School Counseling Programs Law and Policy

Utah Office of Administrative Rules

R277-461: Elementary School Counselor Grant Program
Utah State Board of Education Administrative Rules

  • Outlines grant criteria, application process, and program implementation for the Elementary School Counseling Grant Program.

R277-462: School Counseling Program
Utah State Board of Education Administrative Rules

  • Outlines program implementation requirements for secondary schools (grades 7-12) to be eligible for Career and Technical Education (CTE) Add-On Funding for school counseling programs.
  • R277-462-5: Plan for College and Career Readiness provides Local Education Agencies (LEAs) the guidelines and expectations to develop their Plan for College and Career Readiness schedule based on the following conferences:

1. Grades 7-8, minimally one individual and one group conference during the two years;
2. Grades 9-10, minimally one individual conference and one group conference during the two years;
3. Grades 11-12, minimally one individual conference and one group conference during the two years; and
4. Other meetings as needed

R277-464: School Counselor Direct and Indirect Services
Utah State Board of Education Administrative Rules

  • This Board rule applies to all school counselors, not just for schools that receive school counseling program funding based on R277-462.

R277-464-3: Incorporation of School Counselor Services Document

  • This document further defines direct and indirect student services, school counselor time allocation, and appropriate and inappropriate school counseling activities. As documentation for compliance, a Time/Task Analysis should be completed by each school counselor annually to ensure a minimum of school counselor time reflects at least 85% in direct services to students, with a maximum of 15% of school counselor time in indirect services to students.

R277-530-7: Educational School Counselor Standards
Utah State Board of Education Administrative Rules

  • Outlines traits, skills, and work functions that school counselors must demonstrate, in addition to the Effective Teaching Standards described in Section R277-530-5: Effective Teaching Standards and the Educational Leadership Standards described in Section R277-530-6: Educational Leadership Standards.

R277-921: Strengthening College and Career Readiness Program
Utah State Board of Education Administrative Rules

  • Outlines requirements for the College and Career Readiness Certificate Program.

Utah State Board of Education College and Career Readiness Certificate Program Standards

  • This document further defines the College and Career Readiness Program Standards.

Utah State Legislature

Title 53E-2-304: School District and Individual School Powers. Plan for College and Career Readiness Definition
Outlines the details of College and Career Readiness planning meetings and provides guidelines and expectations for Local Education Agency (LEA) policies regarding these meetings.

Title 53E-9-203: Activities Prohibited Without Prior Written Consent, Validity of Consent, Qualifications, Training on Implementation
Except as outlined in 53E-9-203 (7), policies adopted by a school district or charter school under Title 53E-9-202: Application of State and Federal Law to the Administration and Operation of Public School. Local School Board and Charter School Governing Board Policies shall include prohibitions on the administration to a student of any psychological or psychiatric examination, test, or treatment, or any survey, analysis, or evaluation without the prior written consent of the student’s parent or legal guardian, in which the purpose or evident of intended effect is to cause the student to reveal information, whether the information is personally identifiable or not, concerning the student’s or any family members:

  1. political affiliations or philosophies;
  2. mental or psychological problems;
  3. sexual behavior, orientation, or attitudes;
  4. illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior;
  5. critical appraisals of individuals with whom the student or family member has close family relationships;
  6. religious affiliations or beliefs;
  7. legally recognized privileged relationships (lawyers, medical personnel, or ministers); and
  8. income, except as required by law.

In 2014, the Utah State Legislature passed House Bill 23 (Title 53E-9-203 (7)) which allows a school employee to intervene and ask a student questions if the employee believes the student is at risk of attempting suicide, physically self-harming behavior, or thoughts of harming others for the purposes of:

  1. referring the student to appropriate prevention services; and
  2. informing the student’s parent or legal guardian.

Title 53G-9-604: Parental Notification of Certain Incidents and Threats Required
Outlines requirements for notifying parents if a student threatens to commit suicide or involved in an incident of bullying, cyber-bullying, hazing, abusive conduct, or retaliation.