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SECTION 9.5.20 - SCHOOL GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING The York County School Board affirms that parents are the student’s first teachers and that the public schools should serve to strengthen family and parental support. Participation is not required by a student in any counseling program to which the student’s parent objects. For the purposes of this policy, the following definitions indicated below apply: Academic Guidance: Guidance which assists students and their parents to acquire knowledge of the curricula choices available to students, to plan a program of studies, to arrange and interpret academic testing, and to seek post-secondary academic opportunities, including distance learning options;. Career Guidance: Guidance which helps students to acquire information and plan action about work, jobs, apprenticeships, and post-secondary educational and career opportunities, including distance learning options;. Personal/Social Counseling: Counseling which assists students in developing an understanding of themselves, the rights and needs of others, how to resolve conflict and to define individual goals, and their interests, abilities and aptitudes. Such counseling may be provided either in groups in which generic issues of social development are addressed or through structured individual or small group multi-session counseling which focuses on the specific concerns of the participant(s). At least annually, parents shall be notified in writing about the academic career guidance, and personal/social counseling programs available to students within the school division. Parents will be advised concerning the purpose, general description of the programs, how parents may review materials to be used in the programs, and procedures by which parents may limit the students’ participation in the program. Information and records of personal/social counseling are kept confidential and separate and not disclosed to third parties without prior parental consent or as otherwise provided by law. It is the policy of the York County School Board with respect to personal/social counseling that parents notify the school division in writing if the student is not to participate in the personal/social-counseling program. Counseling techniques which are beyond the scope of the professional certification or training of school counselors, including hypnosis, or other psychotherapeutic techniques that are normally employed in medical or clinical settings and focus on mental illness or psychopathology, are prohibited. ADOPTED: August 26, 1996
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