Overview:

Research shows that Black students are more likely to academically succeed when they work with a Black school counselor. But, there is a severe shortage of these professionals due to educators feeling racially isolated and unsupported.

Gabrielle Brundidge knew she wanted to be a school guidance counselor since she was a teenager. The idea first came to her while discussing college plans with her guidance counselor, Ms. Garcia, during her senior year at Northview High School in Johns Creek, Georgia.

“She was Hispanic, and it was my first time having a school counselor that looked like me,” says Brundidge, 38, who is Black. With her patience and knowledge of the college application process, she says, Garcia “didn’t make me feel as though I was smaller than what I was dreaming of.” 

Years later, Brundidge is paying it forward to middle schoolers at Lee Roy Myers Middle School in Savanna, Georgia. Students at the majority-Black school need it more than most: many of the students come from underserved neighborhoods that struggle with crime. 

Amid hardships at home and teenage growing pains, Brundage says her students need most is encouragement. 

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“I want to be that person that just uplifts them, that tells them, ‘Hey, if you do your work here, stay focused, you can go anywhere,” she says. 

Why Are There So Few Black School Counselors?

But there aren’t many of her around. Though guidance counselors are critical to shaping a student’s academic, emotional, and career development, the American School Counselor Association reports that fewer than one in 10 guidance counselors are Black, a significant decline since 2020. And the number of Black educators entering the profession is continuing to fall. 

That’s despite ACSA research showing that Black students matched with a Black counselor are more likely to succeed academically and enroll in college after graduation. 

In 2020, according to the ACSA, about 11% of its members identified as Black or African American. That percentage fell to 8% in 2025. 

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Dr. Tylon Crook, an assistant professor of counselor education at Sacred Heart University, said that many Black school counselors leave the profession because they feel isolated being the only Black person in their role. 

Research shows that Black school counselors at mostly white schools are often subject to microaggressions. He also mentioned that many Black school counselors grow frustrated with the K-12 education system. 

A Cultural Touch to Working With Black Students

Dr. Bernell Elzey Jr., a senior official with the Louisiana School Counselor Association, said that the shortage of Black school guidance counselors means that Black students will lose out on professionals who understand their culture and can relate to them. 

Elzey recalled that he intervened on behalf of a Black boy who was disciplined for yelling at a white school administrator. The administrator saw the boy in the hallway after class had started and yelled at him to get going; the boy yelled back that he was on his way, but the administrator cited him for being disrespectful. 

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Elzey, however, explained to the administrator that the boy’s response wasn’t meant to be disrespectful; rather, it was typical of people from New Orleans, and to punish him would be akin to telling him his upbringing — the way his mama and aunties spoke — was wrong too. 

“Without having that cultural knowledge and awareness, those students would possibly be suspended or expelled or drop out of school because [Black counselors] are not there to support and understand them,” he says. 

The Push to Get More Black School Counselors

There are national efforts to increase the number of Black school guidance counselors. In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District has invested $80 million in its Black Student Achievement Plan, a program that funds several initiatives to improve the academic outcomes of the city’s Black students. As part of the plan, 60 school counselors have been hired, many of whom are Black, according to KQED. 

At Marquette University in Wisconsin, the school received a $2.26 million federal grant to expand counseling services and diversify the field, according to EdWeek. 

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For her part, Brundage, the school counselor in Savanna, Georgia, intends to continue supporting her students, remembering what it was like to be in their shoes.

“This is such a trying time for students,” she says. “They are dealing with going through puberty. They are dealing with wanting to be cool.

They’re going through just so many different developmental changes, physically and mentally, that we are just here to try to help them along the way.”