Free School Counseling Resources for Individual Student Planning

If you work at a school similar to mine, you are in a budget crunch. I work very hard to keep my program current, relevant and low cost. When it comes to helping students prepare and plan for college this can be tough if you want to send them home with something tangible that will actual help them stay on track and informed.

My solution...Free US Department of Education Publications and the College Board's My Big Future resources. I also use the What's Next Illinois portal, but it is only open to IL schools.

The US Dept. of Education publications have College Prep Checklists in English, Spanish and even Braille! How awesome is that!

My favorite College Prep Checklist recently got an update! Each year my juniors and seniors get a copy of the checklist during their ISP meetings. I also put them out during every parent event that I host. I can't wait to get to school tomorrow to place my new order for the year-all at no cost to my district.

I give this publication to every student during 8th Grade Parent Night, an event where I discuss 8th grade Explore scores with parents to help them understand and use the data as they assist their student in planning a freshman year schedule and four-year plan.

Visit the US Education Publications website to register for an account and order your materials before you begin your individual student planning meetings. Have a tech minded, visual learner on your caseload? Steer them to My Big Future for an interactive & comprehensive approach to post-secondary planning.

What free tools do you use in your program to build and maintain a college going culture?