Tuesday, January 05, 2016

FSCA Bill Filed! The time is NOW!

How often have you said, “If only …. “

WHY:            
FSCA recognized that school counselors are far too frequently tapped to use their work time on “other” services, rather than directly impacting students and applying graduate degree level skills and knowledge. Does this sound like YOUR work week?

WHAT:
FSCA worked with the FSCA lobbyist and Senator Detert’s office to draft a bill, now filed as SB 1162 and HB 1045 to address how school counselors can better use their time and knowledge/skills to help students. CLICK HERE for more information about these bills.  

WHERE:
The legislative session begins in Tallahassee January 12th at 10:00 a.m. and bills will begin to be reviewed.  Each Florida school counselor CAN make a difference for this bill. 

HOW: 
This does not require you to take a great deal of your time!
Action is not up to a few of us but each of us.
We all have to depend on each one of us to do AT LEAST one of the following:
  • Email – call - or send a postal letter to your Florida House Representative and Senator.  Click HERE for a sample email #1. Click here for sample email #2. You can copy and paste segments of this email, but please personalize it as well to make it more meaningful.
  • Visit your Legislators at their district office. See talking points on the web or contact summerkuba4@gmail.com
      The FSCA Website has a Find Your Legislator link to assist you with locating the contact information needed

WHEN: 
NOW!! The legislative session begins January 12th… it is critical you act today, tomorrow, this week. Take 15 to 30 minutes of your time to contact your representatives… one voice is nice but the collection of 6,000 school counselor voices is powerful and loud! Time for school counselors to ROAR!

Help YOU and YOUR COLLEAGUES turn the phrase of
“If only…”
into
“Remember When…” 
FSCA will track and post the progress of the bill to the FSCA Blog &/or the FSCA Website.

Questions?
Please contact Advocacy Chair, Summer Kuba, at summerkuba4@gmail.com


Sample Email Text #1 to Send Legislators (remember to add your personal touch!):

The Honorable_______________________,

My name is ________________________ and I am a constituent in your area.  I am currently a school counselor for grades ___________________at _________________________school.  I am writing about a specific piece of legislation, (SB1162/HB1045).  This bill is particularly important for the overall success of Florida's students now and in the future because as you know, State and national workforce projections predict that over 60% of Florida jobs will require some form of postsecondary education or training by the year 2020, yet currently, only 38% of working-age Floridians holds an associate’s degree or higher.  School counselors are able to provide the services students need to help reach this goal such as academic, social and emotional counseling, core curricula programing with structured lessons designed to meet student standards and competencies of the Florida Framework for School Counseling Programs, career and educational counseling, including helping students make informed academic and career choices using multiple student data sources and education and career placement services, individual and group counseling, crisis intervention and preventive counseling, referrals to community agencies, educational consultations and collaborations with teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders, follow-up counseling services, conflict resolution and peer mediation.  Through all of these direct services, certified school counselors are able to help ensure the academic success, social emotional development, and college and career readiness of our students. 

I am asking you to please consider supporting this critical piece of legislation, our children’s future depends on it.

Sincerely,


Sample Email Text #2 to Send Legislators (remember to add your personal touch!):




Date: ___________________

__________________
____________________
__________________
____________________

The Honorable _________________,

My name is _____________________ and I am a constituent in your area and a _______________________ (your position and if you have children attending school in this you area)

I am writing about a specific piece of legislation, (SB1162/HB1045).  This bill is particularly important for the overall success of Florida's students now and in the future because as you know, State and national workforce projections predict that over 60% of Florida jobs will require some form of postsecondary education or training by the year 2020, yet currently, only 38% of working-age Floridians holds an associate’s degree or higher. 

School counselors are able to provide lessons and interventions that students need to help reach academic, social and emotional, and career goals. School counselors do this via core curricula programing and structured lessons designed to meet student standards and competencies of the Florida Framework for School Counseling Programs. School counselors provide career and educational counseling, including (but not limited to):

  • helping students make informed academic and career choices;
  • using multiple student data sources and education/career placement services;
  • individual and group counseling;
  • crisis intervention and preventive counseling;
  • referrals to community agencies;
  • educational consultations and collaborations with teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders;
  • school-wide programs (e.g., bullying, character education); and
  • conflict resolution and peer mediation.

