Elementary professional school counselors; allocate funds under Mississippi Student Funding Formula for.

HB 286 allocates state funds through Mississippi's student funding formula to employ elementary professional school counselors in school districts with the highest documented need, prioritizing those with low accreditation, high crime/violence rates, free lunch participation, and dropout rates. It requires districts to hire at least one counselor per elementary school, with additional annual funding until every elementary school has one, maintaining a minimum 1:500 counselor-to-student ratio. The bill mandates that counselors spend at least 80% of their time providing direct student services like academic counseling, crisis intervention, and career planning, while limiting administrative duties to 20% of their workday. This policy directly affects Mississippi's elementary school districts, particularly those serving high-need communities, by requiring state-funded counselor positions based on specific equity metrics.