Office of Counseling Services

The mission of the Washington-Liberty High School Counseling Department is to advocate for the overall success of all students and nurture their academic, personal, social, and career development. In conjunction with Washington-Liberty High School’s mission, we strive to provide a safe and caring learning environment for every student while being responsive to his or her unique needs. In partnership with other faculty, parents or guardians, and the community, the counseling staff at Washington-Liberty High School seeks to ensure that all students are granted equity and access to resources. We believe in providing a comprehensive guidance program that will equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to become productive and responsible citizens in our world.

We, the counselors at Washington-Liberty High School, believe in the following values for all students based on the ASCA ethical standards:

• We believe every student has dignity and worth, can achieve success, and has the ability to reach their full potential, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or background.
• We believe that every student has the right to achieve success through access to our comprehensive school counseling program services.
• We believe all students benefit from support in reaching their academic, career, and social/emotional goals.
• We believe that our school counseling program should incorporate data to support and foster current and future program development and evaluation for all children.

Washington-Liberty counselors help students make appropriate personal, career, and educational decisions. In individual, group, or classroom guidance sessions, counselors do the following:

• Encourage each student to develop a positive self-image and appropriate relationships with others.
• Assist students in acquiring decision-making skills to make appropriate educational, career, and personal decisions.
• Assist each student in implementing his or her decisions by facilitating enrollment in appropriate programs, courses, or services.
• Meet annually with each student to review their academic plan consistent with his/her needs.
• Provide information to students and parents about colleges, careers, and vocational schools.
• Provide organizational, study, and test taking skills.
• Provide testing and test interpretation to help students analyze their interests and abilities.
• Serve as integral member of the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP).
• Collaborate with teachers, administrators, and parents to help students achieve their fullest potential in school and life.
• Act as student advocate at all times.

Academic planning is a process that begins early in elementary school and continues throughout middle and high school. The school counselor works with each student and family in elementary school to provide information on the various options in APS through classroom guidance lessons, individual meetings with students and family workshops. The school counselor advises students and families as they make informed decisions about what opportunities are available to meet rigorous graduation requirements in middle and high school. We encourage families to begin early planning in elementary school and to stress to their child the importance of taking challenging courses in middle and high school that will lead to broader choices in post-secondary education.

In middle and high school, the school counselor works with each student in grades 6-12 to develop an individualized personal academic plan. The academic plan links the student’s career interests to course selection and leads to meeting rigorous graduation requirements with a strong correlation to post-graduation goals. During the academic planning process, each student has the opportunity to discuss her/his educational and career goals. Students also engage in career exploration that helps them learn more about their interests and how these interests match with a potential career field. This information allows the school counselor to help the student and family determine the optimal academic plan for achieving rigorous graduation requirements as the student prepares for a successful route to college or a career after high school. Along with the school counselor, the student and family review the academic plan to determine which graduation requirements have been met and the plan is revised to reflect the student’s accomplishments.