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The Wauwatosa School District (WSD) Student Services department is made up of school counselors, school
social works and school psychologists. The services are intended to enable all students to become effective
students, responsible citizens, productive workers and lifelong learners.
The WSD Student Services department is modeled after the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). The
ASCA National model is: A Framework for School Counseling Program. This comprehensive student services
delivery system serves all students K-12. The framework fosters the academic, personal and social development
and career goals of students throughout their K-12 experience.
Each counselor or student services staff member is to guide students in course selection and career planning in
such a way that there is no discrimination or bias nor make any predictions of success or failure based on a
student’s race, color, national origin, gender, or disability. If any materials or resource people are used to recruit
students to a particular career path or vocational choice, the counselors and teachers must be sure that such
materials and/or presentations do not indicate or imply racial, gender, or disability stereotypes. Employer
partnerships used for work study, recruitment, partnership, apprenticeship, or employment should provide evidence
of nondiscrimination policy/practices. Efforts should be made, when applicable to a program, to use resource
people who represent the special populations contained within the body of students being recruited for or guided
toward the program or career path. In addition, efforts should be made to communicate with nonEnglish speaking
families.
Staff Responsibility
No staff member other than administrators, school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, or
registered nurses are to conduct programs or activities, that are not curriculum related, in which confidentiality of
information is involved or shared. Other members of the professional staff as well as those on the support staff
should be as helpful and caring to the students are possible, and, when they become aware that a student needs
additional support, take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the student has made productive contact with
members of the students services staff.
Confidentiality
It is incumbent on all staff members to be knowledgeable about the laws regarding confidentiality of information,
whether it be part of a student’s record or of a communication with a student. AG 8330 describes in detail the requirements concerning information in student school records.
With regard to confidentiality of communications, parents have an expectation of privacy with regard to their family
relationships, which may be superseded, however, in certain situations where the rights of a minor student would
prevail such as one-on-one counseling situations with a licensed counselor.In determining whether or not to
disclose the information, student services staff consider:
A. The student’s need to maintain confidentiality in order to obtain and benefit from assistance balanced against
the parents’ rights to the care, custody, and control of their child;
B. If there is a compelling need involving the immediate health, safety, or welfare of the student or others;
C. Whether any information received from the student raises suspicion that the child is or has been the victim of
child abuse and if so, if the suspected child abuse implicates a caregiver as the perpetrator of such abuse.
In balancing these concerns, the student services must also consider:
A. The nature of the relationship between the student and his/her parents;
B. Potential benefits and risks of maintaining confidentiality versus disclosure;
C. The best interests of the students.
Referrals to Outside Agencies
The District shall maintain, at the Superintendent’s office and at each principal’s office, a list of outside resource
people and organizations.
Rather than recommend a single resource, staff members are advised to review the alternatives with the student
and his/her parents and let them decide.
Approved/Adopted: July 13, 2009 |
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