Through all of these direct services, certified school counselors are able to better ensure the 
academic success, social emotional development, and college and career readiness of all Florida students.  

I am asking you to please consider supporting this critical piece of legislation, our children’s future depends on it.

Sincerely,



_________________________________





Monday, December 28, 2015

2016 FSCA Bill Filed!

School Counseling Bill Filed in the FL House & Senate

Thank you to Senator Nancy Detert & Representative Reggie Fullwood, FSCA's Bill in support of Florida Certified School Counselors is now officially filed! See links below to find out more information about the Bill.

SB 1162: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2016/1162/
HB 1045: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=56019


The time to contact your legislators is NOW!
Email or call them to share about the importance of this bill and ask for their support. Click on this link and enter your address to find your Florida legislators:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/myrepresentative.aspx

Let your legislators know about the importance of supporting this Bill. Visit this link for talking points about the Bill: http://fla-schoolcounselor.org/files/TalkingPointsNov2015.pdf

Stay tuned to the FSCA Website, Enewsblasts, and our FSCA blog for more information.

Friday, November 20, 2015

FSCA Day on the Hill 2015-16



November 18, 2015 

On November 18, 2015, eight FSCA Representatives attended Day on the Hill. They spoke with Florida legislators about the drafted school counseling bill and the important role school counselors play in the academic success, social/emotional development and the college and career readiness of students across the state.  FSCA's lobbyist Carol Greene led the group and was instrumental in arranging a meeting with the Commissioner of Education for the state of Florida, Pam Stewart. 


DayOnTheHill2015FSCA representatives included (from left to right): Becky Schumacher (Duval), Summer Kuba (St. Lucie), (Brian Richardson (Volusia),  Catherine Bekkedal (Duval), Beth Jenkins (Duval), Jeannie Maddox (Volusia), Alice Mathis (Leon) & Charlena Durrance (Volusia).  We had a great turnout and were able to have a lot of productive conversations with our Florida representatives and senators.

Florida school counselors continue to educate legislators on the role of the school counselor.  If you are interested in joining FSCA's advocacy efforts, please contact Summer Kuba at summerkuba4@gmail.com.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

FSCA Day on the Hill 2015


FSCA Representatives attended Day on the Hill on January 21, 2015. They spoke with Florida legislators about the important role school counselors play in preparing students for colleges and careers. The focus this year was continuing to educate legislators on the role of the school counselor, in addition to notifying them to keep an eye out for the OPPAGA report. Our lobbyist Carol Greene was instrumental in arranging a meeting with the Commissioner of Education for the state of Florida, Pam Stewart. Carol will provide a copy of the OPPAGA report to all legislators once it is released.

FSCA representatives included (from left to right): Carmilla Solomon (Brevard), Carolyn Berger (Broward), Brittany Sommer (Hillsborough/Pasco), Claudia Lunn (Orange), Summer Kuba (St. Lucie), Ayesha Pittendreigh (Orange), Brian Richardson (Volusia), Peg Reale (Collier), Becky Schumacher (Duval),  Jeannie Maddox (Volusia), Lynnette Thorstensen (Brevard), & Charlena Durrance (Volusia). We had a great turnout and were able to have a lot of productive conversations with our Florida representatives and senators.

There are more great plans in the works for future FSCA advocacy efforts. If you are interested in joining the advocacy committee, please contact Peg Reale at RealeMa@collierschools.com.

Friday, November 07, 2014

Reminder to take the OPPAGA Survey!

Important: Deadline for Survey is November 14th!

Florida School Counselors:

If you were a school counselor in Florida during the 2013-14 school year, you should have recently received a critically important survey from OPPAGA that was sent via email.   

So you are all informed, having the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) conduct this survey for school counseling is a first and important step for our profession in the state.  This office only takes projects as directed by state law, the presiding officers, or the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee and because of the prestige and credibility this office holds in Tallahassee, the results and a strong response rate are important. Results will be used for ‘next steps’ to garner support and potential legislative action (bills) to support school counseling.

Folks… this is YOUR FUTURE… Although we can’t predict exactly what may result, we do know from the advocacy work these past few years and the time spent in conversations with legislators and the governor’s office, that this information will be extremely helpful in efforts to support and expand school counseling across the state. The survey you received yesterday is one of a number of steps FSCA is taking to garner state-wide support for our profession.

