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The purpose of the responsive services component is to intervene on behalf of those students whose immediate personal concerns or problems put their continued personal-social, career, and /or educational development at risk. Although counselors respond to any concerns presented by students, some topics have been identified as having high priority and/or relevance within the school setting. Topics of priority in Fort Worth ISD include:

School-based issues, such as

• attendance
• school attitudes and behaviors
• peer relationships
• study skills
• being new to the school
• emergent issues in intervention or prevention of a traumatic event; and
• violence on campus (school safety)
• academic success
• school drop-outs
• severe stress
• substance abuse
• school-age pregnancy
• gang pressures/involvement
• harassment issues
• career decision
• financial aid
• college choice

Personal issues, such as

• death of a family member or friend
• family divorce
• family abuse
• harassment issues
• adolescent and child suicide
• child abuse and neglect

Parents Role in the Responsive Services

Parent involvement with and participation in activities of this component are essential to helping children overcome barriers to their educational process. They refer their children for help, work with school staff to specify their children's issues and give permission for needed student services including on-going counseling.

Some responses are preventive: interventions with students who are on the brink of choosing an unhealthy or inappropriate solution to their problems or being unable to cope with a situation. Some responses are remedial: interventions with students who have already made unwise choices or have not coped well with problem situations.

In this component as in the others, locally identified needs will dictate the priorities for problem topics and for the groups of students to be served. A developmental guidance and counseling program includes supplemental guidance and counseling services for students targeted by special funding sources such as students in compensatory, gifted, migrant, special, or career and technology education programs.

The school counselors counsel individuals or small groups of students, appraise individuals for the purpose of problem identification, consult with teachers and parents, refer students and/or their parents and teachers to other specialists or special programs, coordinate programs and services with other specialists, and follow-up with students to monitor their progress toward resolution of their problems. If applicable, they train and supervise peer facilitators. Often they conduct guidance sessions in response to teachers' requests to address problems of particular groups, such as competitiveness or stress with classroom groups of gifted students.