Board of Ed Considers $9M Request for More School Counselors

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Utah's dropout rate is about 17-percent -- one of the best in the nation according to State Office of Education data. But the State Board of Education thinks it could improve on that by hiring more guidance counselors:

"The goal of that is so a counselor has a low-enough ratio they can do things for the individual student," says Dawn Kay-Stevenson, school counseling coordinator for Utah's public schools. "They can help students stay connected and stay in school."

Kay-Stevenson says each counselor in Utah junior high and high schools is responsible for close to four-hundred students. The industry standard is one counselor for every 250 students. Friday the State Board of Education will consider requesting nine-million dollars from the Legislature to hire more counselors in hopes of preventing dropouts.

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