COEUR d'ALENE - Thomas Trotter, Ph.D., the former director of special services for the Coeur d'Alene School District, received a lifetime achievement award from the Idaho School Counselor Association earlier this month.

The honor is an indication he has made a difference in the lives of professionals in his field and more importantly, in the children and students they serve.

He described it as a "peak" of his professional experience, "being recognized by your peers."

Trotter, a Coeur d'Alene resident and now a professor at Gonzaga University, began his career in 1975 as a newly-minted school psychologist, hired by the Lewiston, Idaho, public school system. He was hired to develop, implement, and lead the school system's special services programs, which included school counseling as an area of responsibility.

"Clearly, the drawing cards were the needs of children and the potential for professionals, in partnership with parents and community members, to address these needs together," he told The Press this week.

How do you feel you have improved services for these special kids during your career?

By focusing on awareness regarding the many challenges involved in working with special needs; promoting more comprehensive, responsive programs and services; empowering faculty and staff through regular training and consultation; advocating for more multidisciplinary partnerships across professionals; and, tapping into potential revenue streams to support essential programs and related services.

You currently teach at Gonzaga University. What are some of the professional challenges facing your students once they enter the workforce?

With respect to school counseling - being overwhelmed and undervalued, saddled with outdated job descriptions which impede work with real needs and issues (despite the availability of contemporary models and approaches to school counseling), being seen as expendable during hard financial times, and their reluctance to advocate for themselves and their good works as a preventive measure and survival skill. There is a need for school counselors to connect and remain affiliated with their professional association for continuing education opportunities, collegial interaction, and best practices dissemination.

Are special needs services adequately funded in schools? What more could be done with additional funding?

"Special services" is a broadly encompassing term. Some are better supported than others. There is an ongoing need for staff training in how to better accommodate individual differences, at the front end, while future professionals are still in college, to the professional development activities that are conducted in the field. Reductions in class size, especially given the kinds of issues children bring to school with them these days, is another solution alternative. Continued encouragement to address presenting problems as multidisciplinary teams of professionals together with parents/guardians.

How much has the field of school counseling changed in the past 20 years? How has it improved in that time?

School counselors are still trying to shed responsibilities that are more non-counseling in nature and have little or nothing to do with the significant contemporary needs and issues with which they're confronted. School counselors now have program models and implementation guidelines that weren't available 20 years ago. Promoting the value of these templates for professional practice among administrators who typically oversee school counseling programs and services is an important on-going need.

You've had experience in both Idaho and Washington. How do the two states differ when it comes to special education, school counseling?

In overall perspective, funding for personnel and school support is more generous in Washington. There are differences in the kinds of programs and services that are fundable. In overall perspective, the citizens of Idaho are getting a major "bang for their buck."

Trotter completed his undergraduate degree in sociology in 1969 at the University of Washington. He completed a master's degree in school psychology from UW in 1975, then moved on to Lewiston's public school system.

He earned his doctorate in counseling and human services from the University of Idaho in 1981.

He became a consultant with the Idaho state Department of Education, then moved on to Indiana University as a faculty member in counseling and human services.

He accepted a position with UI as a faculty member in counseling and school psychology, retiring as professor emeritus in 2006.

He then took the position of director of special services with Coeur d'Alene public schools.

He's now at Gonzaga, where he is a faculty member, coordinator of clinical placement, and developing a doctoral program in school psychology.

What would you have chosen for a career if you hadn't chosen your current path?

(I) have found (my current) career path to be terrifically enriching and rewarding. Wouldn't have chosen otherwise, although I gave very serious thought to medical school back in the early 1980s.

Who is a person who has inspired you in your life?

(My) primary source of inspiration and encouragement continues to be my wife of 44 years, Kathleen, who is also a retired school counselor and school psychologist, truly an exceptional person and professional. Our adult children, all professionals in their own right, continue to amaze and inspire me. My parents, Helen and Guy, were believers in me and my potential. Influential professionals along the way include Andy Smith, former superintendent of schools with Lewiston; Jerry Evans, former Idaho state Superintendent of Public Instruction; Tom Fairchild, former doctoral advisor and colleague; Bob Hoover, former president of University of Idaho; and Harry Amend, former superintendent of Coeur d'Alene Public Schools.

What do you do when not working?

Arts and music appreciation; cruising downtown Coeur d'Alene on foot; recreational activities at Priest Lake; progressive causes. (I) have traveled across the continental U.S. (father was career military), to Asia and Europe, (and I'm) especially fond of Italy - birthplace of (my) grandparents who immigrated to America around the turn of the 20th Century.