1. It is ultimately the counselor’s responsibility to determine the appropriate response for individual students who put their trust in the security of the counseling relationship. Have you ever had to break the confidence of a student who begged you not to tell his or her parents?
Please explain the circumstances and were you able to mend the relationship with the student after the breach?
2. Looking for a knee-jerk answer here – What threat warrants breaking confidentiality?
3. Do you believe that student behavior of a school can be impacted by having an adequate counselor to student ratio? Will you please elaborate as to why?
4. Is Mountain Home School District mandated by the school board
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What do you do when a parent demands to know what you have discussed with their minor child?
How do you respect the inherent rights of the parent(s)?
13. How do you inform students that you may possibility have to breach confidentiality if they intend to harm themselves or others, or you deem them to be in any danger?
14. Has a family’s religious beliefs or values every cause you problems when trying to help a student?
Is yes, please give an example
15. A student tells you she is pregnant and wants to get an abortion; she is seeking some information and wants to know her options. What do you do?
16. Does the Mountain Home school district forbid school counselors from engaging in any sensitive discussions with students?
17. Under what circumstances if any would you help a pregnant student get medical care of any kind?
18. Have you ever dealt with a case of sexual harassment among students (student-on-student)?
If so can you elaborate the circumstances and the steps you took to advocate for the victim?
19. When trying to help student reveal something different to their parents, how do you help them process?
20. When a student confesses they are self-injuring how do you advocate for this
That is where I came in. Being her roommate as well as a close friend, I agreed to take her to the abortion clinic.
(a) Should the parents tell them to work it out for themselves? Under what circumstances is this likely to produce a satisfactory resolution of the conflict?
Question One: Are there common concerns that are heard across the school? Across the district?
To handle this situation, I would familiarize myself with the school policies, as well as potential state laws relating to minors considering an abortion. I can attempt to arrange a session with Candice and her mother, if possible with the male student, to create an open discussion on the issue. Female students oftentimes predict how their parents will react to a pregnancy. To a degree, it is understandable why Candice would be afraid to involve her mother, parental involvement can be receptive and beneficial or it can be stringent, aggressive and abusive. Candice’s mother might even suggest she carry the baby to term based on their beliefs and values. With that in mind, it is important that I discuss with Candice what value system she holds and in what ways these values support or conflict with the choice she is considering. Merely disagreeing with a client or not particularly liking what a client is proposing to do is not ethical grounds for a referral. (Corey, Corey, Corey, Callanan, 2015) Nevertheless, after contemplating on the ethical issues surrounding this case I have determined that I cannot effectively work with Candice and considering a referral.
The child does not know better and in order to appease their parents will confirm the suspicions due to the pressure of repeated questioning. It is of the utmost importance to approach this extremely sensitive subject with caution in order to not subject the child to unnecessary pain, and also to ensure that accurate information is acquired from the child.
After taking to the student who lives on campus, I became aware that she was pregnant. She had a strict parents and was afraid to tell them of her present situation. She stated that her parents were going to kill her if they found out that she was pregnant. During the interview, the student said she went out with some friends to have some few drinks and one thing led to another. She ended up sleeping with a guy she didn’t even know of. She was contemplating on aborting the pregnancy and looked depressed and anxious.
Make sure the information you are giving is correct, the child/ren should not be chastised for what they have said.
As a School Psychologist the first step that I would have to take is to intervene. Since the student is in immediate danger and the student has made this statement I should start counseling immediate. I should immediately tell the student that the information that the student has told me has to be disclosed with another authority because it exceeds my limits to confidentiality. I will let the student know that they may feel many emotions presently, but it is fine to feel those emotions. The student may even be angry with me because I have to tell another authority but I have the student’s best interest in mind and I want to make sure they they are doing ok. After I state my limits to confidentiality I will give the student time to think about
counselors don’t get. Some of the duties that have historically been assigned to the school
I have sat down with the school principle and I expressed my concerns regarding my clients confidentiality and I explained that I do not feel comfortable disclosing this particular information, especially the details of the information that is discussed in our sessions. The principal explained that he is my supervisor, and that I must comply with his request if I wish to uphold a positive work relationship, as well as keeping my job as the school counselor. I needed to proceed in a responsible manner in order to maintain my ethical and legal responsibilities while also maintaining my job.
For the purposes of being in line with my legal and ethical responsibilities, I would construct my policy for sharing information with students by FERPA guidelines. While I would allow the release of information in following FERPA regulations, I would strongly advise for counselors to still be mindful when releasing information. I would suggest that they only release information with their upmost discretion and for circumstances where not only FERPA permits, but that it also seems to be of benefit for the student. As many of the guidelines state, the schools “may” release information in certain circumstances, but they do not have to. This is what I would relay to my counselors.
As counselors approach their careers, it is important to make observations of local schools with counseling opportunities. Observations help give a better understanding of the school culture and demographics associated within that school. School Data has long been a method used to obtain school specifics as well as the ability to compare and improve in areas needed. Schools all over represent different demographics therefore making the statistic sway one way to another. One school in particular that I was able to observe and get a feel for its culture was Columbia Elementary School. Columbia Elementary School has one counselor shared between Mountain View Middle School. The counselor at Columbia is in charge of kindergarten through fourth grade students. Throughout my observation, I was able to see a multiple amount of counseling techniques. These counseling techniques addressed multiple levels of behavioral issues among students. In my efforts to gain as much information as possible I was also able to observe the counselor’s efforts in collaborating with school faculty, parents, as well as students.
The parents should be cautious and think through what to say to their child before speaking, because anything said could have a big impact on the adolescent.
However, because counseling is based on a trusting relationship between the counselor and the students, the leader will keep the information shared by the members confidential unless district policy and/or ethical responsibilities require disclosure. These circumstances are if a child reveals information about harming themselves or others, or if a child reveals information about child abuse. In these rare cases only relevant information will be shared following district policy.