School Counselor - Middle School 26'-27' SY in Nashville, Tennessee at STEM Preparatory Academy

School Counselor

Salary Range: $50,000 - $60,000 (Final Salary based on experience)
Position Overview: The School Counselor provides direct, proactive, and responsive support to students experiencing social, emotional, behavioral, attendance, or family-related challenges. This role is grounded in the belief that challenging behavior is often the result of lagging skills and unsolved problems, and that students are best supported through relationship-centered, trauma-informed, and collaborative problem-solving practices. The counselor works directly with students and families, partners closely with school leaders and staff, and helps strengthen the school’s overall system of support so students can access learning, remain connected to school, and build the skills needed to thrive. Since this role serves as a key bridge between home and school, bilingual communication skills are strongly preferred to support meaningful partnership with multilingual families.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in education or related field
• Master’s Degree from an accredited college or university in school guidance and counseling (preferred not required)
• Meets requirements for school guidance and counseling and retains a current and valid certification as a professional school counselor.
• Experience providing direct support to students with social, emotional, behavioral, attendance, or mental health needs.
• Training, certification, or demonstrated experience with Collaborative & Proactive Solutions, Lives in the Balance, or a closely aligned non-punitive, skill-building behavior support framework.
• Experience conducting student risk screenings, safety planning, crisis response, or mental health referrals.
• Knowledge of trauma-informed practices, de-escalation strategies, restorative practices, and family engagement.
• Ability to partner effectively with students, families, teachers, school leaders, and external service providers.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including documentation, family communication, and staff-facing consultation.
• Bilingual communication skills strongly preferred, especially in languages represented within the school community.
• Commitment to culturally responsive, strengths-based support for students and families.

Preventative and Responsive Services

• Serve as a school-based leader for proactive, trauma-informed, and skill-building student support.
• Use the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions framework to identify lagging skills, unsolved problems, and patterns contributing to student challenges.
• Support staff in shifting from compliance-based responses to collaborative, relationship-centered, and skill-building responses.
• Lead or support responsive services during moments of dysregulation, conflict, grief, crisis, family disruption, or school avoidance.
• Provide staff training and coaching on de-escalation, relationship-building, trauma-informed care, and proactive student support.

Individual Student Planning

• Provide individual and small group counseling or coaching to students experiencing emotional, behavioral, social, attendance, or family-related challenges.
• Build trusting relationships with students through consistent check-ins, skill-building conversations, and collaborative problem solving.
• Use student-centered tools such as the ASUP or similar protocols to identify lagging skills and unsolved problems.
• Facilitate Plan B conversations or similar collaborative problem-solving meetings with students, staff, and families.
• Develop individualized support plans with clear goals, strategies, progress monitoring, and adult follow-through.

Family Support

• Serve as a trusted liaison between home, school, and community for students and families needing additional support.
• Communicate regularly with parents and guardians about student progress, concerns, strengths, and support plans.
• Partner with families to understand student needs, family context, and barriers impacting student success.
• Connect families to community-based mental health, housing, food, medical, immigration, grief, or crisis services as needed.
• Facilitate family meetings that are strengths-based, solutions-oriented, and focused on shared problem solving.

Family Support

• Participate in or help lead the school’s student support, MTSS, attendance, behavior, or crisis response teams.
• Help create clear processes for identifying students in need of additional social, emotional, behavioral, or family support.
• Collaborate with leaders and teachers to align student support plans with schoolwide expectations and classroom systems.
• Identify trends in student needs and recommend proactive supports, staff training, or system improvements.
• Partner across teams to coordinate support.

Accountability

• Maintain accurate and timely documentation of student support, family communication, referrals, interventions, and follow-up steps.
• Track student progress toward identified support goals using attendance, behavior, academic, wellness, and engagement data.
• Monitor the effectiveness of individual support plans and adjust interventions based on student response and team input.
• Ensure crisis response, safety planning, mandated reporting, and referral processes are completed in accordance with law and school policy.
• Use data to identify patterns, evaluate impact, and inform decisions about student and family support.

Administrative Responsibilities

• Maintain a caseload of students receiving individual, small group, family, or wraparound support.
• Schedule and facilitate student, family, staff, and provider meetings as needed.
• Prepare documentation for support team meetings, intervention plans, family conferences, and crisis response.
• Maintain updated records of community resources, referral partners, and family support services.
• Participate in school leadership, student support, attendance, behavior, or family engagement meetings as assigned.
• Collaborate with the Office of Family & Community Engagement for family support, community partnerships, and events.

Desired Qualities

• Commitment to Equity: Passionate about ensuring that every child, regardless of background or circumstance, has the resources and support to receive an excellent education.
• Relational: Builds trust quickly with students, families, and staff through consistency, warmth, honesty, and follow-through.
• Proactive: Looks for patterns early and addresses concerns before they become crises.
• Grounded: Remains calm, clear, and regulated during moments of conflict, distress, or escalation.
• Adaptability: Excels in constantly changing environments and adapts flexibly in shifting projects or priorities to meet the needs of a dynamic transformation effort; comfortable with ambiguity and non-routine situations.
• Teamwork: Increases the effectiveness of surrounding teams through collaboration, constant learning and supporting others; sensitive to diversity in all its forms; respects and is committed to learning from others
• Dependability: Does whatever it takes to consistently deliver with high quality under tight deadlines; successfully manages own projects through strong organization, detailed workplans, and balancing of multiple priorities.
• Communication and Customer Service Skills: Communicates clearly and compellingly with diverse stakeholders in both oral and written forms; anticipates and responds to customer needs in a high-quality and courteous manner.