Guidance officers are an additional student support service working within the context of the school community. Guidance officers conduct activities such as student observation and psychoeducational assessment in order to determine the nature of student learning difficulties, disabilities, developmental levels or psychological and emotional status in order to make recommendations for educational adjustments and interventions. They also provide a counselling and referral service to assist students in decision making within an educational context.
A guidance officer would expect to receive referrals for students whose needs were not yet being adequately met by existing school-based support staff/programs e.g. classroom adjustments or learning support teachers. This means that some previous interventions and their outcomes should be documented and included in the referral. A referral is usually about significant, ongoing educational needs which persist following some substantial intervention e.g. year 2 net intervention, early intervention. Signed parent permission is required.