Families Case

The statement, "It takes a whole village to raise a child; " has always been true in my profession. In my opinion, somehow it has fallen through the cracks in most schools and families. As a Guidance Counselor, I feel that everyone has a role to play in raising a child. Families, classroom teachers, school personnel, and community members need to work together to ensure that the best interests of the child are addressed. The school, families, and community need to be on the same playing field to work collaboratively in the best interest of all children including those with behavioral challenges and diverse needs. There is always the need for more community-based programs to help the many needs of children. To encourage involvement, we as school personnel should demonstrate to parents that their involvement is very much valued and desired. If everyone joins in to play their part in the puzzle it would help make things easier for children. No matter what the age level of the children, in my opinion everything starts from home and we carries on in the school setting and community. According to Suggs (1978), the mother teacher emerged, whose character was not so unlike mothers in the home. At the same time an alignment between home and school evolved ostensibly to provide a seamless environment for children to grow and develop. There are a limited amount of community based programs out their for me to use, because I'm faced with insurance issues with the students and/or parents, the lack of funding for the community based programs, or the programs not the right fit for the students. It gets disappointing sometimes but I don't give up until I have something in place to help the family. The community based programs that I work with are very good in trying to help me find something else for the families if their program is no the ideal program.

According to the state code of ethics the following are the responsibility and duties toward families: shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and/or to the student's mental and/or physical health and/or safety, shall not harass or discriminate against any student on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethic origin, political beliefs, martial status, handicapping condition, sexual orientation, or social and family background and shall make reasonable effort to assure that each student is protected from harassment or discrimination, shall keep in confidence personally identifiable information obtained in the course of professional service, unless disclosure serves professional purposes or is required by law, and shall self-report within 48 hours to appropriate authorities (as determined by district) any arrests/charges involving the abuse of a child or the sale and/or possession of a controlled substance. According to the AMHCA code of ethics the following are the responsibility and duties toward families: The primary responsibility of the counselor is to respect the dignity and integrity of the client. Client growth and development are encouraged in ways that foster the client's interest and promote welfare, Counselors are aware of their influential position with respect to their clients, and avoid exploiting the trust and fostering dependency of their clients. Counselors and their clients work jointly in devising integrated, individual counseling plans that offer reasonable

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