Due to the ever growing diversity of school populations in the United States, it becomes increasingly more vital that school counselors are efficient in multicultural counseling. As the significance of effective multicultural counseling competencies increases, so too does the importance of accurately assessing these proficiencies. To assess school counselors' ability to implement multicultural techniques, specific constructs must be developed. The central focus of this research is to develop an instrument which accurately assesses the multicultural counseling competencies of school counselors and conforms to standards set by the American School Counselor Association and the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. By exploring these standards and investigating qualitative and quantitative data regarding current competencies, school counselors can work more effectively with a diverse student body.

With the ever-increasing diversity among students in the United States, American schools are seeing more of a mismatch between school personnel and students. Service provision has traditionally addressed multicultural competencies in the area of assessment and more recently in counseling procedures. With the increased attention given to school-related crises, the role of school psychologists has expanded to include crisis intervention. The current study will present information on the need for multicultural competencies in crisis intervention and assess the current concerns of nationally certified school psychologists in this area of service provision. Responses from a random sample of school psychologists (n= 276, 81% return rate) indicated that almost half expressed a need for increased understanding of cultural issues when providing crisis intervention. However, the other half of participants reported having no concerns regarding multicultural issues in crisis provision, possibly reflecting a lack of awareness and sensitivity. Helpful resources are provided to assist practitioners in becoming more culturally competent in the area of crisis intervention.

Although school counselors routinely provide crisis intervention, minimal research has focused specifically on providing such services in a manner sensitive to multicultural and ethnically diverse students. Responses of a random national sample of school counselors (n = 276, 69% return rate) indicate that approximately half voice some sort of concern related to providing crisis intervention services to students from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to summarize school counselor's concerns, providing an initial understanding for this aspect of school-based crisis intervention. Additionally, school counselors' comments were further analyzed to examine possible relationships between the type of concern and the practitioners' setting (rural, urban, suburban, rural/suburban, or suburban/urban) and years of practice as a school counselor. Based on school counselor's concerns, recommendations are made to provide more effective school-based crisis intervention for individuals of diverse backgrounds.