School Counselor Specialist

SUMMARY:

The School Counseling Specialist will provide strategic support to building level school counselors and administrators.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist school level counselors in the development and implementation of a comprehensive counseling program for kindergarten through 12th grade students, which fulfills short and long-range goals of the division
• Assist in designing and facilitating monthly content specific training for school counselors
• Aids in the development of school counselors' knowledge of content and best practices in delivery
• Supports building level counselors
• Maintains reports and records related to school counseling services
• Assists counselors in crisis situations; ensures adherence to established district policies, procedures and standards; advises and assists counselors, as necessary, resolving problems as non-routine situations arise; refers students to outside agencies as needed
• Designs, coordinates, and implements the new school counselor orientation and mentoring program
• Creates and sends monthly newsletters to all school counselors
• Makes school visits to support the counseling services of new school counselors
• Coordinates with other departments, offices, and organizations to support the school counseling program
• Participates in regular professional development to improve knowledge and skills
• Serves as a liaison with colleges, universities, and educational partners to build capacity for new school counselors and build strong processes, programs, and procedures for interns
• Uses data to develop and implement comprehensive programs that meet student needs
• Coordinates the publication of a system-wide high school course catalog
• Co-coordinates the work of one of the district's crisis teams
• Adheres to laws, policies, procedures, and ethical standards of the school counseling profession
• Performs other duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS:

This role provides privileged access to the inner workings of the IPS Student Services Department and to highly sensitive information. The successful candidate will be discrete, high-energy, agile-minded, strategic, proactive, a direct communicator, highly-organized and committed to the vision and values of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and the IPS Student Services Department. In addition, the following standards will generally define the successful incumbent:

• Master's Degree required in school counseling, 3 to 5 years of experience as a practitioner
• Must hold a valid Indiana State School Counselor license
• Working knowledge of federal and state student services laws, rules, and practices
• Broad knowledge of Indiana and IPS student services policies, practices and programs
• A track record of developing and maintaining strong working relationships with and among a diverse groups
• Excellent communication skills and strong analytical and writing capabilities
• Close attention to detail coupled with the ability to exercise good judgment
• Strong organizational, oral and written communication, and interpersonal skills
• Proactive, able to anticipate conflicts before they arise
• Ability to work well independently as well as collaboratively
• Ability to execute meetings, calls and emails with professionalism, courtesy and accuracy
• Personal qualities of maturity, humility, strong work ethic, sense of humor, and diligence
• Ability to effectively allocate and prioritize time to several tasks to ensure completion

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: None.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos. Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one, small group, and large group situations.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.

REASONING ABILITY: Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out detailed but written or oral instructions. Ability to deal with problems involving a few concrete variables in standardized situations.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and use hands to find, handle, or feel. The employee frequently is required to talk or hear. The employee is required to stand; walk; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 20 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally exposed to wet and humid conditions and outside weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

DISCLAIMER:

The above job description is designed to denote the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications of employees assigned to this job.