Angelica Ramos
Contributing Writer
Montgomery County- During the September 17, 2024 Montgomery County School Board Meeting, many MCPS school counselors addressed the board regarding counselors now being needed to fill 504 coordinator roles on top of the extensive work they already do.
A 504 plan in Virginia is a written plan that outlines accommodations and services for students with disabilities to help them participate in school. The plan is based on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. The school counselors spoke to the board about now being 504 coordinators, which adds more responsibilities to their already full loads as school counselors. Sarah Ballard, 10th grade Counselor for Christiansburg High School, spoke in her address to the board about how adding this role to school counselors could impact how they serve students regarding mental health and other needs, how requiring this of them was not optional and could violate Virginia state law that says school counselors need to spend 80% of their time directly aiding students and providing guidance.
“First,” Ballard said, “504 coordination is explicitly listed as an inappropriate responsibility for school counselors by the American School Counseling Association. It places counselors in an adversarial role which can negatively impact relationships with students, parents and teachers instead of participating in a 504 meeting on behalf of the student and family as an advocate to help them navigate the 504 process. We have been placed in the position of determining eligibility and accommodations, a position we are not able to maintain.”
Others who spoke expressed that school counselors and others met with MCPS Superintendent Dr. Bernard F. Bragen, Jr. and other MCPS leaders to express their apprehensions. Those include how this choice could conflict with their roles ethically as they’d have two roles on the 504 team, that more tasks are being added to their roles that are not counseling tasks which makes them less available to provide care and services to the students that need them, and diminishes the amount of one-on-one time with students, especially regarding their mental health and career planning. Those who expressed their concerns to the board were most concerned with the disservice this provides to the students, who are the center of the counselors’ roles. Bragen explained during the board meeting that originally some of the 504 coordinators were teachers and that was pulling teachers out of classrooms for longer periods of time, which wasn’t the best practice. Student representative Aija McHone chimed in, stating that Eastern Montgomery High School has “a counselor and a half” where one counselor works specifically with freshmen and the other works with the rest of the student body.
“I do not know,” McHone said, “a lot about this 504 plan. I’m not going to pretend like I do and I know that you’re going to try to fix it all but I can see how overwhelmed that the guidance counselors can get and I understand where they’re coming from whenever they’re speaking of this because we have one, essentially.”
Bragen expressed wanting to meet with school principals to come up with a better solution to the problem and get school counselors back into ratio.
