School Counseling Advocacy From the Inside Out (And What Everyone's Getting Wrong!)

[00:00:00] Hello, my friends! Welcome back to the School for School Counselors Podcast for episode nine. Hey, if you've been hoping for a longer podcast episode, today is your day! For those of you that like the shorter ones, you might break this one up in a couple pieces, because we're going to be talking about my most favorite thing on the planet. Y'all, I cannot WAIT to discuss this with you because it's just so rich and important and pertinent for our field right now. 

[00:00:34] Advocacy is so desperately needed and it is often not communicated well. The ideas that you are given to advocate for your program are often, in my opinion, not the best ideas. So I'm going to break it all down for you today. I'm going to give you my thoughts on school counselor advocacy and what we can be doing- and perhaps what we SHOULD be doing. 

[00:01:01] You guys know we need to be advocating, not only for our individual campus programs, but for our field as a whole. We are a very misunderstood profession, and part of that is, if you remember, in an earlier episode we talked about the fact that the ASCA model was not published until 2003. 

[00:01:25] So we're working with less than 20 years of awareness of this. And while that's a while- that's a long time in our lifetimes- in educational terms, it's not very long at all. 

[00:01:39] Most of the administrators that we work with, district leaders, et cetera, were trained under the model of guidance, right? They were trained with the idea of guidance counselors, not school counselors. And we all know there is a difference. 

[00:01:57] Adding to that, student needs are changing. Mental health needs are increasing. The fallout from COVID- oh my goodness! If you've been working in a school, you've seen that hand over fist, right? Family and system instability for students, I would venture to say, is perhaps at an all time high. 

[00:02:20] We're seeing tremendous lack of parenting due to a myriad of factors. There are just so many things that are happening that are causing student needs to change. Students are needing more support at school and better access to services. And I think our roles are often very confused with other people who are working in schools as well. School counselors versus school social workers, versus mental health therapists. Most people assume that we all are trained to do the same jobs. 

[00:03:03] Now you and I know all of those jobs, and all the other mental health related jobs in schools, are very different. But in the world at large, they are typically seen as one and the same. And we have not done, in my opinion, a tremendous job of highlighting the differences between them. That's why we often hear school counselors lament that they're seeing their district hire school social workers to fill school counseling jobs- and that's NOT to knock social workers! 

[00:03:39] Social workers are amazing. I have the privilege of working with a very knowledgeable social worker in my district and the perspective that they bring to situations and the way they think through things is much different than the way that I look at things. And a large part of that is due to our training. So this is not knocking social workers AT ALL. But what I am saying is- those trained in school counseling do bring unique perspectives and skillsets to the table. And I think those are being overlooked a lot by campuses in districts who have not been taught to discern the differences. 

[00:04:26] So man, we need advocacy for so many reasons, right? And typically when we see people talking about advocacy, and social media and articles and posts and things like that, we see lots of recommendations for what advocacy should look like. And a lot of those are things that advocacy actually ISN'T. 

[00:04:51] So, let me give you some examples of some suggestions for advocating that I've seen that I don't think are a great idea. 

[00:04:59] Number one: just presenting your use of time stats. So those of you that are data-driven, you have your use of time information, and you're presenting that to your administration as an advocacy tool. It's a good idea. But man, you've got to have some stuff come in around that to really boost the information. Typically, handing in your statistics is not going to be enough to elicit change, or to elicit change as quickly as you would like to see. In and of itself, just independently, your stats are not going to be a good option for advocating on their own. 

[00:05:42] The second piece of advice that I often see that I'm not sure I agree with is handing your administrator the printed sheet of appropriate and inappropriate school counselor duties. I think that if you're on a campus where you've been tasked to do a lot of things that you know aren't really supposed to be your job, handing your principal a list about how you're not supposed to be doing those is probably the best way to make an enemy that I've ever heard of. I'm just going to be very frank and honest with you. Now to be fair, there are some places where folks are very open and receptive to feedback and willing to have a conversation about that. 

[00:06:26] But often on campuses, the school counselor has been relegated to that task for so long that no one even stops to question it. And the message that's received by your principal or someone like that when you hand them a list like that is that you're trying to tell them that they're doing it wrong. 

[00:06:45] And that's not often received well, so I think there's a better solution for that, as well. The last thing that I see recommended all the time, and is part of the reason that we started School for School Counselors in the first place- which was very well-meaning folks giving terrible advice in these mega social media groups- I'll just be real: that's what got us started with School for School Counselors- one of those pieces of advice is just walking around, telling your administrators, telling people on your campus, what you should and should not be doing. Blustering is the word that I use. Anytime you're tasked to do something that you don't agree with, you just start talking about how it's wrong, about how you shouldn't be doing that, about how you can't serve students, those kinds of things. 

