NC Governor visits ABSS school, honors National School Counseling Week

Gov. Roy Cooper honored Nationwide Faculty Counseling Week at B. Everett Jordan Elementary, the place 2023 nationwide faculty counselor of the yr Meredith Draughn works. 

Faculty counselors from throughout the Alamance Burlington Faculty System and fourth graders on the faculty had been invited to listen to the governor communicate in Graham Tuesday afternoon. In his speech, Cooper stated he’ll allocate extra funding to public faculty programs to prioritize higher counseling in his finances proposal later this month.

“We want … higher pay for all of our educators, extra counselors, extra psychologists, extra social employees, extra individuals who perceive that we’d like to ensure we’re listening to the entire baby,” Cooper stated in his speech.

Draughn, steerage counselor at B. Everett Jordan Elementary, was named the 2023 nationwide faculty counselor of the yr by the American Faculty Counselor Affiliation. Draughn stated she’s excited to make use of this honor to advocate for extra faculty counseling throughout each North Carolina and the nation.

Draughn stated although the American Faculty Counselor Affiliation recommends 250 college students per faculty counselor, the ratio is usually a lot larger. In North Carolina, the ratio was 316 college students per counselor within the 2021-22 tutorial yr, based on ASCA. This implies counselors aren’t capable of be as proactive as they want to be.

“We actually wish to train core instruction to all college students, ‘Psychological well being is well being.’ This is what emotions are, here is learn how to use a coping technique to get by means of a tricky scenario, here is issues that we are able to and may’t management and what we are able to do about that,” Draughn stated. “That’s one thing that each one college students ought to have entry to studying. However once we are getting used as triage, or solely our most intensive providers, we’re not capable of be as efficient.”