A family arrives at the school having lost their apartment and is staying in a motel. The parent has no birth certificate, immunization record, or proof of address. Under McKinney-Vento, what must the school do?

Enroll the student immediately while the liaison helps obtain the missing records

Delay enrollment until immunization records are obtained from the previous school

Enroll the student in the district where the motel is located, not the school of origin

Require the parent to sign an affidavit of residency before classes can begin

A counselor records the number of absences for seven students in an attendance group: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18. Which statement is accurate?

The mean is 5 and the median is 3, so the median better represents a typical student

The mean is 3 and the median is 5, so the mean better represents a typical student

The mode is 3 and the mean is 5, so the distribution is negatively skewed

The median is 4 and the mode is 2, so the distribution is symmetrical

A ninth grader sends a friend request to the school counselor’s personal social media account. What is the MOST appropriate action?

Decline the request and use only school-approved platforms to communicate with students

Accept the request but avoid commenting on or liking any of the student’s posts

Accept the request so that concerning posts by the student can be monitored

Ignore the request and continue posting publicly without changing privacy settings

Teachers report that several students arrive hungry on Mondays, and school data show that many qualify for free meals. Which action by the school counselor BEST reflects collaboration with community partners?

Partner with a local food bank to start a discreet weekend meal program

Ask teachers to keep snacks in class and handle hunger case by case

Wait for families to request help so that their privacy is respected

Refer each identified student to the school nurse for a nutrition evaluation

Praxis School Counselor (5422)

Free Praxis School Counselor (5422) Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the Praxis School Counselor (5422), with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: Define, Deliver.