[00:07:36] That approach is rarely successful in schools. So between all of those, just providing a list of stats, providing this printed sheet of appropriate duties and blustering about it all the time, you're really gonna shoot yourself in the foot when it comes to your advocacy efforts. I think there are a lot of ways to do it much more elegantly and with a little bit of nuance to the process: not as overt and in your face, but sort of laying some foundation before we really go in and start pressing for change. And that's how negotiations work too. No one walks into a negotiation and just starts making demands, right? Yet that's how school counselors have often been encouraged to advocate. And that's why it's not working. 

[00:08:30] So what we recommend in School for School Counselors- we've been talking about this for several years- is the idea of advocating from the inside out. What does that mean? We have many organizations that are endeavoring to advocate for our roles from the outside in. For example, our national school counseling organization, our state school counseling organizations... they are the ones who are getting involved in legislation, who are perhaps going out and initializing some lobbying efforts, things like that. Those are really hard to pinpoint, believe me- because I've tried. I have visited every single state counseling association website in the United States to see the level of lobbying and legislative advocacy going on. That information is really, really hard to find, and I can probably count on both hands, maybe even one hand, how many state organizations are printing that information. So any of you state guys out there listening, that might be a really good idea for some improvement: to get that information out to your members a little bit more readily. I personally have found it very difficult to access.

[00:09:56] But in any case, we do know they're out there lobbying some of the higher level stakeholders, things like that. Educating them. So it gives us an opportunity as school counselors on campuses to advocate from the inside out. 

[00:10:14] So imagine you're in a house. You're just hanging out, happy as you can be, perfectly content with what's going on in your home. And all of a sudden, your neighbor shows up- and they have something they want to tell you. They have two ways they can go about that. 

[00:10:31] The first way they can communicate with you is to walk up to the door, knock on the door, say, "Hello! How are you doing? How are things?" and then get to the point of what they want to tell you or what they need. Having a conversation, right? A pleasant, productive conversation. 

[00:10:51] That's not usually the way we go about it in advocacy, though. We'll usually go about it this second way, which is this: instead of the neighbor coming and knocking on the door and trying to engage in conversation, they run up to the house, waving their arms, screaming and yelling, maybe beating on the windows, beating on the door, saying, "You have to come out right now! You're not doing things right in there. You have to come out and change! I'm trying to tell you what you need to do to make your life better!"

[00:11:20] What would you do? You would probably look at them and be like, "Get out of here, crazy person!" Right? You're not going to want to engage in the conversation. And it's not because they don't have good information to share. It's the manner in which it is being shared that's the problem. 

[00:11:39] Let me give you another example. This is a very personal example. And as we have worked through School for School Counselors and really built and developed our approach to questioning the status quo of school counseling and really striving and endeavoring to empower school counselors in their daily work, we've received some pushback on some things. And I've received many emails and messages from a certain person in the school counseling world, demanding that I make changes. 

[00:12:18] Demanding that I rewrite parts of my website to suit them. Demanding that I use certain verbiage when talking about certain topics. I'm not open to a conversation when someone just begins demanding things because of who they are. That's not how I work. And I would venture to say, that's not the way the majority of you work, right? We need that relationship. We need to know where that other person is coming from. And why they're asking for these changes, why it's important, how is it going to benefit them, how is it going to benefit us? Right? How are we going to work together on this? Just simply walking up and demanding things is rarely going to catalyze effective change. 

[00:13:10] So we've got to do things a little bit differently. And the bad part about this is is it is not as quick as some of the non-advocacy efforts feel. 

[00:13:25] Here's what I mean by that. So we feel like if we turn in these use of time stats or these printed sheets of appropriate duties, that it might, you know, take a few days, a few weeks and all of a sudden, our supervisors will see the light. And they'll make the change. And we have this hope and it's this hope of this relatively instantaneous change that makes it feel like it's within reach. 

[00:13:49] Y'all, true advocacy takes time, and it's going to feel like it is moving slow as molasses. I'm not gonna lie. But the stronger that you build these efforts and the slower, these efforts roll to a point means they're going to be stronger advocacy efforts. Much like dating. 

[00:14:17] If you meet someone, you go on a date, you decide to get engaged, you run off in this whirlwind elopement, right? Yeah, it could work. It could be a successful relationship. Odds are not in your favor. With something quick like that ,the odds are not in your favor. You have to take time to get to know one another. You have to get time to learn about each other, understand where the other person is coming from, be able to recognize your similarities and your differences. Learn how to work together and trust together, right? Those are the fundamentals of a healthy relationship. Taking time to develop those is typically a better case scenario. 

