Overview of the Department

  • The school guidance curriculum includes classroom and large group activities from kindergarten through twelfth grade, with an emphasis on decision-making; self-understanding; study skills; and career exploration, preparation, and planning. The individual planning component of the comprehensive school counseling program includes activities that provide every student with an opportunity to plan, monitor, and manage their academic, career, and personal/social development.  Individual student planning emphasizes test interpretation, while academic counseling includes post-secondary education, career/technical education, and career planning.  A significant portion of the school counselor’s day is spent on responsive services.  These services include counseling or referral activities to meet the immediate needs and concerns of students.  Responsive services include personal counseling, problem solving, agency referral, and consultation. System support includes indirect guidance management activities that maintain and enhance the total school counseling and guidance program.  Responsibilities in this component include staff relations, community relations, task forces, professional development, support teams, test interpretation, data analysis, and curriculum development.

Counseling and Intervention

  • School counselors design and deliver comprehensive school counseling programs in three critical areas:  academic, personal/social, and career.  These three areas, which promote student achievement, are designed to help students resolve emotional, social, or behavioral problems, and they also help students develop a clearer focus or sense of direction. Comprehensive in scope, preventive in design, and developmental in nature, school counseling programs in the Baldwin County Public School System follow both the ASCA National Model:  A Framework for School Counseling Programs and the Comprehensive Counseling and Guidance State Model for Alabama Public Schools.  The school counseling program is implemented and delivered in each school by the certified school counselor(s) with the support of teachers, administrators, students, and parents.  Equipped with a total of 82 counselors, Baldwin County School System employees provide services to students through four program components:  guidance curriculum, individual planning, responsive services, and system support.

Programs Available

  • It should be understood that a comprehensive school counseling program is an integral component of the school’s academic mission.  Comprehensive school counseling programs, driven by student data and based on standards in academic, career, and personal/social development, promote and enhance the learning process for all students. 

    In addition to the school counseling program, the Prevention and Support Services Department provides support for at-risk students, as well as for numerous programs for all grade levels in the Baldwin County Public School System.  The goal of the department is to support prevention and intervention services in an effort to ensure that every school in the Baldwin County Public School System is a safe and healthy place for all students.

Programs

  • Programs under the supervision of the Prevention and Support Services Coordinator include, but are not limited to, the following:

    • School counseling program
    • School social work program
    • On-campus suspension program
    • Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program
    • At-Risk Program
    • At Risk Budget
    • Coastal Alabama Community College Career Fair
    • Peer Helpers
    • Neglected and Delinquent Program
    • Section 504 Services
    • Homebound Services

Contact Information