SC State awarded $1.25M federal grant to develop certificate program for counselors of children, adolescents with disabilities
“This initiative is important to the field of disability and provides SC State’s Rehabilitation Counseling Program the opportunity to partner with Orangeburg Mental Health and Orangeburg County School
District to train graduates to become school-based mental health counselors across
the state of South Carolina,” said Dr. Bridget Hollis Staten, a professor in the Rehabilitation
Counseling Program who serves as the grant’s project director.
SC State’s certificate program is in direct response to identified needs related to
personnel development demands. Staten said the program will address the improvement
of services for school-age children with mental and disability-related challenges,
especially those from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, including those
who are multilingual.
The project will increase the number of qualified personnel from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, multilingual professionals and people with disabilities credentialed to work with and counsel school-age children and adolescents with mental health and disability related challenges.
The expected outcome of this project is to prepare graduate students to provide effective, equitable, evidence-based, and culturally and linguistically responsive, student-focused counseling services.
Students will graduate with a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling or counselor education along with a certificate in counseling children and adolescents with disabilities. Scholars also will be qualified to become licensed and/or certified counselors.
During the project’s first year, grant staff will develop a graduate certificate program in counseling children and adolescents with disabilities.
Student scholarships will begin in Fall 2025. The scholarship will pay full tuition and fees and will provide a cost-of-living stipend for 11 months. Graduate students will be recruited and trained to complete simultaneously the graduate certificate program and a master’s degree of their choice in rehabilitation counseling or counselor education.
Staten said the grant is further evidence of the impact of the continued work in SC State’s Department of Human Services to prepare graduate students for success in counseling and addressing needs across underserved communities for persons with mental and disability related challenges.
This OSERS initiative focuses on personnel preparation of special education, early intervention, and related services personnel at historically Black colleges and universities, tribally controlled colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions.
For more information about the SCSUs Rehabilitation Counseling Program or Counselor Education Program, call 803-516-4765 or visit the university’s website at www.scsu.edu.