2.1 Counseling Advisory Councils

 Before your team starts the development of your CSCP, it is highly recommended your team forms a  Counseling Advisory Council. The Counseling Advisory Council is a representative group of partners selected to review and advise on the implementation of the school counseling program. Instructions for forming and utilizing an Advisory Council are provided in the Framework on pgs. 38-39.

Counseling Advisory Council Membership

Advisory councils typically consist of students, parents, teachers, community members, and other partners who can help influence a school board to adopt the proposed CSCP and to provide counseling teams the resources they need. The Counseling Advisory Council is focused on the school counseling program, and gives a voice to partners through dialogue and feedback. According to the Oregon Framework (p. 39), advisory council members should be representative of the diversity of the district. Achieving this representation may require outreach to parents, students, community groups, business owners, or other members of the community.  The membership of the Counseling Advisory Council should reflect the collaborative and community-focused mindset described in the framework. 

Role of the Counseling Advisory Council

Counseling Advisory Councils assist in the creation and implementation of a Comprehensive School Counseling Program in these key ways:

• Advising on annual student outcome goals of the program.

• Reviewing annual student outcome goal results from the program. 

• Making recommendations about the school counseling program. 

• Advocating and engaging in promotion of the school counseling program. 

• Advocating for funding and resources.

• Initiating conversations about equity in accordance with Oregon’s Comprehensive School Counseling Framework (p. 13).

Advisory Council Meetings

Should be held at least twice a year, and those meetings are most effective with an agenda and minutes for each meeting. Read Oregon’s Framework for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, section “Advisory Councils” pgs.38-39

Examples of agendas and minutes from an Advisory Council:

• 2.2 Advisory Council First Semester Agenda

• 2.2 Advisory Council First Semester Minutes

• 2.2 Advisory Council Second Semester Agenda

• 2.2 Advisory Council Second Semester Minutes

The counseling team’s goals and purpose for developing and implementing the school’s Comprehensive School Counseling Program focusing on the benefits (Framework, pgs.6-7)  the CSCP provides students and partners. The team will want to invite the Advisory Council to engage in a discussion of all of the benefits that having a CSCP will bring to students, including the school counselor’s role in providing equitable access to educational opportunities for all students.

Once the advisory council members are oriented to the statutory and ethical requirements of a school counseling program, the work of the advisory council will shift to the construction of the CSCP, guided by the Oregon Framework.

Finally, council members should be asked to join with the district team in presenting the proposed CSCP to the superintendent, school board, and other school and community partners. An additional benefit to forming an advisory council early in the process is the increased sense of collaboration and confidence in the work. 

Ideally, the school would convene the Advisory Council prior to beginning work on the Beliefs, Vision, Mission, and Social Equity statements as well as the work on the needs assessment. If this is not possible, schools should take special care to include the Advisory Council in these processes as soon as possible, to ensure that the Advisory Council’s input is heard and included. If the work of forming the Advisory Council is proceeding at the same time as development of the Beliefs, Vision, Mission, and Social Equity Statements, and the assessment of students’ needs, district teams are advised to have a clear plan of how the Advisory Council will be given opportunities to provide feedback and contribute to the final documents.