The purpose of school counseling is to build skills for academic, career and personal/social development.  School counseling in Chesterfield County Public Schools is a planned, sequential program of services that is comprehensive in scope and developmental in nature.

Academic counseling helps students and parents learn about curriculum choices, plan an appropriate program of studies, arrange and interpret academic testing and seek postsecondary academic opportunities.

Career counseling helps students acquire information and plan for work, jobs, apprenticeships and post secondary education and career opportunities.

Personal or social counseling helps students develop an understanding of themselves and the rights and needs of others, resolve conflict and define individual goals that reflect their interests, abilities and aptitudes.  Such counseling may be provided in groups (for example, all fifth-grade students) in which generic issues of social development are addressed or through structured individual or small group counseling sessions that focus on specific student concerns (for example, divorce, anxiety or aggressive behavior).