Throughout our district, school counselors and social workers play a vital role in helping students navigate not just academics, but the social and emotional challenges that come with growing up. 

At Spanaway Lake High School, school counselor Kelsey Nugent works with students as they make important decisions about their futures, while also helping them manage the everyday realities of adolescence. Counselors support students through academic planning, personal challenges, and post-graduation preparation, ensuring they understand their options and feel confident moving forward. 

“We get to help support students as they’re navigating the challenges of growing and developing through high school,” Nugent said. “We really want to make sure that when they graduate, they’re prepared for the real world, they’re ready to go in whatever pathway they’re choosing, whether that’s the military or straight into the workforce or going to college or a trade school.”

These services are made possible, in part, through our Educational Programs & Operations Levy. State funding does not fully cover the staffing needed to provide comprehensive counseling and social-emotional support across schools. Levy funding helps maintain counselor and social worker positions that are critical to student well-being and success.

That work begins long before students reach high school. At Evergreen Elementary, social worker Chelsea Rambo focuses on helping younger students build the emotional skills they need to succeed both in and out of the classroom. Much of that work centers on teaching students to recognize their feelings, understand how those emotions affect behavior, and develop strategies for managing them. 

“A lot of the work we do is to help students regulate emotions,” Rambo said. “We help students learn about different emotions and how they impact them at home and school. And we help provide them with strategies for regulating emotions when they’re feeling really big things.”

These foundational skills are essential for learning. When students are overwhelmed, anxious, or struggling to cope, it becomes far more difficult to focus, build relationships, or engage academically. Rambo emphasizes that without these supports, students would face greater challenges.

“If students didn’t have these opportunities to learn these important skills, they would struggle more in the classroom and at home,” she said.

Together, counselors and social workers form a support system that helps students feel safe, understood, and ready to learn.