Trading counselors for copy machines
By Emily Alpert/Voice of San Diego
Here are few factoids that got left on the cutting room floor from my story today about counseling: Counseling has fared relatively well in the budget crisis, school officials said. Some schools actually got more counselors than usual because the school district stopped letting schools trade in counselors for other resources. Tracking the exact ratios is difficult because many schools use other funds to beef up their counseling departments, just as Roosevelt does. But here are the basic numbers: There are more than 400 students per full-time guidance counselor in San Diego Unified -- a higher number than in years past but a relief from last year, when the rate reached nearly 500 students. To put that in perspective, California schools have averaged 776 students per counselor -- 40 percent higher than the national average -- according to the most recent data from the American School Counselor Association. (more...)