In a nutshell
Trustees approved an update to the district's innovation plan allowing a school counselor to be hired without a TEA certification, as long as they are licensed through the Texas State Board during a Dec. 16 board meeting.
The details
While the TEA did remove the requirement that a school counselor have at least two years of experience in the classroom in 2023, school counselors are required to obtain an additional level of certification through an exam. The waiver approved in GISD removes this requirement.
This comes as GISD and nearby districts are struggling to hire school counselors, administrators say. By removing this requirement, the district can consider mental health professionals and school counselors with the following certifications for open positions:
- Licensed Professional Counselors
- Licensed Professional Counselor Associates
- Licensed Master Social Workers
- Licensed Clinical Social Workers
The district's innovation plan allows GISD to waive some requirements of the Texas Education Code that would inhibit district goals as described in the innovation plan, which must go through a legal process to be adopted.
