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K-12 Guidance Plan

Pennsylvania requires all school districts to have a K-12 Guidance Plan as required by Chapter 339 Career and Technical Education Standards. Resources on this page, as well as this entire Toolkit website, serve as core content to help districts build their plan.  

Getting Started

  • Professional Development for Creating a district-wide K-12 Counseling Plan:  Groups of districts should work together to coordinate an effective professional development program to plan and create K-12 School Counseling Plans. PDE-funded consultants are available to groups of school districts in PA on a limited basis. 
  • Background on PA School Code, the PA Companion Guide & Tools for Plan Development (PDF):  This one page overview explains the relationship between Chapter 339, Chapter 12 and Chapter 4 of the Pa. School Code including references to the Academic Standards for Career Education and Work. The ASCA National Model, the PA Companion Guide and other tools are also referenced. This is an effective one page handout on how school counseling and college and career success fit together.
  • PA Companion Guide to the National ASCA Model:  The Pennsylvania Companion Guide to the ASCA National Model addresses the unique offerings and requirements of school counseling programs in the Commonwealth.  The PA Companion Guide is designed to assist counselors in providing for the academic, career, and personal/social needs of all students.  It will also help answer questions about the relevance of a school counseling program to the academic mission of the school.
  • Tools for Developing a Comprehensive K-12 Guidance & Counseling Plan (PDF):  This document provides school district counselors with a step-by-step process, a framework, resources and best practice models for developing their district plan.  In Pennsylvania, school counselors are integral in the academic, career, and personal/social development of all PreK-12 students.
  • Step by Step Guide: How to build, implement, sustain and evaluate a comprehensive school counseling program (PDF):   Build your K-12 Guidance Plan one step at a time. This document provides seven principles to ensure a successful program, four tips for program development success and the basic steps of program development.
  • Professional Development Models (PDF):  The PDE consultants have developed 5 models of professional development with recommended topics for each training plan. These models can help a district create their own professional development plan or help a group of districts decide what assistance they need from the consultants. The strongest plans and programs result from groups who have followed Level 5, the 4 day professional development model.
  • Guidelines/Must-Haves for K-12 Counselor Professional Development (Word):  This worksheet for profession development participants identifies ten important questions that all K-12 Guidance Plan development and implementation participants should be able to answer after the training.

Resources Available to Help Your Team Build Your Plan

  • K-12 Guidance Plan Outline and Template (Word):  Use this format to create your K-12 Guidance Plan. By following this format, your district will meet the requirements of Chapter 339 and will have a document to guide your program development and implementation.
  • Program Development Timeline 2013-14 (Word):  Following the steps in the K-12 Guidance Plan Outline, this timeline form allows a school district to document a timeline for completing each section of the K-12 Guidance Plan. School district teams work together to determine the timeline that will work most effectively for their district and planning team and can fill out this form to ensure that they are considering all parts of the plan.
  • Counseling for Career Success Advisory Committee (Word):   Each district must recruit and use an advisory committee that represents the stakeholders both within and outside of the school. The five stakeholder groups must be represented. Use this form to collect names, title and stakeholder group.
  • Comprehensive School Counseling Program Delivery System (Word):  This form from ASCA helps a planning team think through addressing all counseling domains. This provides an overview on how services are delivered. 
  • Monthly Counseling Calendar (Word):  Form to document monthly counseling activities in the three domains: academic, personal and career
  • Curriculum Action Plan by Grade (Excel):  Program content and lesson plans are documented for each grade. Note there is a tab on the bottom of the spreadsheet for each grade. Other information collected includes ASCA and CEW domain, support materials, numbers of students affected, evaluation and assessment and stakeholders. This tool assists in understand what has been delivered and what will be delivered at each grade level.
  • CEW 101 Series: Career Education and Work Standards Key Topics and Activities
  • Career Portfolio Components: "I" Statements (Word):  "I" Statements provide student-centered activities and competencies which address the CEW standards, for each strand at each grade level. They can be used for curriculum integration and as a guide for career portfolio development. All grade bands and standards are shown in this document. The letters in parentheses after each item is the alignment to the CEW standards.
  • Organizing Career Resources & Examples (Word):  Use this document to organize the most critical and important career resources available to your district.
  • CTC Center Strategies (Word):  Form to document student, parent and educator awareness of career and technical center offerings and opportunities.
  • Career Domain Action Plan Form: CTC and Community Representatives (Word):  Form to document three program goals to connect to the career and technical center and to community representatives.
  • K-12 Guidance Plan Compliance Documentation and Evidence Guide (PDF):  Documentation and evidence needed to meet Chapter 339 requirements for the K-12 Guidance Plans and programs from each career and technical center and their sending districts are listed in this document. 

Completed Plan Examples

Student Career Plan Resources