On Wednesday of this week, U.S. Department of Education (ED) staff spent time shadowing school staff at Washington, D.C. schools, in recognition of Teacher Appreciation Week. At the request of the Department, ACA and the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) connected ED staff with a local school counselor -- Cristina Espinel-Roberts, at Brightwood Elementary School -- for senior staff to follow as part of the day's events, entitled "ED Goes Back to School." Ms. Espinel-Roberts spent part of her workday with Greg Darnieder, Special Assistant to the Secretary for College Access. Following the school day, Espinel-Roberts and other school staff participated in a debriefing session with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Cristina spoke out about the importance of addressing children's social and emotional needs to enable them to fulfill their potential, telling Secretary Duncan that although school counselors are often invisible, "it's important to take account of us because we're a very important part of the education process." Espinel-Roberts is a member of both ACA and ASCA.
ACA and ASCA thank Ms. Espinel-Roberts for her work and for her advocacy in speaking up for the profession, and we're pleased to have had the chance to highlight school counselors' important role in elementary and secondary education in such a high profile way. We are continuing to work with ED staff to promote the school counseling profession. For more information, contact either Scott Barstow with ACA at sbarstow@counseling.org or Amanda Fitzgerald with ASCA at afitzgerald@schoolcounselor.org.