School Counselor Resume Example (2026)
By FindAJobAI team Updated How we built this page
School counselor job postings ask for a state certification or license, experience with individual and group counseling, and comfort pulling data such as attendance, discipline referrals or graduation rates to show impact. What separates strong resumes is evidence that a program or intervention changed those numbers for a specific group of students.
The example below is a school counselor with five years split between a middle school and a high school, running caseloads, small groups and crisis response. Notice how each bullet names the caseload size, the intervention and the measurable change, rather than listing duties like "counseled students."
School Counselor resume template
This example as a one-page template: one column, standard headings and plain text, the format applicant tracking systems read most reliably.
After you sign up, Create my CV builds your own resume in this same one-column layout, from your real experience.
Mid-level school counselor resume example
A complete one-page example for a fictional school counselor: every bullet pairs an action with what changed because of it.
Example resume · fictional person
Summary
School counselor with 5 years of experience across middle and high school settings, managing caseloads of up to 310 students. Built the Tier 2 attendance intervention that cut chronic absenteeism by 9 percentage points and runs small groups that lifted participants' GPA by an average of 0.4 points. Licensed School Counselor (Vermont) with training in crisis response and suicide risk assessment.
Experience
School Counselor, Maple Ridge High School
Burlington, VT · Aug 2022 – Present
- Manage a caseload of 310 students across grades 9-12, covering academic planning, college applications and crisis response.
- Built a Tier 2 attendance intervention for 45 chronically absent students, cutting the school's chronic absenteeism rate by 9 percentage points in one year.
- Ran a 10-week small group for 24 students on stress management and executive function, with participants' average GPA rising from 2.6 to 3.0.
- Completed 38 suicide risk assessments and coordinated safety plans with families and outside providers, with same-day follow-up in every case.
School Counselor, Pinebrook Middle School
Burlington, VT · Jul 2019 – Jun 2022
- Supported 260 students in grades 6-8 with academic, social-emotional and behavioral counseling, including 504 plan coordination for 32 students.
- Delivered monthly classroom guidance lessons on conflict resolution and digital citizenship to 11 homerooms, reaching about 260 students.
- Co-led a bullying-prevention task force that cut reported incidents by a third over 2 school years, using discipline-referral data to target 3 grade levels.
Skills
- Counseling: Individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, suicide risk assessment, 504/IEP coordination
- Academic & college: Course planning, college and career advising, Naviance, scholarship guidance
- Systems & data: MTSS/Tier 2 interventions, attendance and discipline data analysis, PowerSchool
- Programs: Social-emotional learning curriculum, small group facilitation, classroom guidance lessons
Certifications
- Licensed School Counselor, Vermont Agency of Education, 2019
Education
- M.Ed. School Counseling, University of Vermont, 2019
Fictional example by the FindAJobAI team: the person, employers and numbers are invented. Keep the structure; use your own work and numbers you can explain in an interview.
Entry-level school counselor resume example
A recent school counseling graduate whose strongest evidence is a supervised internship plus two years coordinating a youth program before grad school. Education sits right under the summary, and each bullet names who was affected and what the lead counselor or staff observed, since she doesn't yet have her own caseload.
Entry-level example resume · fictional person
Summary
Entry-level school counselor with a M.Ed. in School Counseling and a 600-hour internship at a public middle school. Co-led a friendship-skills group for 8 students and supported 504 plan meetings under supervision. Trained in suicide risk assessment and PowerSchool, seeking a first full-time counseling role.
Education
- M.Ed. School Counseling, Eastern Washington University, 2026
Experience
School Counseling Intern, Cedar Hollow Middle School
Spokane, WA · Aug 2025 – May 2026
- Co-led a 6-week small group on friendship and social skills for 8 sixth-graders, with the lead counselor reporting fewer recess conflicts for 6 of the 8 by the group's end.
- Shadowed 12 504 plan meetings and drafted accommodation summaries for 5 students under my supervisor's review.
- Delivered 2 classroom guidance lessons on digital citizenship to 4 homerooms, reaching about 95 students.
Youth Program Coordinator, Riverside Boys & Girls Club
Spokane, WA · Jun 2023 – Jul 2025
- Coordinated homework help and mentoring for 40 students a day in grades 4-8, tracking attendance and flagging concerns to school liaisons.
