Necessary but not sufficient: The North Dakota school counselor designate credential

More than two dozen North Dakota K-12 schools begin each academic year with a school counselor designate because of state mandates for services in each building and a lack of qualified applicants to provide these services. School counselor designates are individuals who hold a North Dakota professional educator's license, have completed a minimum of sixteen graduate credits in school counseling from a state-approved program, and who have obtained a favorable letter of recommendation from the counselor designee's program of study advisor to begin practice in their respective building. Designates have traditionally come from the ranks of classroom teachers already working in the building(s) in which they now provide school counseling services. Occasionally, school counselor graduate students are employed in this capacity in exchange for a supervised internship experience so that positions that would otherwise go vacant can be filled. This is especially true in the most remote areas of the state.;Six school counselor designates (five females and one male) shared their perceptions and experiences of their work to provide the researcher with an understanding of this credential and its sufficiency for practice. Observations and interviews were completed with the research participants and documents were gathered to better understand the ways these individuals understood their school counselor designate role. Study results indicated that although teachers have been a logical resource to fill otherwise vacant school counselor positions, the school counselor designate requirements are not sufficient for the demands of the profession within the school environment. School counselor designates often reverted to their classroom teaching knowledge, their care and concern for children, and their age and previous experiences to manage mental health issues with their students. Participants were often beleaguered by multiple roles in their efforts to do their jobs and they felt confusion about what was expected of them. Three of the six participants stated they would not complete a school counseling master's degree program of study if required to do so to retain their counseling positions. The three remaining participants completed their school counseling graduate programs during the course of this study.