COU-740 Practicum in School Counseling

Course Overview

This course is the beginning level of fieldwork experience in the school counseling program. The intent of this course is to introduce students to the basic roles and duties of a professional school counselor in a local (Washington DC-MD-VA Metropolitan Area) educational setting for deaf/hard of hearing students, K-12. This first semester of fieldwork is two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays), 8 hours/day, for the duration of at least one semester. The total numbers of clock hours for the Practicum is a minimum of 150 hours, 40-60 of which are direct client contact hours. (Note: the actual total clock hours for one semester is 240 based on the calculation of 16 hrs/week for 15 weeks). The focus of this first fieldwork experience is for the student to develop competency in building rapport with their clients, site supervisor, and other significant school personnel. Students develop a basic understanding of their educational setting and its organizational structure, management and administration; and specifically the administration and operation of a comprehensive, developmental counseling program in a school that serves deaf and hard of hearing students. Students engage in basic school counseling duties including but not limited to: classroom observation, individual counseling, teacher/parent consultation, case conferences, staff meetings, individual student planning, counseling documentation (e.g. progress notes); IEP/ITP planning and implementation; intake interviews and basic behavioral assessments, conducting psycho-educational groups and guidance activities, etc. Students also experience and learn about the purpose of individual and peer group supervision. These experiences help facilitate the students’ personal growth and professional identity development as they promote students to explore and apply different theories of counseling; deepen their self-awareness and ability for individual and collective refection; and share both successes and challenges with supervisors and other practicum students during group supervision. Site supervisors are encouraged to provide clients from diverse racial-ethnic (at least 40% to 50% of total number of clients) and cultural backgrounds, age levels, gender, as well as those with a wide range of counseling issues and needs.