We encourage you to complete the survey. Additionally, because legislators ask how many school counselors are members of FSCA, having a strong membership base is important. If you can, please join FSCA. http://www.fla-schoolcounselor.org/

If you believe should have received a survey and did not, please contact Kim Shafer at shafer.kim@oppaga.fl.gov or 850-717-0530 so that she can provide you with a unique link for completing the survey.  Keep in mind that survey links are unique and should not be shared with others.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.  Please feel free to contact any of us with questions.


Carolyn Berger 
FSCA Board Chair    
   
Rebecca A. Schumacher                     
FSCA, Immediate Past President                                          
rebecca.schumacher@unf.edu                            

Peg Reale
FSCA, Asst. Chair & Advocacy Chair 
realema@collierschools.com 

Thursday, September 04, 2014

FSCA Advocacy Update - September 4, 2014

  
September 4, 2014
With the help of Senator Nancy Detert and with the signature of Senate President Gaetz, the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA) has been assigned to study and produce a report to the Legislature regarding the utilization and availability of Counselors in our Schools in Florida. This is a very exciting time for FSCA as we should finally have the documentation that has been lacking and created a roadblock to our much needed legislation to improve ratios for school counselors.

What can FSCA members do to help? We all need to meet with our Florida legislators or their aides, both representatives and senators, and talk to them about what we do every day! Our experience has been that they are not familiar with our profession and our unique role in schools. Sharing personal stories and situations help them to get an understanding of what we do and how we impact student achievement.

Exciting things are happening at the national level, as well, focusing attention on the important role of school counselors!
  • In the First Lady Obama’s address at the American School Counselor Association’s Annual Convention in Orlando early July, she announced THREE significant initiatives for school counseling.  This is an article from the Huffington Post that overviews the intiatives: Click here to read article. One of those initiatives occurred Monday, July 28 at Harvard (see more on this initiative below).
  • Harvard Graduate School of Education, in partnership with the White House, hosted a summit to discuss strategies to increase access to college. This summit focused on the important role school counselors play in college and career readiness. Take a few minutes to read the article and watch the Harvard Summit.  

Stay tuned for more advocacy updates to come. We look forward to working on these efforts in 2014-15!

Sunday, March 02, 2014

FSCA Advocacy Update - March 3, 2014

  
March 3, 2014


Good Advocacy news:

FSCA now has a bill filed in the House by Representative Mark Danish, HB 1139, to accompany the Senate Bill 902 filed earlier this month by Senator Detert.


Last week, five FSCA Advocacy Team members joined Carole Green in meeting with over 10 Senators and Representatives, plus Mr. McGhee in the Governor’s office. In our meetings, we distributed the “2014 handout for the hill” and discussed the importance of school counseling programs/counselors impacting students in our state. We were warmly and I would say, enthusiastically received by most of the representatives.  
 photo

Being out of the starting gate now with both the senate and house having bills filed, I want to encourage you to take some “next steps”:

1) reach out to your colleagues and associates in your area of the state to encourage them to contact legislators asking for support of these bills, and

2) meet and communicate with your representatives. I am very hopeful that this bill will pass this year; and with such strong potential of providing critical evidence for the need of more school counselors to deliver and impact children, this bill will be a win-win for the work we do for children.


Thanks so much…

Becky Schumacher

FSCA President

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Florida School Counselor Association Advocacy Committee members in Tallahassee today

Florida School Counselor Association Advocacy Committee members in Tallahassee today working for you!

Click to enlarge:



Thursday, February 13, 2014

You can help advance school counseling in Florida right now ...


February 12, 2014
 
You can help advance school counseling in Florida right now ...
Senate Bill 902 has been been filed! The purpose of this bill is to ensure that public school students in this state have access to high-quality, evidence-based school counseling programs. The bill establishes a Blue Ribbon Panel Task Force that will study the impact school counselors have on the classroom, and this bill supports a grant program to help schools hire additional counselors. The purpose of the task force is to study whether there is a demonstrable relationship between expanding counseling resources in public schools and early detection of mental health issues in students, improved academic performance and student attendance, higher graduation rates, and decreased behavioral disruptions on the part of students. The Blue Ribbon Panel will also be tasked with making recommendations for the Florida's School Counseling and Guidance Framework.

