A group of 14 senators are leading a charge to increase funding for school counseling programs, calling them crucial to the academic and social success of students.

In a letter to Senate appropriators, the senators call for more funding for the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program (ESSCP) to provide expanded counseling services to both elementary schools and high schools.

"These school counseling professionals help to ensure that our schools meet the educational needs of the whole child, including students' social and health needs as well as academic needs," they write in the letter.

The senators points to a current lack of counselors. According to the American School Counselor Association, the recommended student-to-counselor ratio is 250 to one, but in reality, the average student-to-counselor ratio now approaches 476 to one. The recommended student-to-school social worker ratio is 400 to one, but in many states, the number of students that social workers provide services to exceeds that ratio, according to the Senators.

The Bureau of Labor statistics predicted in 2006 that overall employment of counselors is expected to increase by 21 percent between 2006 and 2016.