(1) The general assembly hereby finds that: (a) A student's level of education attainment will directly influence the student's level of achievement and success throughout the rest of his or her life; (b) The national center for education statistics reports that, in comparing employment rates and levels of education attainment across the country, in 2005, the unemployment rate for persons who dropped out of high school was seven and six-tenths percent, compared to an overall average unemployment rate for all education levels of four percent. The unemployment rate for persons who graduated from high school and attained an associates degree was three and three-tenths percent, and the unemployment rate dropped to two and three-tenths percent for persons who attained a bachelor's degree. (c) The Colorado department of education reports that the graduation rate for Colorado school districts in the spring of 2006 was seventy-four and one-tenth percent; (d) In 2003, approximately forty-nine percent of the students who graduated from a Colorado public high school enrolled in a public institution of higher education in Colorado; (e) As recently as 2006, statistics showed that there is a forty percent probability that a student who is enrolled in ninth grade in Colorado will be enrolled in postsecondary education when the student is nineteen years of age, and thirty-four percent of the persons in Colorado who are eighteen to twenty-four years of age are enrolled in postsecondary education; (f) Studies show that school counseling and postsecondary preparation can have a significant effect on students in assisting them to begin as early as seventh or eighth grade to identify their post-graduation goals and to begin planning to achieve them. This is especially true for African-American and Hispanic students, low-income students, and students whose parents have no direct experience with postsecondary education. (g) Studies further show that strategic partnerships among school counselors, properly trained administrators, teachers, and community-based postsecondary service providers result in improved attendance, improved academic performance, and increased postsecondary success for students from low-income families and students whose parents have no direct experience with postsecondary education; (h) Studies also show that a significant factor in assisting a student to remain in school and to graduate is the creation of a strong personal relationship with at least one adult in the school, and in many cases that adult is a school counselor; (i) Professional school counselors are trained to provide comprehensive programs that facilitate the development of the whole child in the areas of academic, career, and personal and social needs; (j) For the 2006-07 school year, the student-to-counselor ratio in Colorado public schools was approximately five hundred to one, which is double the ratio recommended by the American school counselors association as an average statewide ratio; and (k) Reducing the student-to-counselor ratio in Colorado's public schools is a positive move toward achieving the goals of closing the achievement gap, decreasing the dropout rate, and increasing the number of students who matriculate into postsecondary education without the need for remediation. (2) The general assembly concludes, therefore, that it is in the best interests of the students in the state to encourage and support school districts, boards of cooperative services, and charter schools in increasing the number of school counselors available in middle, junior high, and high schools and in improving the level of school counseling services provided to students by enacting the school counselor corps grant program.
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