School Counselor (Grades 2-6) - The Center for Early Education

SUMMARY: The School Counselor will engage in specific services for students in second through sixth grade. Services will include direct and indirect interventions that focus on learning, socialization, and mental health. In addition, the School Counselor will foster the well-being of all students, including the promotion of safe learning environments, response to crises, and the facilitation of healthy interactions between families and the school. The School Counselor, Elementary will report to the Head of Lower Elementary and the Head of Upper Elementary Programs, and will collaborate with Learning Specialists, the School Counselor, Early Childhood, and teachers when coordination of support of students and families is necessary. While the school provides reasonable accommodations for students when needed, the school's education programs and facilities are not designed to support students with moderate or significant special needs.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work collaboratively with Division Heads on the coordination of the developmental and educational outside services for students and families as needed.
• Conduct daily classroom observations, including arrival, meetings, playtimes and lunch, as determined by the daily flow schedule.
• Support the maintenance of school referral lists for service providers such as: therapists, behavioral support, social skills groups, play therapy, developmental pediatricians, and other clinicians.
• Meet with children individually and in small groups as needed, in consultation with Division Heads and classroom teachers.
• Provide crisis intervention and referrals as necessary to families and faculty.
• Co-construct developmentally appropriate and prevention-oriented group curricula with teachers and Division Head to address specific topics (e.g. conflict resolution, popularity, teasing, exclusionary behaviors, lying, bullying, etc.).
• Teach Human Development Lessons for lower elementary students in conjunction with classroom teachers around friendship and other social, emotional and relational topics.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree and/or post-graduate work in Psychology, Counseling, or Social

Work.

• Experience working with children ages 8-12 and their families
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, as well as public speaking/presenting skills
• Demonstrated leadership and facilitative skills
• Familiarity with psychometrics in order to effectively interpret neuropsychological evaluations
• Technological proficiencies in the areas of communication, presentation, and record keeping
• The School Counselor, Elementary will provide services consistent with ethical, legal, and professional standards, engage in responsive and professional decision-making, and collaborate with other professionals.

The requirements listed below represent the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

BEHAVIORAL SKILLS: Demonstrates personal integrity, friendliness, patience, fairness, openness, non-defensiveness, sensitivity, flexibility, and enthusiasm.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to read, analyze, and interpret written documents. Ability to write reports, keep records, and communicate with faculty, students, administration and parents. Ability to verbally present information clearly and respond to questions from children, parents, colleagues, administrators and visitors.

REASONING ABILITY: Ability to solve practical problems and apply common sense in dealing with everyday and emergency situations. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram and schedule form.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee is required to stand, walk, sit, climb, use hands, or crouch. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision and ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an administrative assistant encounters while performing the essential functions of the job. The noise level in the work environment varies from quiet to moderate to noisy.