- Ran a 4-week conflict-resolution mini-course for 15 members, after which staff reported a drop in reported peer conflicts during program hours.
Skills
- Counseling: Individual and group counseling (supervised), crisis response training, 504/IEP familiarity
- Programs: Small group facilitation, classroom guidance lessons, youth mentoring
- Systems: PowerSchool (practicum), Google Workspace, basic Naviance exposure
Certifications
- School Counselor Certification, Washington State, in progress (2026)
Senior school counselor resume example
A department lead ten years in, managing counselors rather than only a caseload. The bullets move from direct counseling to building protocols, training staff and tracking school-wide data, and the summary names the team size and the scale of the protocol he has shipped district-wide.
Senior example resume · fictional person
Summary
Lead school counselor with 10 years of experience, now overseeing a team of 4 counselors across a 1,400-student high school. Redesigned the school's MTSS referral process, cutting time to intervention from 6 weeks to 2, and co-authored the district's suicide-prevention protocol now used in 6 schools.
Experience
Lead School Counselor, Blackwater High School
Richmond, VA · Aug 2021 – Present
- Lead a department of 4 counselors serving 1,400 students, dividing caseloads by grade and setting shared goals each semester.
- Redesigned the MTSS referral process with the intervention team, cutting average time from referral to first support from 6 weeks to 2.
- Co-authored the district's suicide-prevention protocol, now adopted across 6 schools, and trained 60 staff on warning signs and referral steps.
- Built a data dashboard tracking chronic absenteeism and discipline referrals by grade, which the principal now reviews monthly with the team.
School Counselor, Fairmount Academy
Richmond, VA · Jul 2016 – Jun 2021
- Managed a caseload of 280 students in grades 9-12, including college advising for 70 seniors a year.
- Ran a Tier 2 small group program for students with 2 or more discipline referrals, cutting repeat referrals among participants by 35%.
- Trained 3 new counselors each year on risk assessment protocols and caseload triage.
School Counselor, Elmhurst Middle School
Petersburg, VA · Aug 2012 – Jun 2016
- Supported 240 students in grades 6-8 with academic and social-emotional counseling, coordinating 504 plans for 28 students.
- Launched the school's first peer mediation program, training 20 student mediators who resolved 65 disputes in its first year.
Skills
- Leadership: Counselor team management, department budgeting, district protocol development
- Counseling: Crisis intervention, suicide risk assessment, Tier 2/3 MTSS interventions, 504/IEP coordination
- Data & systems: PowerSchool, Naviance, attendance and discipline data analysis
Certifications
- Licensed School Counselor, Virginia Department of Education, 2012
Education
- M.Ed. School Counseling, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012
How to write a school counselor resume
Five steps, in the order a recruiter reads the page. The format around them stays plain for every job: one column, standard headings, newest role first.
Header: name, target title and links
Use the title “School Counselor” even if your official title was Guidance Counselor or Student Support Counselor, and list your state license or certification status right after your name.
Summary: what you do and your best proof
Name your license, your caseload size and one program you run, then a measurable result such as an attendance or GPA change. Skip lines like “passionate about student success”; every counselor resume claims that.
Experience: newest first, a result in every bullet
Open each bullet with your caseload or the group you served, then the program and the result: an attendance shift, a GPA change or a completion rate. Listing duties like “provided counseling services” says little; a specific group outcome says a lot.
Skills: grouped, in the ad's words
Group them into direct counseling, academic/college advising, data and systems, and programs. Name specific interventions (Tier 2, SEL curriculum, peer mediation) rather than the general word “counseling”.
Education and certifications
List your degree with the year, plus your state license or certification and its status. Without a full caseload yet, add internship or practicum hours with the age group, setting and a supervised outcome.
Skills to put on a school counselor resume
Hard skills are the tools and methods of the job; soft skills are how you work with people. Each comes with one way to prove it, because a skill named only in a list counts for little. Add the ones you really have.
Hard skills
- Individual counseling
- Give your caseload size and the kind of issue you addressed, like anxiety or school avoidance, with an outcome.
- Group counseling / small groups
- Name the group's topic, size and length, and one change in attendance, grades or behavior afterward.
- Crisis intervention
- State how many crisis responses or risk assessments you've handled in a period and your follow-up standard.
