HB 381: Grow Your Own Teacher and School Counselor

HB 381: Grow Your Own Teacher and School Counselor focuses on scholarship opportunities to strengthen the teacher and school counselor pipelines in Utah. The Grow Your Own Teacher and School Counselor Pipeline Program is a competitive grant program created to provide funding to LEAs to award scholarships to paraprofessionals, school counselor assistants, and school counselor interns for education and training to become licensed teachers or licensed school counselors. The pathway options for school counselor candidates are as follows:
 
Route 1- School Counselor Assistant: Candidates for this route would be enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in a related field and are committed to earning a master’s degree in school counseling. Stipends would be provided for completing practicum hours in a school counseling setting. Scholarship opportunities would be provided to those qualifying through application to continue their education in school counseling.
 
Route 2 – School Counselor Intern: Cohorts of candidates for this route shall commit to a full year, paid internship experience.
 
Creating a system that integrates and embeds pre-service candidates into the education workforce early and through their preparation program would:

• incentivize school counselor candidates in rural local education agencies (LEAs);
• provide authentic and realistic experiences through high-quality mentoring that promotes long-term retention; and
• assist practicing school counselors in completing tasks that support college and career readiness for all students.

Kim Herrera
School Counseling Program Specialist
Utah State Board of Education