In the United States, 132,270 counselors served about 49.3 million students last school year. According to figures released by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), the national student-to-school counselor ratio improved by 1% to 372-to-1 in the 2024-25 school year, an improvement over 2023-24 when it was 376-to-1. That ratio means that about 529,000 more students had access to a school counselor.
In addition, for the first time, the high school student-counselor range of 195 to 224 students for every one counselor has met the ASCA recommended ratio of 250-to-1. However, elementary and middle schools still do not meet the recommended student-counselor ratios, with a range of 571 to 694 students for every counselor. These figures are based on data from the 35 states that report counselor count figures for elementary and middle schools separately from high schools.
In fact, state-level data for elementary, middle, and high schools shows a wide range of student-counselor ratios in 2024-25. The highest ratio is in Arizona, with one counselor for every 570 students, but ASCA recognized Arizona as “the most improved state” for lowering its student-counselor ratio from 645-to-1 in the 2023-24 school year. Vermont had the lowest ratio at 172-to-1. The District of Columbia and New Mexico improved their student-counselor ratios, while ratios worsened in states like Kansas, Rhode Island and North Carolina where the number of counselors dropped from 2023-24 to 2024-25.
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