ABSTRACT
Elementary school counseling program goals are defined and refined as part of the strategic planning process. The attainment of these program goals ultimately leads to children’s attainment of the competencies in the various caring and development domains: physical, personal/emotional, social, cognitive, and career and societal. Since the elementary school counseling program by design is developmental, comprehensive, and collaborative, it is to address the needs of all children and it involves the efforts of all school personnel to achieve its people-building mission. At first glance, such an all-encompassing program can seem overwhelming and labor and time intensive. However, if there is an organized system of program delivery and a defined process that guides counselors and other school personnel in the implementation of these services, it is our belief that an effective elementary school counseling program can achieve its people-building mission with relative ease. In essence, it is possible to maximize the use of program resources and interventions so that the greatest amount of programming and services can be available to the total school population (Adelman & Taylor, 2002).