[00:15:05] Same with advocacy. This is not speed dating. This is not the Love Connection. Any of you guys old enough to remember that show, The Love Connection? Oh, my gosh! This is not one of those quick and dirty experiences. This is something that's going to take time. This is the crock pot approach to advocacy versus blowing it up with a blow torch. All right? 

[00:15:29] So one of the pieces of this advocacy from the inside out is very basic, and it's something we're pretty good at. It's building amazing relationships. Y'all, just like our neighbor coming and banging on our doors and windows of our house, or just like the person that keeps making demands for me to make changes for them, we're not going to do those things- we don't even want to hear them- if we don't have a relationship. Relationship is so important to us, just as human beings. And we all know that. We all remember our Carl Rogers from grad school. We know how important the relationship is. Gary Landreth is another one that reminds us that that art of the relationship is so important for all people. And we cannot just gloss over that in our advocacy efforts. We need to build amazing relationships with our administrators, with our upper level/ upper tier management, with our stakeholders, parents, community members. We need to be building amazing relationships to help drive our advocacy efforts. That's the base of the pyramid. That's fundamental. That's why so many school counselors show up and after a week or two on the job, they're blustering about changing their role on campus and they're being ignored. Because they haven't laid that foundation of amazing relationship.

[00:17:15] So that's number one, and it takes time. Y'all, we're talking a year, two, maybe three, to build these relationships. At the same time, you're building clout through expertise. You want to be the go-to person. You want to be the person that knows their craft so well, that when something unexpected comes up in conversation and someone turns to you and says, "what do you think we should do?"- you have an idea about what you need to do. A lot of that comes through practice, right? It just takes time working in the field and marinating, and it certainly doesn't mean that you're expected to have the answer every single situation every day. 

[00:18:10] That's not realistic. But you do need to develop that trust with your administrator, that they know if they come to you, not only do you have a suggestion or a solution, but it's going to be a good one. It's going to be one that's going to work well on your campus. It's going to make sense with your available resources and that it's going to make sense for the students that you serve. 

[00:18:40] Building clout takes time. I would say one to two year minimum before you start pushing for mass change. You've got to get your admin to buy in with you. Lots of campuses have lots of turnover. That creates trust issues. Your administrators, your principal, assistant principal, anyone in your administrative circle, needs to really trust you. You need to be their wing man at all times

[00:19:15] but again, that comes with practice. It comes with using that information and experimenting and trying and sometimes failing. And that's going to take a while, to get the hang of it. A lot of why we built our School for School Counselors Mastermind was to provide school counselors a place to discuss concepts so that when time comes to talk about them on campus, you know, in the moment, they have the words available. How many times have you been called to talk about something and you know you know it, but you just can't get it out quite right? Yeah? You ever been in those situations? I know I have. 

[00:20:00] And the interesting thing is- the more you talk these things through, or the more you even listen to other people talk through them, they then become front of mind. You're able to recall them more quickly, and then you're able to really use them when the time is right on campus. That's what builds clout. That's what builds expertise. That's what builds trust in your administrative circle.

[00:20:27] So if you don't have a community around you like that, check out our Mastermind. Y'all, I'm telling you, it's amazing! schoolforschoolcounselors.com/mastermind. Just an amazing experience. 

[00:20:41] So we've talked about advocating from the inside out and how we can do some of these things, right? We can build amazing relationships. We can build clout and trust with our administrators. 

[00:20:55] The third is to collect data intentionally. This is one a lot of folks kind of skip over. It feels too hard. It feels like it's too much. But we need to be collecting data intentionally. 

[00:21:09] Here's what I mean by that. Typically, when we start our data-driven school counseling journey, we start by collecting use of time data. Which is FANTASTIC. If you're not doing that yet, really think hard about it because you've got time to get your systems and processes in place before the school year starts. We can help you do that. 

[00:21:29] But everyone should be collecting use of time data. You could also be collecting program data if you're far enough along. So we have a framework for introducing data-driven initiatives on a campus, and it kind of shows you if you're ready for the next step. And we encourage, first, use of time to really get the fundamentals and the processes down, get in the habit of collecting the information, then moving up into program data- because then you're more likely to collect it and utilize it. 

[00:22:04] But also there's a third type of data that no one ever talks about. And I don't know why. Well, maybe I do. It might be because I made this up. But I promise you. It's good. So listen. So here's a third type of data that you can collect in conjunction with your use of time data in your program data. Here's what it is. 

