School Counselors’ Role in Equity and Inclusion
School counselors work to close achievement, opportunity, and access gaps by supporting individual students, building inclusive school cultures, and advocating for policy-level change. Their role spans three levels: one-on-one support for students facing systemic barriers, schoolwide culture work that makes classrooms safer and more equitable, and advocacy that pushes for institutional reform. All three are part of the job description.
America’s school system has a long way to go. On average, schools with 90% or more students of color spend $733 less per student than schools with 90% or more white students, according to the United Negro College Fund. NEA says federal funding for IDEA and Title I has fallen short by $686 billion over the last 15 years. After the pandemic-era universal free school meal waivers ended in 2022, 847 surveyed districts reported more than $19 million in unpaid meal debt. About one-quarter of LGBTQ+ students reported higher-severity in-person victimization in GLSEN’s 2021 National School Climate Survey, depending on category and school policy context. And in 2019–20, the median state-level graduation rate for English learners was 69%, compared with an 86% graduation rate for all students.
These aren’t abstract policy problems. They’re the daily context in which school counselors work.
For Professor Nick Abel, Associate Dean of Graduate and Adult Learning Programs and faculty member at Butler University’s school counseling program, this work has been central to his career:
“Equity and inclusion was a real passion of mine as a school counselor. Now, I’m able to take some of that foundational knowledge and bring it into my teaching. My knowledge and passion in this area have only grown during my more than a decade as a counselor educator.”
Professor Nick Abel’s insights into inclusion and equity are backed by years of his own experience and academic research. As a master’s student, he explored challenges that LGBTQIA students face and how counselors can ease some of those hardships.
When he became a school counselor in 2005, this background enabled him to help students, parents, teachers, and new counselors alike. In his current role at Butler University’s College of Education, he continues his efforts by teaching future counselors practical, evidence-based techniques that emphasize equitable and inclusive care.
What Does Equity and Inclusion Actually Mean for School Counselors?
Equity in schools means ensuring every student has fair access to the resources, support, and opportunities they need to succeed — not the same resources, but the right ones. Inclusion means creating environments where students from every background feel they belong and can participate fully. For school counselors, these aren’t aspirational values. The American School Counselor Association’s position statement on equity makes this work an explicit professional obligation.
School Counselors Provide Multiple Levels of Support for Each Individual
As Professor Abel and his colleagues prepare students to become a school counselor, they have one broad goal in mind:
“We make sure that our students have the foundational training to support all three areas of student development: academic achievement, college and career readiness, and social-emotional well-being.”
That training matters most when students face circumstances that make basic success harder. Consider a household where a single parent works outside the home, and their child doesn’t have consistent help with homework after school. The parent is doing their best, but when food instability, financial stress, and inadequate support stack up, they affect the student in ways that aren’t always visible at school. Hunger alone is linked to higher rates of absenteeism, lower grades, and behavioral issues — because kids in survival mode aren’t focused on college applications.
In rigorous programs like Butler University’s, school counselors learn to help students like this by:
- Connecting them with free and reduced lunch programs. For non-school days, counselors might coordinate with local charities or food banks.
- Helping them identify and accomplish goals. Through one-on-one counseling, counselors help students recognize their strengths and build on them. Working with teachers, tutors, and administrators, they provide the resources students need to move forward.
- Addressing behavioral issues. Through consultation with teachers and parents, and through group and individual counseling, school counselors can have a real impact on student behavior. When necessary, they also connect students with mental health professionals and social workers.
- Extending support to families. This might include helping parents find childcare, keeping them updated on their child’s progress, and teaching strategies to support learning at home.
These aren’t small interventions. For a student without a stable support system, a counselor who knows their name and their situation can change the trajectory of their education.
Cultivating Cultures of Inclusion Among Students and Teachers Alike
Individual support is only part of the work. When an entire school’s culture is inequitable, no amount of one-on-one counseling fully compensates. Professor Abel works to ensure his students are aware of personal and systemic biases — and actively work against them:
“We instill both some personal awareness and understanding of biases that people might be carrying with them. And then we try to provide students with some theoretical knowledge around diversity and equity and sort of best practices.”
The American School Counselor Association names fostering inclusion and celebrating diversity as an ethical responsibility. When the playing field isn’t level, school counselors can:
- Help students and staff plan cultural celebrations.
- Run anti-bullying campaigns.
- Help teachers plan inclusive lessons and curricula.
- Ensure Advanced Placement and honors courses are actually accessible to all students, not just those whose families know how to push for enrollment.
- Review data — enrollment patterns, test scores, discipline records, student surveys — to identify performance and opportunity gaps.
- Create safe spaces for students where marginalized students can discuss their experiences without fear of ridicule or retaliation.
- Attend conferences and workshops to deepen their own cultural competence.
- Work with community organizations to ensure students feel a sense of belonging beyond the school building.
