West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
Early Warning and Interventions for At-Risk Students
Grades 6-12
Activity Title: Using Early Warning Indicators to determine Early Interventions.
School Counselor Performance Standard: Standards are currently in draft form and
will be added at a later date.
Function:
Indicator (s):
GOAL: Counselor will assist the school leadership team in using research based
indicators (attendance, behavior and course failures) to identify students at-risk of
dropping out of school and facilitate early intervention and support services for those
students.
Rationale:
There are effective, research-based steps school systems can readily take to identify likely high
school dropouts. The first step toward an effective dropout prevention strategy involves tracking
and analyzing basic data on which students are showing early warning signs of dropping out. Most
future dropouts may be identified as early as sixth grade. One key study indicated that more than
half of sixth graders with the following three criteria eventually left school: attend school less than
80 percent of the time; receive a low final grade from their teachers in behavior; and fail either
math or English (Balfanz & Herzog, 2005). Eighth-graders who miss five weeks of school or fail
math or English have at least a 75 percent chance of dropping out of high school. (Neild & Balfanz,
2006). Retention in middle grades, and even elementary school, is associated with dropout. For
example, one study on dropout determined that 64 percent of students who had repeated a grade
in elementary school and 63 percent of those who had been held back in middle school left school
without a diploma (Alexander et. al., 1997). Research has shown that students with prior behavior
problems are most likely to fail during transition years and eventually drop out. There appears to
be a window of opportunity in reaching middle-grades students who show signs of poor behavior
but who are not yet failing academic subjects. By the time future dropouts get to high school, poor
behavior and course failure tend to converge among many students who eventually leave school
(Herzog and Balfanz, 2005). Most future dropouts can also be identified in the first year of high
school when a sense of urgency around reaching out and supporting these students is critical
before they disappear from school. These key indicators can assist decision makers in targeting
dropout prevention resources to the students most at risk of imminently leaving school.
West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
Activity Statement:
The school counselor in collaboration with the school leadership team identifies 6th and 8th students
at-risk of dropping out of school and develops targeted and/or intensive interventions and supports
for those students that include but are not limited to: small group counseling, tutoring services,
mentors, individualized education plans, individual counseling, behavior contracts, parent/guardian
contact and education, and progress monitoring.
Materials: (These resources found on Protocol page – Handouts Section)
Counselor Resource #1 At risk charts to identify students
Counselor Resource #2 Sample Individualized Education Plans
Counselor Resource #3 Sample Behavior Contracts
Counselor Resource #4 Sample Parent Letters
Counselor Resource #5 Counseling permission forms
Counselor Resource #6 Sample Needs Assessment
Counselor Resource #7 NHSC Approaches to Drop-out Prevention
Data Portal 21
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Procedures:
1.) School counselor collaborates with the school leadership team to establish a data
system that tracks individual student attendance, grades, promotion status, and behavior
marks/referrals indicators in order to identify students at risk of potentially dropping out of
school using these indicators:
a) attendance below 90%
b) 1 or more suspensions
c) failing English
d) failing Math
e) retained a grade
2.) School counselor shares the list of identified students with appropriate faculty and
administration.
3.) School counselor refers all students with two or more of the above indicators to the
Student Assistance Team to determine appropriate necessary interventions.
4.) School counselor sets up small group counseling for and groups students according to
their indicators. (Example, those with the attendance indicator and put in a small group
together etc)
Resources:
West Virginia School Counseling Protocol
Evaluation: