Feb. 6-10 is National School Counselors Week

Feb. 6-1o is National School Counselors Week, a time to focus attention on the contributions of school counselors in education.
Sponsored by American School Counselors Association, the week highlights the impact school counselors have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.
According to Luverne Elementary School Counselor Marie-Atkinson Smeins, children are experiencing a mental health crisis and her office visits for anxiety and sadness have dramatically increased.
“Yes, school counselors can make a big impact in the lives of children,” she said.
School Counselors Week coincides with 130 children’s organizations calling on President Biden to declare a national emergency in response to America’s youth mental crisis.
Mental health-related hospital admissions for people under 20 increased 61 percent since 2016, according to Clarify Health Institute. 
It’s attributed partly to the pandemic, but prior to 2019 nearly 8 million children between 6 and 18 reported at least one mental health condition, according to JAMA Pediatrics.
Youth depression and anxiety has been attributed to cyberbullying, traumatic experiences, marginalization, school shootings and more.
Now its recommended that all children ages 8 to 18 have routine screenings for anxiety, and many are advocating for more access to school counseling. 
School counselors help K-12 students with academic, career development, emotional and social challenges, and they’re also trained to recognize mental health warning signs.
Dr. Cameka Hazel is a professor of school counseling and behavioral sciences.
 “School counselors can be a critical line of defense against worsening mental health conditions,” Hazel said, advocating for more school counselors.
Atkinson-Smeins agrees.
She is assigned roughly 500 students, while the ASCA recommends a counselor for every 250 students. 
“I could do so much more if my ratio was 1 to 250,” Atkinson-Smeins said.
“Expanding access to counselors and lower ratios would be helpful.”
The average ratio nationwide is about one counselor to 400 students, and at least 20 states don’t even have school counselors.
“If the federal government provides mental health money for schools to use to hire school counselors, in the end it benefits children,” Atkinson-Smeins said.
“I believe in working with a team of professionals to help children.”
She said this team of professionals could include a teacher, principal, social worker, school psychologist and others. “When we work together, the end result is that children benefit.”
In October the Biden Administration released an additional $280 million for schools to use for mental health.
“These funds are a welcome start, but we need additional action,” Hazel said. “Nationwide, all schools should be required to provide counseling services to their students and maintain appropriate counselor-to-student ratios.”
She said state curriculum designers should incorporate social and emotional learning as standard practice for K-12 students.
“The youth mental health crisis is all around us,” Hazel said. “Expanding access to school counselors could make these tragedies far less common, while giving students the support, guidance, and care they need to flourish.”
Meanwhile, she said improving youth mental health will mean a healthier future as they become adults.
“If we're to have any hope of reversing the alarming improve access to school counselors,” Hazel said.
Atkinson-Smeins can be reached at m.atkinson-smeins@isd2184.net
More information about School Counselors Week is at schoolcounselor.org