Question 1 · Define
During the summer, a school counselor drafts the program’s beliefs, vision statement, and mission statement, completes a school data summary, and writes annual student outcome goals. Under the ASCA National Model (fourth edition), these activities belong to which component?
- A.Define
- B.Manage
- C.Deliver
- D.Assess
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Manage
Program focus (beliefs, vision, mission) and program planning (school data summary, annual student outcome goals, action plans) make up the Manage component. Define holds the student and professional standards, such as Mindsets & Behaviors and the ethical standards, while Assess covers program assessment and results reports.
Question 2 · Define
A family arrives at the school having lost their apartment and is staying in a motel. The parent has no birth certificate, immunization record, or proof of address. Under McKinney-Vento, what must the school do?
- A.Delay enrollment until immunization records are obtained from the previous school
- B.Enroll the student immediately while the liaison helps obtain the missing records
- C.Enroll the student in the district where the motel is located, not the school of origin
- D.Require the parent to sign an affidavit of residency before classes can begin
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Enroll the student immediately while the liaison helps obtain the missing records
McKinney-Vento requires immediate enrollment of students experiencing homelessness even without records normally required, with the district liaison helping to obtain them. The law also gives families the right to remain in the school of origin when in the student’s best interest, so a residency requirement or automatic transfer is inconsistent with it.
Question 3 · Deliver
A fourth-grade girl who loves building robots tells the school counselor, “I can’t be an engineer. That’s a job for boys.” According to Gottfredson’s theory, this statement BEST illustrates which process?
- A.Compromise
- B.Circumscription
- C.Crystallization
- D.Planned happenstance
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Circumscription
Circumscription is the progressive elimination of options judged incompatible with one’s self-concept; in middle childhood, children rule out jobs seen as the “wrong” sex type. Compromise occurs later, when a person gives up preferred options because of real-world barriers, and crystallization is a task in Super’s exploration stage.
Question 4 · Define
A school counselor hosts evening workshops that show parents how to set up a homework routine, ask questions about assignments, and support reading at home. In Epstein’s framework of school, family, and community partnerships, this activity is BEST classified as which type of involvement?
- A.Volunteering
- B.Communicating
- C.Decision making
- D.Learning at home
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Learning at home
Epstein’s learning-at-home type provides families with information and ideas for helping students with homework and other curriculum-related activities, which these workshops do. Communicating refers to school-to-home and home-to-school exchanges about programs and student progress, volunteering involves recruiting and organizing family help at school, and decision making involves families in school governance and advisory roles.
Question 5 · Define
A counselor records the number of absences for seven students in an attendance group: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18. Which statement is accurate?
- A.The mean is 3 and the median is 5, so the mean better represents a typical student
- B.The mode is 3 and the mean is 5, so the distribution is negatively skewed
- C.The mean is 5 and the median is 3, so the median better represents a typical student
- D.The median is 4 and the mode is 2, so the distribution is symmetrical
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. The mean is 5 and the median is 3, so the median better represents a typical student
The values sum to 35, so the mean is 35 ÷ 7 = 5; the middle (fourth) value is 3, and the mode is 2. The extreme score of 18 pulls the mean upward (a positive skew), so the median better describes a typical student; the mode is not 3, and the distribution is not symmetrical.
Question 6 · Define
In June, a school counselor completes the school counseling program assessment and writes a closing-the-gap results report showing changes in attendance for targeted students. Under the ASCA National Model (fourth edition), these activities belong to which component?
- A.Manage
- B.Define
- C.Assess
- D.Deliver
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Assess
The Assess component includes the school counseling program assessment, annual results reports, and school counselor appraisal. Manage involves planning tools such as action plans and calendars, and Deliver consists of direct and indirect student services.
Question 7 · Define
A ninth grader sends a friend request to the school counselor’s personal social media account. What is the MOST appropriate action?
- A.Accept the request but avoid commenting on or liking any of the student’s posts
- B.Accept the request so that concerning posts by the student can be monitored
- C.Decline the request and use only school-approved platforms to communicate with students
- D.Ignore the request and continue posting publicly without changing privacy settings
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Decline the request and use only school-approved platforms to communicate with students
ASCA’s ethical standards call for school counselors to avoid personal social media relationships with students and to use district-sanctioned technology for professional communication. Accepting the request, for monitoring or otherwise, creates a dual relationship.
Question 8 · Deliver
A twelfth grader has completed aptitude testing and researched several occupations. The counselor now helps him weigh how his strengths and limitations fit the requirements and rewards of each field. In Parsons’s model, this is which step?
- A.Knowledge of self
- B.Knowledge of the world of work
- C.Implementing the self-concept
- D.True reasoning
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. True reasoning
Parsons described three steps: understanding oneself, knowing the requirements and conditions of occupations, and true reasoning about the relationship between the two. The student has completed the first two steps, and implementing the self-concept is a concept from Super rather than Parsons.
Question 9 · Define
Teachers report that several students arrive hungry on Mondays, and school data show that many qualify for free meals. Which action by the school counselor BEST reflects collaboration with community partners?
- A.Ask teachers to keep snacks in class and handle hunger case by case
- B.Wait for families to request help so that their privacy is respected
- C.Partner with a local food bank to start a discreet weekend meal program
- D.Refer each identified student to the school nurse for a nutrition evaluation
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Partner with a local food bank to start a discreet weekend meal program
Collaborating with community organizations to meet basic needs is an indirect student service that removes a barrier to learning for every affected student. Leaving teachers to handle hunger individually is unsystematic, waiting for requests leaves many students unserved, and a nutrition evaluation does not address the lack of food at home.
Question 10 · Define
On an easy end-of-unit assessment, most students score very high and a few score very low. Which order of the measures of central tendency is MOST likely?
- A.Mode < median < mean
- B.Mean < median < mode
- C.Mean = median = mode
- D.Median < mean < mode
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Mean < median < mode
A few very low scores create a negatively skewed distribution, and the extreme scores pull the mean down the most, so the mean falls below the median, which falls below the mode at the peak. The reverse order describes a positive skew, and equal values describe a symmetrical distribution.

Keep practicing for the Praxis School Counselor (5422)

TTP Prep has 200 Praxis School Counselor (5422) practice questions with explanations, timed and mock-exam modes, 152 flashcards, interactive lessons, a printable cheat sheet and a readiness score. Start free, no card needed.

Take a free Quick 10 See everything in the Praxis School Counselor (5422) prep