- Suicide risk assessment
- Mention your training (such as QPR or ASIST) and how many assessments you've completed.
- 504/IEP coordination
- Give the number of plans you coordinated or supported and your specific role in the process.
- College and career advising
- Name your advisee count and a completion rate, like applications submitted or FAFSA forms filed.
- MTSS/Tier 2 interventions
- Describe the intervention you ran, the group it targeted, and the change in the metric it was meant to move.
- Classroom guidance lessons
- Give the topic, the number of classrooms or students reached, and how often you deliver lessons.
- Discipline and attendance data
- Point to a pattern you found in referral or attendance data and the change it led to.
- SEL curriculum
- Name the curriculum you use and a group or grade level where you've measured its effect.
- PowerSchool or similar SIS
- Mention a report or workflow you built in it, such as an attendance or referral tracker.
- Parent and teacher collaboration
- Give the number of families or teachers in a regular check-in system and what it caught early.
Soft skills
- Empathy
- Describe a student situation you handled with care, naming the outcome rather than just the feeling.
- Confidentiality and judgment
- Reference a sensitive situation where you balanced student trust with mandatory reporting correctly.
- Organization
- Give your caseload size and how you track it, like through PowerSchool or a case log.
- Collaboration
- Name the teachers, families or outside providers you coordinate with regularly and the system you use.
- Crisis composure
- Point to your response time or follow-through standard during a crisis situation.
- Cultural responsiveness
- Describe a program you adapted for a specific student population and what changed.
- Advocacy
- Give an example of a policy or schedule change you pushed for using student data.
School Counselor resume bullet examples: weak vs strong
The same work, written two ways. The strong version names the tool, the scope and a result; the numbers are examples, yours must be real.
Weak: Counseled students individually.
Strong: Met weekly with 18 students on an individual caseload for anxiety and school avoidance, with 14 returning to full-time attendance within a semester.
Gives the caseload size, the issue addressed and the outcome.
Weak: Ran small groups.
Strong: Facilitated an 8-week grief and loss group for 10 students after a schoolwide loss, with all 10 completing the group and 2 referred for outside therapy.
Names the group's purpose, size and what happened after it ended.
Weak: Worked on college counseling.
Strong: Advised 90 seniors on college applications and financial aid, helping 85% submit at least 3 applications before the January deadline.
Turns a vague advising claim into a caseload and a concrete completion rate.
Weak: Helped reduce behavior issues.
Strong: Mapped discipline referrals by classroom period and found that lunchtime incidents accounted for 40% of them, leading to a restructured lunch schedule that cut referrals by a quarter.
Shows the data analysis behind a behavior intervention and its result.
Weak: Supported students in crisis.
Strong: Responded to 22 crisis situations in a school year, completing risk assessments and coordinating same-day safety plans with families in every case.
Quantifies crisis response and shows a reliable follow-through standard.
Weak: Coordinated with teachers and parents.
Strong: Ran a monthly check-in system with 12 teachers flagging at-risk students early, catching 9 cases that led to support before a failing grade posted.
Makes the coordination claim specific with a number and a prevention outcome.
15 more school counselor resume bullet examples
Grouped by area of the job, so you can find the ones closest to your work. Keep the shape (action, scope, result) and replace the invented numbers with your own.
Individual and crisis counseling
- Carried an individual caseload of 45 students for ongoing social-emotional support, with 38 showing improved attendance or grades by the end of the year.
- Completed 30 suicide risk assessments in a school year, coordinating same-day safety plans with families and outside providers every time.
- Responded to 15 crisis situations involving self-harm disclosures, de-escalating each one and connecting 12 families to outside counseling within a week.
- Reduced a 3-week average wait for individual counseling appointments to 5 days by restructuring the referral intake form.
Group counseling and SEL
- Facilitated 6 small groups a year on topics including grief, divorce and anger management, serving 55 students total.
- Ran an 8-week social skills group for 12 students with IEPs, with 9 meeting their individualized behavior goals by the group's end.
- Implemented a school-wide SEL curriculum across 18 classrooms, training 18 teachers to deliver weekly lessons.
- Co-led a grief support group after a student death, serving 14 students and coordinating with 3 outside therapists for ongoing care.
Academic and college advising
- Advised 120 juniors and seniors on course selection and college applications, helping 95% apply to at least one postsecondary option.
