This exploration focuses on school leaders' perceptions of school counselors as leaders and their involvement with district wide change. This study explores school counselor leadership, school counselors' role in district level change, and barriers to school counselor leadership. This is a qualitative study utilizing grounded theory design. Eighteen participants were interviewed that included school leaders and school counselors in urban, suburban, and rural school districts located in Upstate and Central New York. This study found that all school leaders in this study perceived school counselors as leaders. This study also found that school counselors are primarily involved in building level change and consulted with administration regarding district wide change as needed. Barriers to school counselors becoming leaders include internal, external, and organizational barriers. Barriers to school counselors serving on the district leadership team include membership in the teacher's union, little or no support from administration, and lack of flexibility due to amount of counselor job duties. This study concludes that school counselors would benefit from having more time in their schedules and flexibility in their role to function in a leadership capacity. School counselor leadership is determined more by the size of the school district than if the school is an urban, suburban, or rural school district. Finally, this study concludes that school counselors need to educate themselves and others on school counselor leadership. Keywords include school counselor leadership, district level change, and barriers to leadership. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]