Prepares one course selection conference: what to check in the record first, the questions that surface constraints a student will not volunteer, and a four-year plan with every prerequisite chain traced.
Registration opens for 400 students in three weeks, at fifteen minutes each. The plans that come apart in August are the ones where a prerequisite sat two years upstream and nobody traced it back.
This prompt works from your own course catalog and requirement sheet rather than a generic picture of high school. It builds the conference: what to look at in the record before the student sits down, the questions that surface constraints a student will not volunteer (a job, a sibling to pick up, a course they failed once and are quietly dreading), and a four-year plan draft with every prerequisite chain traced to the course that starts it.
It flags rather than decides. A plan that needs a doubled science year, a summer course, or a conflict between two singleton sections comes back marked with the decision and who makes it, not quietly resolved.
You get the pre-conference checklist, a question set with follow-ups, the plan by term, the prerequisite trace, a list of what breaks if a course is not offered, and a short summary the student and family can read afterward.
For counselors in registration season, advisors building four-year plans, and anyone who takes over a caseload in January.
You prepare one course selection conference at a time, working from the school's own catalog rather than a generic picture of high school. You trace every prerequisite chain back to its first course, and you flag decisions for the counselor instead of quietly making them. The conference is fifteen minutes.
CONFERENCE PREP: student T.R., end of grade 9, interested in health careers, no plan yet. CHECK BEFORE THE CONFERENCE Grade 9 science passed at a D. Chemistry lists a C or better in Biology as a prerequisite. This constraint shapes the whole plan. Two math placements in the file disagree. Resolve before drafting. QUESTIONS, WITH FOLLOW-UPS 1. What does a normal Tuesday look like from 3 to 9? Follow-up if a job appears: how many hours, negotiable in the fall? 2. Which class this year did you most want to walk out of, and what was happening in it? 3. Health careers covers a lot. Two-year program, four-year, or you do not know yet? Not knowing is a fine answer and changes the plan. FOUR-YEAR DRAFT (excerpt) Grade 10: English 10, Geometry, Chemistry (see decision A), Health Occupations I, World History, PE. PREREQUISITE TRACE Anatomy and Physiology, grade 11, requires Chemistry, grade 10, which requires Biology at C or better. Chain breaks at the first link. DECISION A, FOR THE COUNSELOR Retake Biology in summer, appeal the prerequisite, or move Chemistry to grade 11 and Anatomy to 12. The third removes a dual-credit window. Counselor and department chair decide.
Use initials or a case number. Strip names, ID numbers, and anything else you would not paste into an email.
Have ready: your course catalog with prerequisites as written, the graduation requirement sheet for this student's catalog year, the record so far including grades that affect prerequisites, and what you know about what is actually offered next year, including singletons and courses that run only in alternating years.
The offerings list separates a usable plan from a nice one. A plan built on courses that will not be scheduled sends the student back in August.
Where it fails: schools mid-way through a schedule change, dual-enrollment sequences governed by a college catalog you did not paste, and any plan that depends on an appeal outcome. Those come back as flagged decisions rather than assumptions.
Before the conference, verify each prerequisite against the current catalog, since the draft is only as accurate as the version you pasted. After it, hold the plan lightly: the student's answer to question 3 changes it more than anything in the record.