- Ran 4 FAFSA completion nights, raising the senior class's FAFSA filing rate from 58% to 81%.
- Built a scholarship tracking sheet shared with 200 seniors, which helped students collectively secure $185,000 in local scholarships.
- Coordinated dual-enrollment registration for 65 students a year with the local community college.
Data, programs and collaboration
- Analyzed discipline referral data by period and found that transition times accounted for 30% of incidents, leading to a schedule change that cut those referrals by half.
- Set up a monthly early-warning meeting with 10 teachers to flag at-risk students, catching 22 cases before a failing grade posted.
- Trained 25 staff members on mandatory reporting and de-escalation procedures during back-to-school professional development.
School Counselor resume summary examples
Two or three lines on what you do and your strongest proof. Start from the one closest to your level and use your own facts.
School counselor with a M.Ed. in School Counseling and a 600-hour internship at a public middle school. Led a 6-week small group on friendship skills for 8 students and shadowed 504 plan meetings. Comfortable with crisis response protocols and PowerSchool.
School counselor with 5 years in middle and high school settings, managing caseloads up to 310 students. Built the Tier 2 attendance intervention that cut chronic absenteeism by 9 points and leads small groups that have raised participants' average GPA.
Lead school counselor with 10 years of experience, now overseeing a 4-person counseling department across a 1,400-student high school. Redesigned the school's MTSS referral process and co-authored the district's suicide-prevention protocol now used in 6 schools.
Common school counselor resume mistakes
Each one is easy to make and quick to fix before you apply.
No caseload size anywhere
A caseload of 90 students and one of 400 call for different skills. State your caseload size so reviewers know the scale you're used to.
Listing duties instead of program outcomes
“Provided individual and group counseling” describes the job description, not your work. Name a specific group or intervention and what changed because of it.
Skipping crisis and risk-assessment experience
Most districts treat crisis response as core to the role. State your experience and training directly instead of letting it go unmentioned.
No license or certification status listed
State whether your license is active, pending, or transferring from another state; districts often screen resumes by licensure status first.
Data left out of discipline or attendance work
If you worked on attendance or behavior, give the number: percentage point change, referral count, or caseload affected, instead of describing the effort alone.
ATS tips for a school counselor resume
Applicant tracking systems turn your file into text that recruiters search, mostly for the skills and titles in the ad. They rarely reject a resume on their own; one that parses badly or misses the ad's words just doesn't come up.
- List your state counseling license or certification by name, since districts often filter resumes by licensure status first.
- Give your caseload size; a counselor managing 300 students is a different hire than one managing 80, and reviewers want to know which you're used to.
- Name specific programs you've run (Tier 2 interventions, small groups, SEL curriculum) rather than just writing "counseling services".
- Mention the student information system you use (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Naviance) since many districts standardize on one.
- If you've handled crisis response or risk assessments, say so directly; it's often a required competency, not just a nice extra.
For the format itself, run the free ATS resume checklist.
Everything for School Counselors
- School Counselor cover letter examplesThree example letters and a short email version
- School Counselor interview questions30 questions with sample answers
- School Counselor job descriptionDuties, skills and requirements
- How to tailor your resume without lying
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School Counselor resume FAQ
What should a school counselor resume include?
Your license or certification, caseload size, and specific programs you've run such as small groups, Tier 2 interventions or college advising, each with a measurable outcome where you have one.
How do I write a school counselor resume with only an internship?
Lead with your degree, your practicum or internship hours, and the specific groups or cases you supported under supervision. Name the age group and setting, since districts hire by grade band.
Should I mention crisis intervention experience on my resume?
Yes. Most districts expect counselors to handle risk assessments and safety planning, so stating your experience and any relevant training reassures a hiring committee.
How do I show impact on a school counselor resume without test scores?
Use attendance, discipline referral, graduation or caseload completion data, or group-level outcomes like GPA change or program completion rates, instead of standardized test results.
How we built this page
The FindAJobAI team wrote the three example resumes, the bullets, the skills and the advice for school counselor roles. The people, employers and numbers in the examples are invented; the structure, the tools and the way each bullet is built are the parts to copy.
Once we track enough live school counselor job ads, this page also shows the skills they ask for most, counted the same way as our in-demand skills report.
Last reviewed on November 1, 2026.