Guidance Counselor

**Duties**:
Implements a comprehensive counseling program for the education department.

Leads, advocates and collaborates with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and outside agencies to promote equity and access to education for offenders.

Provides guidance and support to offenders to assist them in navigating and successfully completing the mandatory Literacy Program.

Creates and documents the progress of the offender’s counseling plan and provides assessment results analysis with summary to reflect the offender’s progress toward individual goals.

Provides a multitude of services to offenders both indirectly and directly and regularly assesses the counseling program itself to determine its effectiveness in helping offenders meet educational, career-technical, and reentry goals through utilization of the School Counseling Program Assessment tool and Bureau-based program review. Along with all other correctional institution employees, incumbent is charged with responsibility for maintaining security of the institution. The staff correctional responsibilities precede all others required by this position and are performed on a regular and recurring basis.

**Requirements**:
**Conditions of Employment**:

- U.S. Citizenship is Required.
- See Special Conditions of Employment Section.

**Qualifications**:
**Basic Requirements**:
Degree: that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours appropriate to the position to be filled in one or a combination of the areas described below. At least one course must have been from (1) or (2) below. For guidance counselor positions, a college or university-sponsored practicum in counseling is also required.
- _Test and measurement:_ Study of the selection, evaluation, administration, scoring, interpretation, and uses of group and individual aptitude, proficiency, interest, and other tests.
- _Adult education:_ Study of the adult as a learner, teaching-learning theories for adults, models and procedures for planning, designing, managing, and evaluating adult learning activities.
- _Educational program administration:_ Study of the foundation and methods in organizing for adult and continuing education programs.
- _Curriculum development or design:_ Study of the principles and techniques for development of curricula for adult or vocational education programs.
- _Teaching methods:_ Study of teaching strategies and learning styles of the adult learner.
- _Guidance and counseling:_ Study of the purposes and methods in counseling and guidance, the role of the counselor in various settings, approaches to counseling, and the uses of tests in the counseling situation.
- _Career planning:_ Study of career development, learning activities, systems, approaches, program coordination, use of educational and community resources, and vocational counseling systems.

**AND**

**Education**:
Three years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree.

**OR**

**Experience**:
One year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression. To be creditable, this experience must have equipped the applicant with the particular qualifications to perform successfully the duties of the position and must typically be in or related to the position to be filled.

Some examples of this qualifying experience could be:

- Experience in serving as a school counselor and delivering evidence-based school counseling practices to students while independently creating school counseling lesson plans, instructional materials, student worksheets, and progress monitoring charts and graphs as well as documenting all student progress for learning and social-emotional-behavioral indices.
- Experience in serving as lead school counselor and supervising graduate practicum students in their completion of required university program assignments.
- Experience in developing and delivering in-service training to fellow school counselors on the four sets of school counseling standards as defined by the American School Counselors Association (ASCA).
- Experience in developing and delivering in-service training to school faculty and staff on American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success.
- Experience administering, scoring and interpreting criterion-referenced and standardized academics test, followed by developing intervention strategies to address individual academic and social-emotional-behavioral needs of students.

**Combination of Education and Experience**:
Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. This experience must have equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perfor