The Guidance and Counseling Department of Sherman ISD follows guidelines set forth by the Texas Legislature and outlined in A Model Comprehensive, Developmental Guidance and Counseling Program for Texas Public Schools. Counselors work with students, parents, faculty and staff, and the community to plan, implement, and evaluate a developmental program which is age appropriate for the students they serve. 

A guidance and counseling program includes the following: 

1) A guidance curriculum to help students develop their full educational potential. 

2) A responsive services component whose immediate concerns or problems put the student’s continued educational, career, personal, or social development at risk. 

3) An individual planning system to guide a student as the student plans, monitors, and manages his/her own educational, career, personal, and social development. 

4) System support to support the efforts of teachers, staff, parents, and other members of the community in promoting the educational, career, personal and social development of students.

Guidance programs are geared to the age of the children being served and their developmental need. Comprehensive guidance programs are important to the achievement of excellence in education for students. Studies have shown that through guidance/counseling, some students have achieved identified results in several areas. Among those are the following: academic achievement, improved attendance, improved school attitude, improved school behavior, social skills, information to help in choosing potential careers, self-confidence development, interpersonal relationships, and life satisfaction.

The counseling issues that students have identified include the following: school attitudes and behaviors, test anxiety, peer relationships, study skills, career planning, suicide, school safety, harassment issues, bullying and victimization, gang pressures, conflict resolution, college choice, death of a family member, family divorce, substance abuse, family abuse, scholarships, and financial aid.

Counselors counsel students individually, in small groups, and provide classroom guidance. They also work with community agencies to provide services for students and their families. Counselors provide character education throughout the district in a variety of ways. They typically follow the core essentials of character education which include the following traits: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. 

School counselors have all been classroom teachers so they understand the dynamics of a classroom. They have a master’s degree in counseling or a related field and hold a professional certification in counseling issued by the Texas Education Agency.

National Child Identification Program
The National Child Identification Program was created by the American Football Coaches Association in 1997 to improve child safety. In December 2001, the FBI joined this partnership making it the only program of its kind to be endorsed by the FBI. A child identification kit has been developed to help parents in the state of Texas. Each Child ID kit contains the tools necessary for parents to record and store vital information on each child including photographs, fingerprints, identifying marks, and DNA.  All the information necessary for law enforcement is readily available in the case of an emergency. To learn more about the program please visit www.childidprogram.com. If you are interested in ordering Child ID kits, please visit www.childidprogram.com/order-now.