A counselor who provides educational guidance and academic support in social service or community-based settings — helping clients (youth, adults, families) navigate educational planning, school relationships, and post-secondary options. Often serves populations with specific barriers — foster care, justice involvement, disability, immigration status.
Most days tend to involve one-on-one counseling sessions, group programs, school and family meetings, and the case-management work of supporting clients across educational arcs. You'll often work with clients on academic skill-building, course selection, post-secondary planning, and the support coordination that addresses barriers to educational success.
The variance between settings is real — community-based youth development organizations serve middle and high school students through after-school programs; child welfare agencies serve foster youth navigating school transitions; reentry programs serve formerly incarcerated young adults pursuing education; immigrant services organizations support newcomer students and their families. Funding cycles and program requirements from foundations and government grants shape the work.
People who tend to thrive here are patient with clients facing significant barriers, comfortable across school-system and family-system dynamics, and capable of holding both the immediate work and the long-arc trajectory. Master's in counseling, social work, or education, plus state licensure, anchors most paths. The work tends to offer mission-driven engagement and direct impact, with the trade-off being modest pay and emotional weight of working with clients facing systemic barriers — for those committed to educational equity, the role has clear stakes.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Social Services roles →A counselor who provides educational guidance and academic support in social service or community-based settings — helping clients (youth, adults, families) navigate educational planning, school relationships, and post-secondary options. Often serves populations with specific barriers — foster care, justice involvement, disability, immigration status.
Median pay for an Educational Guidance Counselor is about $65K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $44K to $106K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Service Orientation, and Critical Thinking.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 3.5% through 2034, with roughly 342,350 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Educational Psychologist, Educational Diagnostician, and Employment Specialist.
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