  Thus, they can be in one school or school district's boundaries one minute, then in another one the next.  One of the young girls in the documentary does not go to school for a few weeks, knowing that they are in a hotel for only a short time and will be moving into another housing situation, which puts them in a different school district.  Thus, kids in poverty run a higher risk of missing pieces of their education while they move around, even if it is within the same general area.  It is vitally important that you check with your school system to see what provisions have been made for students that may fall into the category of homeless.  There are Federal guidelines for homeless students that clearly define what constitutes a student as homeless as well as guidelines for specific concerns such as registrations, transportation, and looking out for the "best interests" of the students in these particular situations.
• Educational Aspiration: Several of the kids in this documentary speak to the fact that they know, even at the young ages of 8 or 9 years old, that education is their ticket out of poverty.  They look to school and good grades as a pathway to college and a good job.  As school counselors, we are tasked with helping all of our students succeed academically and move on to a post-secondary option that is congruent with 21st century skills and careers.  This is reassurance that our children in poverty expect and deserve no less from us than any of our other students.

You can watch the documentary for yourself below:

  

Watch Poor Kids on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Watch Poor Kids on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Watch Poor Kids on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Watch Poor Kids on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.