How You can Help.
The time is now to contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know that, as their elected officials, you expect them to look out for the new bill when it is introduced and that they should support it. Let them know about how important school counseling is to student success, graduation rates, school safety, and Florida's economic future. 
Download this handout on Effective ways to Communicate with your Legislators.
Take a couple of minutes to thank Senator Detert for her unwavering support and sponsorship of this bill. Her contact info is here.

Advocacy is very expensive. If you are currently a FSCA member, we thank you for your support, this work could not happen without you. However, we can do more. If you are receiving this and are not a current member, please enroll now. One hundred percent (100%) of member dues funds our mission and goals, a large part of which is advocacy. Click here to renew a membership or here to enroll as a new member. Also, we hope to see you at the 2014 Convention where we will have presentations about advocacy and, of course, much more.

Updated FSCA Advocacy Platform. FSCA maintains an Advocacy platform, take a few minutes to have a look.
Follow us on several outlets: Twitter
Facebook
News You Can Use Blog
Legislation Alerts
 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Last week the House and Senate approved an omnibus spending bill for FY14

News from ASCA

Last week the House and Senate approved an omnibus spending bill for FY14, which the president signed on Jan. 17, 2014. ASCA is pleased the bill will level-fund the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program (ESSCP) at $49.561 million. Although we're disappointed Congress didn't restore the recent sequester cuts, we realize the preservation of this program, despite the current fiscal climate, is a step in the right direction. The FY14 funding for ESSCP is a direct result of your advocacy to save the program.

In addition to the ESSCP funding the omnibus included an increase of $28.516 million ($90 million total) to the Safe and Drug Free School Communities and National Programs. Exact guidance on these funds has not been released, but the program references comprehensive school safety and school climate initiatives. ASCA will be sure to keep membership notified if this proves to be further opportunities for increased school counseling services.

What happens next? The U.S. Department of Education will hold a grant competition for the next round of ESSCP grantees; this typically happens around August. ASCA will notify members of the grant announcement via social networking sites, the ASCA website as well as e-mail blasts. Stay tuned.
Sincerely,


Amanda Fitzgerald, Director of Public Policy
American School Counselor Association

phone: 703-683-ASCA



American School Counselor Association | 1101 King St., Suite 625 | Alexandria | VA | 22314


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

AP Exclusive: GOP donor's school grade changed

FILE - In this July 10, 2012, file photo then Indiana school Superintendent Dr. Tony Bennett speaks in Indianapolis. Bennett built his national star by promising to hold 'failing' schools accountable. But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent Republican donor might receive a poor grade, Bennett's education team frantically overhauled his signature 'A-F' school grading system to improve the school's marks from at 'C' to and 'A'. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)
FILE - In this July 10, 2012, file photo then Indiana school Superintendent Dr. Tony Bennett speaks in Indianapolis. Bennett built his national star by promising to hold "failing" schools accountable. But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent Republican donor might receive a poor grade, Bennett's education team frantically overhauled his signature "A-F" school grading system to improve the school's marks from at "C" to and "A". (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

Thursday, June 27, 2013

FSCA Advocacy Update - June 27, 2013

June 27, 2013
You can help advance school counseling in Florida right now (Yes, this summer).
FSCA is now launching Year 3 of our three-year advocacy plan. In Year 1, FSCA hired a consultant to help us develop and deliver a proposed Bill that included provisions for (a) lowering ratios, (b) protecting appropriate counseling duties, (c) moving from "guidance counselor" to "school counselor," and (d) ensuring that all schools have at least one full time school counselor. The bill was did well in the Senate although not so well in the House. It was never heard.

In year 2, a bit of language was changed to further the likelihood of the bill passing although all four areas of change from Year 1 stayed the same. FSCA worked to partner with other organizations, especially including parents, and increased it's communications with private school counselors as well as public school counselors. In year 2, FSCA also increased it's efforts in Tallahassee by meeting with several legislators and representatives from the Governor's office. The Bill received much greater attention and traction as it was referred to several different committees and was discussed/debated on both the House and Senate floors.  Unfortunately, the bill was amended in a way that resulted in only one of the four goals -- changing our title to Certified School Counselor.

