Department of Justice

Guidance Counselor (School Counselor)

Kelly Township, Pennsylvania Full time

Guidance Counselor (School Counselor)

Department: Department of Justice

Location(s): Kelly Township, Pennsylvania

Salary Range: $73939 - $96116 Per Year

Job Summary: Corrections professionals who foster a humane and secure environment and ensure public safety by preparing individuals for successful reentry into our communities.

Major Duties:

  • Functions as a School Counselor within the secure confines of a Bureau of Prisons (BOP), federal correctional facility. Acts as the primary liaison between the Education department, Unit Team, as well as other departments, to provide counseling and direction of the educational process for offenders. Provides the necessary skills, abilities, training, and experience to counsel offenders through the educational process in a successful manner, including those requiring special services. Promotes positive social-emotional-behavioral supports for offenders while ensuring necessary accommodations, interventions, and modifications are implemented as needed. Helps to create a safe, proactive educational experience, strengthens community partnerships and improves Bureau-wide accountability. Along with all other correctional institution employees, incumbent is charged with responsibility for maintaining security of the institution. The staff correctional responsibilities precede all others required by this position and are performed on a regular and recurring basis.

Qualifications: Basic Requirements: Degree: that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours appropriate to the position to be filled in one or a combination of the areas described below. At least one course must have been from (1) or (2) below. For guidance counselor positions, a college or university-sponsored practicum in counseling is also required. Test and measurement: Study of the selection, evaluation, administration, scoring, interpretation, and uses of group and individual aptitude, proficiency, interest, and other tests. Adult education: Study of the adult as a learner, teaching-learning theories for adults, models and procedures for planning, designing, managing, and evaluating adult learning activities. Educational program administration: Study of the foundation and methods in organizing for adult and continuing education programs. Curriculum development or design: Study of the principles and techniques for development of curricula for adult or vocational education programs. Teaching methods: Study of teaching strategies and learning styles of the adult learner. Guidance and counseling: Study of the purposes and methods in counseling and guidance, the role of the counselor in various settings, approaches to counseling, and the uses of tests in the counseling situation. Career planning: Study of career development, learning activities, systems, approaches, program coordination, use of educational and community resources, and vocational counseling systems.. Occupational information: Study of theories of occupational choice and vocational development and their application to the guidance process. Identification and utilization of various types of occupational information and resources. AND In addition to having the above Basic Requirements, applicants must also meet the following: Education: Three years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. OR Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade level. To be creditable, this experience must have equipped the applicant with the particular qualifications to perform successfully the duties of the position and must typically be in or related to the position to be filled. Some examples of this qualifying experience could be: Experience in serving as a school counselor and delivering evidence-based school counseling practices to students while independently creating school counseling lesson plans, instructional materials, student worksheets, and progress monitoring charts and graphs as well as documenting all student progress for learning and social-emotional-behavioral indices. Experience in serving as lead school counselor and supervising graduate practicum students in their completion of required university program assignments. Experience in developing and delivering in-service training to fellow school counselors on the four sets of school counseling standards as defined by the American School Counselors Association (ASCA). Experience in developing and delivering in-service training to school faculty and staff on American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success. Experience administering, scoring and interpreting criterion-referenced and standardized academics test, followed by developing intervention strategies to address individual academic and social-emotional-behavioral needs of students. OR Combination of Education and Experience: Combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience may be used to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. This experience must have equipped you with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the major duties of this position as described above. If applicable, credit will be given for paid and unpaid experience. To receive proper credit, you must show the actual time (such as the number of hours worked per week) spent in activities. **Your eligibility for consideration will be based on your responses to the questions in the application.**

How to Apply: You must apply through the online application system at www.USAJOBS.gov. Follow the prompts to register, answer a few questions and submit all required documents. Limit your resume to 2 pages. If the only resume(s) received is/are longer than two pages, your application is ineligible for further consideration. Submission of a resume alone is not a complete application. This position may require the completion of additional forms and/or supplemental materials as described under the Required Documents section. Please carefully review the complete job announcement and the "How to Apply" instructions. Failure to provide the required information and/or materials will result in your application not being considered for employment. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. USAJOBS Help Center - How to add a resume to your profile Claiming Veterans Preference? If yes, you MUST claim preference on-line during the application process and upload documentation to support preference claimed. Failure to claim Veterans Preference or provide supporting documentation may result in you not receiving appropriate consideration during the assessment process. Required supporting documentation must be electronically uploaded or transferred from USAJOBS (uploaded). All required supporting documentation MUST be received by the Consolidated Staffing Unit by 11:59 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, on the closing date of the vacancy announcement. You MUST include the vacancy announcement number on your supporting documentation. Supporting documentation for announcements with an application limitation MUST be uploaded the same day you apply, as these positions may close earlier than stated in the announcement. Paper applications: If applying online is impossible, please contact the Consolidated Staffing Unit at the telephone number listed below, prior to the closing date of the announcement for the alternate application procedure. If applicable see Notice for Preference Eligible Veterans Applicants. Contact for Assistance in Applying On-Line: DOJ, Federal Bureau of Prisons Consolidated Staffing Unit 346 Marine Forces Drive Grand Prairie, TX 75051 E-Mail: BOP-HRM-HRSC-ConsolidatedStaffingUnit-S@bop.gov Phone: 972-352-4200

Application Deadline: 2025-11-25