The Case for Red Jay Guidance & Counseling
Why Micro Schools, Faith-Based Schools, and Homeschoolers Need Professional Counseling Support
The Gap
Micro schools are exploding. Texas alone has over 1,000. With TEFA vouchers now offering $10,000 per student (up to $30,000 for special needs), hundreds more are launching. Prenda just received full Texas approval. Churches are converting Sunday school rooms into weekday classrooms. Parents are pulling kids from public schools and forming pods.
This is good. Small learning environments with dedicated guides beat factory education.
But here's what nobody is talking about: Who handles the trauma?
An 8-year-old shuts down in class because her aunt and uncle are getting divorced. An 11-year-old has been talking about suicide since he was 7. A teenager watched his mom and brother get hit by a car on the highway and now can't stop asking why he survived.
These kids exist in every school. Including micro schools. Including homeschool co-ops. Including faith-based academies.
The difference is that traditional schools have counselors on staff. Micro schools do not. A guide running a 15-student classroom cannot also provide mental health support, navigate 504 accommodations, translate special education requirements, and hold space for a child processing their parents' incarceration.
The Model
Red Jay Guidance & Counseling offers fractional counseling for the micro school era.
No micro school can afford a full-time Licensed Professional Counselor. But they can afford a subscription. Part-time availability. A professional who knows their students, their families, and their context. Someone they can call when a kid shuts down. Someone who can talk to a parent about what's really going on at home. Someone who can train guides to recognize warning signs and respond appropriately.
This isn't therapy in the clinical sense. It's the missing layer between "teaching" and "keeping kids alive."
The Founder
Ida Villavicencio is not a typical counselor.
Credentials:
- Masters in School Counseling
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
- Certified educator Pre-K through 12th grade
- 30 years in education spanning elementary, middle, and high school
Experience:
- 10 years as At-Risk Counselor at a 5A school district
- School-Based Therapist at Bexar County Juvenile Justice Academy
- Crisis Intervention Specialist
- SEL Counselor at multiple charter school systems
Population Served: Kids facing substance abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, incarcerated parents, gang affiliation, foster care, and generational poverty. Kids with 15 siblings but no father. Kids who witnessed violence. Kids who have never heard anyone speak life over them.
At age 18, she organized a revival that drew 2,000 youth from across the Rio Grande Valley. Hundreds gave their lives to Christ that night. She's been ministering to broken young people ever since.
Her students have become VPs at Goldman Sachs, marketing directors at Fortune 500 companies, and first-generation college graduates who changed their entire family bloodlines.
The Christian Advantage
For faith-based schools, this matters even more.
Secular counseling frameworks often clash with Christian worldviews. A spirit-filled counselor can integrate prayer, speak scripture, and approach mental health from a kingdom perspective. She can see the difference between clinical depression and spiritual attack. She can call a pastor. She can lay hands and pray.
Ida's philosophy: "For any human being, people have to talk. They have to talk things out." But she adds: "I'm setting up their heart, setting up their mind, setting up the ground for whatever's next for them." That's not just counseling. That's preparing souls.
The Ask
Micro school founders have a question they don't know how to ask: How do we handle the things teachers aren't trained to handle?
Red Jay Guidance & Counseling is the answer.
One counselor. Multiple schools. Fractional availability. Christian foundation. 30 years of battle-tested experience with the hardest cases.
The alternative is hoping nothing goes wrong. Or burning out your guides when something inevitably does.
Next Steps
- Partner with Prenda to offer Red Jay as a recommended vendor for Texas micro schools
- Build relationships with church networks launching education programs
- Develop tiered subscription model (hours per week, on-call availability, parent consultations)
- Document case studies demonstrating impact
- Connect with Lieutenant Governor's office on school choice support infrastructure
The micro school movement is creating educational freedom. Red Jay Guidance & Counseling makes sure the kids in those schools don't fall through the cracks.