Riverside launches three‑year RISE counseling framework to strengthen grades 6–12 guidance and career pathways

The Riverside Local School District on Aug. 14 introduced the RISE strategic guidance framework, a three‑year plan the district says aims to ensure “every student graduates with a clear plan for their future” by strengthening counselor–student relationships, coordinating services and expanding career programming beginning in middle school.

District staff described RISE as a three‑year effort that starts with building consistent counselor–student relationships in year 1, deepens integration of services in year 2 and sustains measurable excellence in year 3. The plan would move the district to a cohort‑based counselor model so the same counselor follows a student starting in eighth grade through graduation.

Staff said the plan emphasizes counselor visibility and centralized communications. The district will use SchoolLinks, a commercial career and counseling platform, as “a central hub” for college transcripts, scheduling, career inventories and parent access; staff said SchoolLinks will be linked publicly and used for student scheduling and messaging. The district also plans to keep selected information in Infinite Campus where appropriate and to “marry” the two systems, but noted SchoolLinks does not write back to Infinite Campus and schedule data currently requires a manual upload.

District presenters outlined other actions in year 1: finalize counselor cohorts; increase counselor touchpoints such as a regular “counselor corner” in campus communications; carve weekly uninterrupted guidance meeting time for counselors; create biannual data reviews of graduation readiness and participation; cross‑train counselors for role specialization (testing, scheduling, career programming); and develop onboarding protocols for new counselors.

Staff said the district will expand career programming across grades 6–12, including career electives, career exploration days for ninth graders, a tenth‑grade career day with business site visits in the county, and earlier exposure activities down to second grade ("touch‑a‑truck" type events). The district also intends to refresh recognition programs such as the academic letter night and to embed the district’s “Beaver traits” into counseling practice.

On access to monitoring data, staff said the district will maintain an internal multi‑grade progress monitoring dashboard visible to leadership and staff with SchoolLinks access; a de‑identified impact summary could be shared publicly. The district committed to reporting results and celebrating incremental progress as implementation proceeds.

During Q&A board members asked whether SchoolLinks will replace materials in Infinite Campus; staff said they will evaluate the “point of truth” for each system and currently Infinite Campus can write data to SchoolLinks but not the reverse. Staff acknowledged integration limitations and said they will keep both platforms where needed while working toward clearer workflows and parent access.

The presenters also said counselors coordinate with outside providers, including Signature Health, which handles direct clinical services after a counselor referral and parental consent. For acute threat assessments Signature Health would join the district’s threat assessment team and provide follow up when parental consent permits.

The district said the RISE plan will include measures of participation (FAFSA completion, college applications, trade school entry), graduation plan completion and postsecondary outcome surveys required by the state. Staff noted those postsecondary surveys are voluntary and often have low response rates; they said stronger counselor relationships can help increase response rates.

Board members did not take a vote on the plan at the meeting; staff asked for ongoing feedback as the district finalizes cohorts, communications plans and SchoolLinks implementation.