Legal and Ethical Issues in School Counseling

This course emphasizes the legal and ethical responsibilities of the school counselor. Students become familiar with the code of ethics and legal parameters of their disciplines in order to effectively interpret and act upon situations in an appropriate and effective manner. Content includes client rights, confidentiality, duty to warn and protect dual relationships, supervision and consulting, ethics and special populations, and ethical decision making.

Topics and Objectives

Current Issues

  • Identify current ethical and legal trends in school counseling.
  • Compare and contrast different types of ethical and legal issues.
  • Analyze ethical standards and their applications to the work setting.

Professional Identity of Counselors

  • Explore the professional identity of counselors.
  • Analyze personal beliefs that may foster ethical and/or legal dilemmas.

Working with Clients Who Are Minors

  • Analyze the effects of dual relationships, disclosure, and confidentiality as they relate to working with clients who are minors.
  • Examine state-specific laws with regard to working with clients who are minors.

State Law and District Policy

  • Compare and contrast state law and district policy and how they may conflict with the ethical standards of the school counselor.

Confidentiality

  • Compare and contrast legal and ethical confidentiality issues related to records and technology.
  • Examine state-specific statutes in regard to the reporting of sexual activity between minors, and between minors and adults.
  • Compare and contrast the issues associated with privileged communications and privacy of student rights.
  • Examine Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations as they apply to school counselors.

Special Education Guidelines

  • Examine specific state, federal, and district guidelines regarding the
  • Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Section 504 accommodation plans.
  • Compare and contrast discipline regulations (e.g., suspensions, expulsions) that pertain to special education and 504 students as opposed to other education students.

Student Records

  • Examine the use of computers in school counseling with regard to note taking, student assessment, and other applications in regards to official education records.

Changing Family Structures

  • Identify issues related to changing family structures (e.g., gay/lesbian parents, adoptive parents, homeless students, children of parents who are incarcerated).
  • Analyze the legal and ethical requirements of the school counselor regarding child advocacy and parent custody issues.

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