The following is an update on NSCA happenings as of January 2009. For a complete overview of the plans for the entire school year. Please click here to view our 2008-2009 Annual Work Plan.

1. NSCA School Counselor Academy was held in October in Omaha the event was an enormous success in terms of financial gains for NSCA and participant satisfactions.The Academy had 277 attendees, 44 exhibitors and resulted in a significant increase in NSCA membership.


2. NSCA Governing Board adopted a position statement for helping families in crisis following the change in the safe haven law. The position was shared verbally with Sen. Amanda McGill who is the Senator that is in charge of the task force set up to look at this issue. The positions statement was also e-mailed to all Nebraska State Senators. To view the entire position statement click here.


3. Mary Birch was recognized at the School Counselor Academy as the NSCA School Counselor of the Year. A media release of her honor and information about the school counseling profession was shared with media outlets in Northeast Nebraska.


4. The NSCA board has been awarded two grants to help send two members to ASCA’s Advocacy and Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC in March. Part of this event will include meeting with all of the Nebraska’s Congressional Offices to educate them on the role of school counselors. One of these grants came from NCA and the other is from ASCA.


5. The first NSCA newsletter will be mailed soon to all school counselors in Nebraska. To view an electronic copy of this newsletter click here. A second newsletter is planned for later this semester.


6. NSCA is in the early stages of planning a one-day workshop to be held in central or western Nebraska in the spring.


7. NSCA is partnering with the department of education to launch a state-wide data collection effort next month. The data collection will compare how schools with a fully implemented school counseling programs score on the state report card compared with school that don’t have a fully implemented program. It will also look at the amount of time that school counselor are spending on non-school counselor duties. The data will either show areas that need improvement or will provide us with valuable data to use when educating lawmakers and other stake holders on the value of school counselors.


8. NSCA has submitted a request for a Govenor Proclamation for Nebraska School Counseling Week to coincide with National School Counseling week which is the week of Feb. 2nd. The request has been granted and there will be a signing ceremony at the capitol at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 21st. In-coming commissioner of education has been invited to attend the signing ceremony.


9. NSCA gathered data via a survey about professional development needs of school counselors. Over 300 school counselors responded giving us great data to guide our future decisions about professional development offerings.


10. Officer Elections were held in October at the NSCA General Business Meeting with the following people being elected:

NSCA Advocates on Capital Hill

 

NSCA sent president, Doug Hauserman, and president-elect, Tracy Post, to ASCA’s Advocacy and Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC in early March.  While there, they were educated on current issues confronting school counselors across the country and on current school counselor related legislation that is being considered.  On the last day of the event visits were made to all five offices of Nebraska’s legislators.   While Doug and Tracy met with mostly with staffers, NSCA is pleased the Rep. Lee Terry took the time to personally meet with Doug and Tracy.  When visiting the offices of Sen. Johanns and Sen. Nelson the NSCA representatives asked the senators to co-sponsor the Pathways to College Act and the Increased Student Achievement through Increased Student Support Act. When visiting the offices of Nebraska’s 3 members of the House of Representatives each representative was asked to co-sponsor the Increase Student Achievement through Increased Student Support Act and the Positive Behavior for Safe & Effective Schools Act. Doug and Tracy also took advantage of the meeting to educate about the profession.   Key points were: 1)school counselors work with all students in grades K-12  in the three domains  2)the school counselor’s role in helping Nebraska families in crisis and in preventing Nebraska families from reaching the crisis stage following the change in our Safe Haven Law 3) data was shared showing how school counselors impact student achievement  4)the need for the services provided by school counselors goes up in hard economic times due financial stress placed on families.  It was clear in our visits that each congressman really wants to hear from constituents and listens to what they have to say.  You can support our efforts by taking the time to contact our Senators and your House of Representative member and asking them to co-sponsor these pieces of legislation.  While a phone call or a personal letter is the best option, sometimes-busy schedules don’t allow for that.   The next best option would be to send a form letter. NSCA has developed two letters that you can send, one for our Senators, and one for your House of Representative member.  Click on the congressmen’s name below to be linked to their web wages which gives you contact information for their Washington offices.

Sen. Ben Nelson
Sen. Mike Johanns
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (District 1)
Rep. Lee Terry (District 2)
Rep. Adrian Smith

Letter to Senator
Letter to House of Representative Member

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