My daughter’s school had excellent counselors, if you were applying to academic schools. We had to really walk them through the BFA application process. One thing they won’t understand is the number of schools, the other is the “composition” of your child’s school list. It’s pretty amusing actually because they really want to offer good advice but it’s hard for them to see Pace University (for example) as a “reach” school for a good student or understand why your kid won’t consider your state flagship. Her school’s counselors were really supportive, just kind of clueless. My D only did Unifieds so absentee policy wasn’t an issue but we did let them know in advance when she’d be out of school for auditions and that it wasn’t optional but a required part of applying.