[00:22:28] It has a very fancy name: it's called What I Missed Data. All right, so here's What I've Missed Data is. If you have a lot of roles or responsibilities on your campus that prevent you from getting to the things you need to get to: perhaps you have a waiting list of students that want to see you, but you can't get to them because you're preparing testing. Or maybe you have some lessons scheduled for going into classrooms ,but you don't get to get to some of your lessons because you're called into a student support meeting or something like that- to lead one, right? We know being a part of the committee as appropriate; leading it is not. 

[00:23:12] Those kinds of things. So you keep data about what you missed so that later, when it's time to have these advocacy conversations, Not only are you providing statistics about where your time went, you're also providing information on where it could have gone. 

[00:23:35] Think about that for a minute. That could be very, very powerful. 

[00:23:45] To be able to walk in at the right time, in the right place, having established amazing relationships, amazing clout and trust. You have this use of time data, your program data about what you're accomplishing, and then the grand finale is- " Let me show you this. In the time that I've spent coordinating testing, I missed the opportunity to visit with 72 students." Or whatever it is, whatever your stat is. Man, you want to talk about a mic drop moment? That's it. 

[00:24:24] The trick to What I Missed Data, though, is intentionality. And I'm going to be honest with y'all. School data is a lot like new year's resolutions. Everybody's on fire at the beginning of the year. "I'm going to lose 10 pounds!... I'm going to lose 20 pounds!... I'm going to exercise!... I'm going to eat healthier!... I'm going to drink water every day!" And then we know that statistically, we abandon those new year's resolutions a few weeks into the year: we're DONE with them. We've forgotten about them. We've moved on to other things. 

[00:25:02] We've decided. It's too hard. We don't have the time. Right. Just insert excuse here in any number of things. 

[00:25:11] Y'all, school data is just like that. Absolutely a thousand percent just like that. Time and time again in School for School Counselors, we've seen school counselors start on fire to collect this data, to work the frameworks. We even run a data cohort inside of our Mastermind to keep our folks accountable, to help them utilize their systems well, to stay in the habit, and to be able to talk through what they're collecting. And even with that support, many people just give up. Because it's not easy. 

[00:25:47] I get that. But if we can do it, if we can work with intentionality, if we can really keep our eyes on the prize and why we're collecting all this information, y'all- it is going to pay off in spades. It's going to be so good. And if we can get enough school counselors doing this, where in a few years, we start to hear principals say, "Well, my counselor came up and they were showing me their stats and I was really surprised. And so I went and told my supervisor, man, we need to really look at this!"

[00:26:23] "Oh, really? Well, cause my same thing happened at our campus!" 

[00:26:26] "You don't say!" 

[00:26:27] Oh, we're at a principal convention now- guess what? Everybody's talking about their school counselor data and you know, like- 

[00:26:33] I realize that's a dream. But you see where this could go, right? And it's like, It's like that quote about a small group of committed individuals making a huge change. 

[00:26:50] We have that opportunity right now. We have the opportunity to set a foundation for advocacy, not only on our individual campuses, but throughout our field as a whole. And we're not doing it for ourselves. We're doing it for our students. 

[00:27:12] What an amazing time to be looking at beginning your data-driven school counseling efforts! Oh, my gosh! I get so excited when I think about it!

[00:27:25] So the last thing that we have to have in place for effective advocacy are good conversations. And that sounds really silly. But a lot of us aren't engaging in the right conversations. 

[00:27:44] So throughout this podcast, I've been talking about collecting this data and presenting it to our principals. The reason I have chosen to use that example is because that is typically how things go down. They are our next line in our chain of command. They're the person we go to next. And that is perfectly appropriate and is the way it should be done. 

[00:28:08] However, there are opportunities beyond your campus for conversations in advocacy. Campus committees. District level committees. School board members. Now, don't go stalking these folks, right? Or emailing them out of the blue. But work to develop some relationships with them. Attend some school board meetings: let them see your face and know you're invested. 

[00:28:40] Advisory level positions within your district. Opportunities to serve. Y'all, the more you serve, the more you get listened to. That is a straight up fact. So seek those opportunities, not only to serve, but to create those connections. Because those are going to pay off a thousandfold in one way or another in your future. 

[00:29:08] But the core of all of this is that if you seek to advocate for your program or for school counseling as a whole, 

[00:29:19] you have to be dedicated. 

[00:29:22] You have to be patient. 

[00:29:24] And you have to be persistent. 

[00:29:29] Y'all, this is a long game. This is not a semester. This is not one or two school years. This is a long game. You have to be invested in this. 