Although FSCA was disappointed that more of the bill was not passed, we still consider this a success. Thousands of bills are introduced in the Florida legislature every year and only a relative handful are heard. Still fewer arrive on the Governor's desk. Although not as comprehensive as we would like, our bill (CS/CS/SB 1664) was approved by Governor Scott on 06/14/2013.
Year 3 (NOW). FSCA continues to work diligently on a bill that would help school counselors do their work by having more reasonable ratios.

How You can Help.

The time is now to contact your Representatives and Senators and let them know that, as their elected officials, you expect them to look out for the new bill when it is introduced and that they should support it. Let them know about how important school counseling is to student success, graduation rates, school safety, and Florida's economic future. You can use this handout when you meet with them and also include these as talking points for emails and letters.
Advocacy is very expensive. If you are currently a FSCA member, we thank you for your support, this work could not happen without you. However, we can do more. If you are receiving this and are not a current member, please enroll now. One hundred percent (100%) of member dues funds our mission and goals, a large part of which is advocacy. Click here to renew a membership or here to enroll as a new member. Also, we hope to see you at the 2013 Convention (see below) where we will have presentations about advocacy and, of course, much more.

Updated FSCA Advocacy Platform. FSCA has just published its updated Advocacy platform, take a few minutes to have a look.

FSCA started a new partnership and collaboration this year with FCAN (Florida College Access Network) to collect data and develop policies about helping kids become more college and career ready. The policy brief has just been published:Is Florida (College & Career) Ready? Putting Common Core in Context. Read this important policy brief from the Florida College Access Network.  Here is an excerpt:

Schools need added supports to help students be prepared for college and careers because their capacity to assist students with each component of college and career readiness can be limited. Within schools, the responsibility to coordinate college and career readiness activities (beyond instruction) for students lies with the school counselors. In Florida, these professionals are responsible for academic advising, career development, college counseling, financial aid counseling and much more.42 According to the Florida Department of Education handbook for school counselors, they “are a key resource for providing appropriate advice related to secondary courses selection and postsecondary planning.” The Education Trust and the College Board have also emerged since states began adopting Common Core to assert the importance school counselors have on efforts to improve students’ college and career readiness.

2013 Annual Convention: The most focused program in school counseling in Florida, the 2013 FSCA Convention will be delivered by thoughtful leaders from Florida and throughout the United States. The hottest and most relevant topics will be explored by leading industry advocates, state officials, counselor educators and, most importantly, professional school counselors! 

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Tight budgets threaten resource for Lee County schools

At the start of a school day, Janet Borchers is at the front of Spring Creek Elementary School greeting kids and parents.

On any given day, school counselor Borchers can be helping students deal with abuse, a death in the family, a parent’s arrest or simply arguments with classmates. She’s their go-to resource at the Bonita Springs school. But she has 700 students to keep track of, a workload that educators say is too large. It’s a problem popping up in many areas of the state, but is particularly bad in Southwest Florida.

Lee County ranks 64th out of 67 school districts in counselor-to-student ratio, according to the state Department of Education. The department, the American School Counselor Association and the Florida School Counselor Association all recommend that school districts maintain a 1-to-250 counselor to student ratio at every level.

The problem has been getting worse as budgets tighten, mandates increase and school principals have to make hard choices about what positions to keep. Often they cut counselor positions in favor of instructional positions.

In Lee, the average ratio for elementary schools is 1-to-923, for middle schools it’s 1-to-565 and 1-to-532 for high schools.

Read more >>>

Governor Scott's Response to FSCA about Salaries

Friday, May 31, 2013

Governor Scott Signs Legislation to Keep Floridians Safe


 
Governor Scott Signs Legislation to Keep Floridians Safe
 
Dear Friends,
 
We made great progress this week in keeping Floridians safe on the road and in their communities. As a father and grandfather, texting while driving is a concern I share with many Floridians whose loved ones travel the roads. The “Texting While Driving” bill that I signed into law this week will encourage drivers to practice responsible driving habits and keep our streets safe. In addition, I signed two bills that will protect victims of human trafficking. These bills will support the victims of this heartbreaking abuse as they set out on the journey of recovery.

Also this week, we visited south Florida to highlight a plan to invest $880 million for supporting the restoration of the Everglades. This historic legislation begins a long-term commitment to protecting Florida’s most delicate natural treasure. I would like to thank all state, local and federal officials who played a role in passing these bills and improving the lives of Florida families.
 
 
Read the press releases: