Wyomissing Area SD board reviews five-year K–12 counseling plan; counselors flag caseloads and SEL integration

At a March board meeting, Wyomissing Area School District counseling staff presented the district's five-year K–12 comprehensive school counseling plan and asked the board to review materials ahead of a planned upload to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

The plan, presenters said, is state-mandated and updated every five years. "This K to 12 comprehensive school counseling plan is state mandated," Dana Quinlivan said, adding that the district will follow the older standards for this submission because PDE advised doing so for plans begun in the fall. The team said new PA standards are expected to take effect in July 2026.

Why it matters: the plan lays out the counselors' daily, monthly and annual calendars across three domains'academic, career and social-emotional learning (SEL)'and defines how the district meets state guidance and reporting requirements.

Counselors said the plan is aligned with the American School Counselor Association model and emphasized a mix of universal (tier‑1) instruction and targeted supports. "We are asking the K–12 plan to think about how we're exposing students to CTE programming," Quinlivan said, describing career-technical education and transition work that begins in early grades and is tracked through senior profiles.

Presenters compared local caseloads with ASCA's recommended ratio of 250 students per counselor and said caseloads vary by building. They highlighted one elementary role with an "over 100" student caseload and asked trustees to review the full charts in the posted document. Staff cautioned that some details in the packet are large and recommended trustees focus on the monthly program calendars to understand day-to-day duties.

Board members asked for additional, specific demographic data. Staff agreed to provide a Friday update that will include counts the board requested (numbers of students experiencing homelessness and other program-specific caseload breakdowns). "That could easily be provided in a Friday update to kind of give you a quick glance at the demographics," a counselor said.

The presenters described several operational changes and initiatives tied to the plan: junior-high counselors will meet with every 7th'9th grade student at least once per year; internship coordination and increased BCTC participation were credited with recent growth in career-pathway outcomes; and the district plans to reconstitute a School Counseling Advisory Council in June to align plan elements with families, teachers, business partners and county partners.

On SEL, the team said it is piloting curricular resources for grades 7 and 8 and integrating SEL lessons into advisory periods to create consistent, tier-1 instruction across teams. Presenters also described using screeners that feed into tier-2 referrals and coordination with social work and school-based therapists for students needing additional support.

The board thanked the counseling team for hours of work and asked staff to return the full plan and a concise Friday data packet. The presentation concluded without formal action on the plan; the upload to PDE and any required board approval were framed as next steps.

The board moved on to other agenda items.

Ending: The district will post the full counseling plan to the board update and provide the requested demographic/caseload figures in a Friday follow-up to help trustees decide any changes to strategic priorities.