This study of a school-based counseling program for primary grade children marked the third and final component of a program evaluation for students in urban, Catholic, non-public schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The study was conducted to determine the efficacy of short-term school counseling on students (N=56) in the first and second grades in 17 schools. Students were identified by their teacher and/or their parent/guardian as having difficulty with academics and/or behaving inappropriately within the classroom. The findings revealed that the counseled students made significant gains in their self-perceptions of their cognitive and physical competence. In the areas of maternal and peer acceptance, the improvements were not statistically significant. The findings suggest that students referred for counseling at Chapter 1 schools, already at risk because of adverse socioeconomic factors, do not seem to derive as great a benefit from counseling as those students from non-Chapter 1 schools, as reflected by Chapter 1 students' lower perceptions of their cognitive competence after counseling. Since no control group was studied, it is difficult to definitely determine whether counseling was the reason for the students' improved self-perceptions. (NB)