Using data is worth emphasizing here. Counselors who want to advocate effectively need numbers, not just instinct. When a counselor notices that Black students are being referred to special education at higher rates than their peers, or that girls are underrepresented in AP science courses, that data becomes the basis for a direct conversation with administrators. ASCA’s position statement on equity specifically calls on counselors to collect and use disaggregated data to identify and challenge opportunity gaps.
The case for inclusion isn’t only ethical — it’s practical. Research published in the British Educational Research Journal found that a sense of belonging in school is associated with improved academic achievement, self-esteem, and behavioral outcomes. When students feel like they belong, they learn better.
They Advocate for Change on a Systemic Level
Individual support and cultural inclusion work matter. But discrimination and its outcomes aren’t just the result of individual bias. They persist because systems — districts, funding formulas, enrollment policies, discipline frameworks — often can’t or don’t support their increasingly diverse student populations. When counselors band together with other equity-driven professionals, they can push those systems to change.
In 2021, ASCA and other organizations supported the introduction of the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Act. The bill aims to lower the maximum student-to-counselor ratio and advocates for needs-based federal grants that would allow state and local agencies to hire more professionals. To help advance legislation like this, counselors gather data on the issues in their own schools, provide that evidence to bill sponsors, and share firsthand experience at hearings. Some, like Professor Abel — who serves on Indiana’s Student Success Advisory Committee — participate in the policy process directly, giving a voice to students who don’t have one themselves.
This systemic level is where the work gets hard. An ASCA survey of more than 7,000 school counselors found that between 62% and 78% of counselors don’t currently participate in social justice initiatives, and 78% said they want more professional development on DEI and anti-racism work. The gap between what counselors believe and what they’re equipped to do is real. Training programs are starting to address it, but the profession is still building the infrastructure for this kind of work.
Discovering Your Passion: What Can You Do to Help?
Throughout his career, Professor Abel has worked to make equity and inclusion central — not peripheral — to school counseling. In schools, he helped students one-on-one, coordinated district-wide career preparation programs, and shared his expertise with colleagues and families. He’s published research on the relationship between discrimination and academic performance and the impact race, gender, and age have on students’ willingness to approach counselors for help.
And despite those accomplishments, he doesn’t see the work as finished:
“I’ve worked to prepare my students specifically in areas where I felt I could have done a better job.”
That’s the through-line of this kind of work — it doesn’t have a finish line. Professor Abel and his colleagues at Butler University built that into their curriculum:
“Everyone comes into this program with their own motivations and their own passions. We try to help students refine those and channel them into specific student groups that they want to work with or schools that they want to work in.”
The students who need equity-focused counselors are already in classrooms. What they need are professionals who show up prepared.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a school counselor’s role in equity and inclusion?
School counselors promote equity and inclusion by identifying achievement, opportunity, and access gaps using school data; advocating for equitable policies and course access; building cultural competence through ongoing training; creating safe spaces for students; and collaborating with educators, families, and community organizations. ASCA’s ethical standards make this work an explicit professional obligation, not an optional add-on.
How do school counselors use data to promote equity?
Counselors examine disaggregated data — discipline records, course enrollment, test scores, graduation rates — to identify patterns of inequity. When data shows that certain student groups are consistently underrepresented in advanced courses or overrepresented in disciplinary referrals, counselors use that evidence to advocate directly with teachers and administrators for systemic change.
What barriers do marginalized students face in schools?
Barriers range from food insecurity and housing instability to inadequate funding in under-resourced schools, racial and disability-related disproportionality in discipline and special education placement, and social exclusion. According to the UNCF, schools with predominantly non-white student populations receive on average $733 less per student in funding than predominantly white schools.
Do school counselors actually advocate for policy change?
Yes — it’s part of the professional role. ASCA actively works with legislators on bills like the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Act, and individual counselors contribute by gathering school-level data, testifying at hearings, and serving on advisory committees. That said, most counselors do this work within their schools and districts rather than at the state or federal level.
How can I prepare to do equity-focused counseling work?
Look for graduate programs that incorporate social justice frameworks and require coursework on cultural competency and disability. ASCA offers a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Specialist training and designation through its professional development program. Field placements in diverse, under-resourced settings will prepare you more than a theoretical curriculum alone.
- Equity work is part of the job — ASCA’s ethical standards explicitly require school counselors to identify and address achievement, opportunity, and access gaps for marginalized students.
- The work operates at three levels — individual student support, school culture change, and systemic policy advocacy. Effective counselors engage at all three.
- Data is the counselor’s tool for advocacy — disaggregated enrollment, discipline, and outcome data turns instinct into evidence for institutional change.
- Most counselors want to do this work but need better preparation — an ASCA survey found 62–78% don’t currently participate in social justice initiatives, and 78% want more DEI training.
- Your program matters — graduate programs that emphasize equity and social justice frameworks will prepare you for this dimension of the role before you step into a school.
If you’re drawn to the social justice dimension of school counseling, the graduate program you choose will shape how prepared you are to do this work well. Start with what’s required in the state where you plan to practice.
