Characteristics of school counseling service are one of the most important factors in each educational system. According to Resman (1997) the role of every school, additionally to the primary goal of teaching, is to provide a program which explicitly states the goals, strategies, and methods for students’ development on all areas of their development. Every curriculum is also evaluated according to the emphasis stressed on the students’ personal growth and social development (Resman, 1997). This is why the program of school counseling should be implemented in national curriculum as guidelines for working with children. There are different theoretical concepts involved in organization of school counseling service in different countries. They organize their school counseling service according to their social and political organization, cultural differences, and educational history regarding provision of help to the students in their personal, social and professional development (Bezić, 1999). Several different concepts (individual counseling in crisis, developmentally orientated individual counseling or team counseling) are going to be evaluated and compared. The presented study focuses on the role of school counseling service in elementary school system in Slovenia. The results of the presented study are going to be interpreted in the frame of Slovenian school system and legislation and later on compared to practices in other European countries. The main topic areas of the study are: the professional staff employed in school counseling service; work tasks and the role of school counseling service inside of elementary school; children with special needs; gifted children; cooperation of school counseling service with teachers; and the level of school counseling services’ autonomy. More specifically the study is focused on the following objectives:  to identify professional profile of the school counseling service in Slovenia in comparison with other European countries; to analyze the trend in employment of different professional profiles in school counseling service; to identify possible changes in that area caused by the change in legislation regarding students with special needs;  to identify who is in elementary schools in Slovenia responsible for providing help to students with special learning difficulties; how is this help organized in what is its emphasis;  to analyze the process of identifying gifted students inside elementary schools and the activities provided for them;  to identify the extent and type of cooperation among school counseling service and teachers;  to identify the role and influence of school counseling service on school work and school activities;  to evaluate the level of autonomy of school counseling service in Slovenia.

A School Counseling Service Questionnaire (SCSQ) is developed for purposes of the presented study. The questionnaire consists of 7 objective type questions and 4 open ended questions and is organized in seven content areas which are focused on: (a) type and number of staff in school counseling service; (b) children with special needs; (d) gifted children; (e) cooperation of school counseling service and teachers; (f) work tasks of school counseling service; (g) involvement and impact of school counseling service on school; (h) autonomy of school counseling service. The questionnaire is going to be administered on representative sample of elementary schools for Slovenia. The target population is elementary schools’ school counseling service. The sampling design is the same as in TIMSS (Trends in International Math and Science) study. A cluster random sampling was carried out throughout the geographical regions of Slovenia. In Slovenia 150 elementary schools were randomly selected for participation in TIMSS study. 148 schools positively responded and all of them will be asked to administer the SCSQ questionnaire.

We expect that the results will clearly reflect the state of the school counseling service in Slovenia. We expect that the results of Slovenia will be comparable to countries around the Europe. Nevertheless we do expect the influence of legislation and changes of legislation on organization of school service. On the basis of our findings, comparisons and theoretical studies we will develop guidelines for empowering school counseling service in order to provide students with all the complementary help they need in their development in order to achieve their potential.