Confidentiality
Notice
While it is important that a student’s conversations with a school
counselor be kept confidential, confidentiality does have its limitations.
According to the American School Counselor Association’s Ethical Standards for
School Counselors, counselors must “keep information confidential unless legal
requirements demand that confidential information be revealed or a breach
is required to prevent serious and foreseeable harm to the student”
(American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2010).
The most frequent type of breaches includes a student verbalizing
the following: verbal, physical, or sexual abuse, neglect, a desire
to harm him/herself, a desire to harm someone else, or an unreported sexual
assault.
