Counseling and Guidance Mission Statement

The Satsuma City School System believes that counseling and guidance is an essential part of the total instructional program. Each student has the right to respect and dignity as a human being and to the guidance and counseling described in the state and local plan without regard to person, belief, character, or race.

Counseling and guidance is for all students, and its purpose is to assist each individual in attaining his/her maximum potential in personal/social, educational, and career/vocational development.

A developmental guidance and counseling program is an essential component of the total instructional program through which students have maximum opportunity for development. Developmental guidance and counseling involves a planned, purposeful, and sequential program of activities. Developmental activities will be designed to facilitate the total development of students in all areas-person/social, educational, and career/vocational. Other activities will be provided to assist students in overcoming difficulties that impede personal/social effectiveness, educational progress, and career/vocational competence.

To be most effective, a comprehensive guidance and counseling program should be holistic and developmental. The counseling in the Satsuma City School System provides for the following services: career counseling, preventive group guidance activities, individual and group counseling, consultation, referrals to community agencies, crisis intervention, at-risk counseling, assessment, placement, and follow-up.

The goals of our program are to assure that students will show increased positive self-esteem, improved decision-making skills, more satisfying personal/social relationships, greater academic success, an improved ability to enter the world or work, and hopefully, increased success in life.

In the Satsuma City School System, we believe that our objective is to assist all individuals to develop their potential through developmental assistance for all and specialized assistance for students with unique needs.

We strive to help all students obtain knowledge of self and others, education goals, and career plans. Students are assisted in overcoming difficulties which impede educational progress, personal and social effectiveness, and career and vocational development.

The guidance program encompasses the following basic principles of guidance:

• Every person has worth and dignity.
• All behavior is caused.
• People, especially students, often need help in understanding the real causes or motives for their behavior.
• Many differences exist between each and every individual.
• All aspects of an individual’s development are related.
• The school program should help students to become increasingly able to guide themselves.
• The guidance program should insist that each individual can and should, given the proper information, make his own decisions and choices.