[00:29:38] But, oh my gosh. The change that we can elicit! The support that we will be able to provide our students and our families is unfathomable! We just gotta get there. 

[00:29:53] And change catalyzes change. You know, it's like that hockey stick curve. It's slow going and it's an up hill battle every step, but then you hit a point where all of a sudden- whoosh! You're headed toward the stratosphere. Y'all, I honestly believe we can do that. I truly do, working together. 

[00:30:19] If that gets you as excited as it gets me, because I'm telling you- I'm bouncing up and down in my chair right now, talking about it. You need to make sure that you are part of a group that is endeavoring to do the same thing. And y'all, I've mentioned it a few times: I don't want it to sound like a sales pitch because it's not; School for School Counselors was never devised as a side hustle and it will never, ever be a side hustle. It is created to empower and advocate for school counselors across the country, hands down. That was the original objective and it will continue to be our objective. We want you in a community where we can collaborate with folks all across the nation. We have built a tremendous core of some of the smartest school counselors you have ever met in your life. And they all get in the same zoom room weekly to, as I like to say, cuss and discuss school counseling issues. We're collaborating, we're providing constructive criticism, sometimes we're providing support and ideas. It all depends on what our members need, but it is the most powerful hour of our week hands down. And we want you to be a part of it because we talk about this advocacy all the time! We are planning and plotting and thinking about how to get this information out in a better way, in a more widespread way, in a more effective way. And you can be part of those conversations. Go visit our website, schoolforschoolcounselors.com/mastermind. Look at this opportunity. 

[00:32:04] I'm telling you, we do have a training library in there, we do have some printable resources and things like that. And nothing for nothing, y'all, we like to treat our Masterminders quite a bit in there. We like to provide our paid initiatives at no cost. We like to give them some treats. They get sneak peeks of the first things that are happening. But beyond all of those things, truly the core and the beauty of the Mastermind is the collaboration- and we need y'all in there so we can start collaborating to advocate, because it is going to be a wonderful, powerful thing. 

[00:32:42] All right. So let's just recap quickly. Let me give you an action plan for your advocacy thoughts, all right?

[00:32:50] So number one, plan to build good relationships. 

[00:32:55] Think about how you are going to facilitate those great relationships with your administrators. And perhaps with some of the folks beyond your campus. Be intentional about it. Schedule things on your calendar. Look at birthdays. Look at recognition days. Look at "just because" days.

[00:33:15] And I'm not talking about buying people gifts. I'm not talking about leaving a candy bar on their desk, although that never hurts. What I'm talking about is just being intentional about having time to have conversation. That's it. Just be intentional in developing those good relationships. 

[00:33:33] Second, develop your expertise. 

[00:33:37] Again, if you're not in a group that can collaborate together, you need to get in one NOW. That doesn't have to be with us in our Mastermind. It could be with district level school counselors. It could be with your own personal circle of school counselors. As long as you're getting some quality consultation. We just provide ours because some people like to keep that a little further away from home, if you will. Sometimes there's some potential for blow back there. We don't want people that we work with closely to know about some of the questions that we have, and our Mastermind is a much more controlled environment for that. But wherever you go ,develop your expertise. 

[00:34:16] And third, begin intentional data collection. 

[00:34:21] You can go back and start with episode three in this podcast about why you shouldn't do a needs assessment. Go back and give that one a listen: that'll get you started on your data-driven journey. 

[00:34:32] Again, we have the data cohort inside of our Mastermind. We would love to walk through data with you. We even created our own data collection instrument in the Mastermind. So if you've been intrigued by software applications, but haven't had the money to invest in them, if you've looked at some other spreadsheets and things online and feel like maybe they're not quite up to snuff, they can't quite do what you need them to do, we've got one that sits right in the sweet spot, right there in the middle. It's absolutely free to our Mastermind members. You guys, we're invested in this. 

[00:35:05] We believe in this advocacy effort. We want to get everybody on board with us. We want to get this train rolling, and we want to start changing the face of school counseling. We want to be instruments in the change from guidance counseling to school counseling, to. our stakeholders, to inspiring our colleagues and stepping into what school counseling should really be. 

[00:35:33] And I'm so excited that you're here with me in our School for School Counselors world. Thank you so much for joining me in this podcast. Please- if you have 30 seconds, leave a rating or review for us wherever you like to grab your podcasts, just to let the world know about what we're doing here and let people know how much you enjoy it. It means the absolute world to us: it's better than gold. I'm telling you, it's better than anything, except for maybe our school counseling data. So anyway, you guys have a great week. I'll be back again next week with another episode. Until then, take care. Have the BEST day!