A survey of counseling services for hearing impaired students in southern California secondary schools

Includes bibliographical references (pages 44-45)The purpose of this study is to provide a general\ud picture of counseling services currently being provided\ud for hearing impaired students in Los Angeles, Orange,\ud Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura County secondary\ud schools. This was accomplished by sending surveys to\ud counselors at secondary schools identified as having\ud hearing impaired programs. The surveys requested information about (1) student\ud population, (2) counselor population, (3) types of counseling\ud services, (4) amount of time counseling, and\ud (5) open-ended suggestions/remarks on counseling. Eleven\ud completed surveys, from nine schools, were received,\ud making a return rate of 50%. Survey results indicate that, in general, at schools\ud with smaller hearing impaired programs (those having student\ud populations under 50), the classroom teacher provides\ud the majority of counseling services. At schools with\ud larger hearing impaired programs, a full-time counselor\ud provides the majority of counseling services. The classroom\ud teacher as counselor is allocated less time and performs\ud more "counseling-related" activities than does the\ud full-time counselor. The full-time counselor has a higher\ud counselor/student ratio than does the classroom teacher\ud as counselor. Recommendations based on the results of this study\ud include: (1) employing more counselors trained to work\ud with hearing impaired students, (2) establishing more\ud training programs for such counselors at the state university\ud level, and (3) allocating additional time for\ud counselors to provide services to hearing impaired\ud students