1.  To assist students with personal and academic concerns such as coping with stress,  learning to study, and behaving appropriately in class.        

 2.  To help students develop educational and career decision-making skills including knowing how to make decisions, developing individual interests and abilities, and learning about jobs and careers. 

3.  To aid students in developing interpersonal skills such as resolving conflicts,  communicating with others and understanding how their behavior affects others. 

Guidance services are provided by counselors through individual and /or small group  counseling, classroom guidance lessons, appointments with parents, and discussions with teachers.  The elementary guidance program focuses on identifying and teaching students those skills that are appropriate for their age that will help them successfully solve problems.  Counseling offers a means for the student to grow in knowledge of self and others, thus enabling the student to develop a sense of responsibility needed to live effectively in today's world.  The counselors' functions are varied as they help students better understand themselves in the world around them and be more receptive to learning in the classroom. 
 

The primary task during this transitional period is to build a positive self-concept that enables children to feel comfortable in leaving the security of home for a new environment.

In this next phase, children continue to develop their self-concept and move further from the influence of the family circle.  Building peer relationships and learning skills of tolerance and patience become relevant.

In this final stage of the elementary school years, children build on previous experiences. Based on their sense of self-worth and emerging independence, the children prepare to take responsibility for personal decisions and choices. This task becomes increasingly more difficult at this stage as parental influence diminishes and peer influence grows. 

Adolescence is the time when children begin to make the transition into social maturity. They learn about who they are in relationship to their community and they develop a sense of their place in society. In the middle grades, students develop socially in a challenging environment. They have to deal with making new friends, managing a new school routine, resisting peer pressure to drink, take drugs, or have sex—and realizing that adults aren't always perfect. 

Middle-level students need to be prepared to face these pressures and acquire skills to help them face future challenges in a world that each day becomes more complex. To be successful, they must learn how to adjust to new and different situations, and build resiliency skills to overcome obstacles. 

Resilience—the capacity to rebound successfully in the face of adversity—is characterized by social competence, problem-solving ability, autonomy, and a sense of purpose. Those who demonstrate these characteristics in middle school are more likely to be successful at handling the difficult transition to young adulthood.