The New York City school system has 3,100 school counselors. That's about all we know. Department of Education officials acknowledged on Monday that they have few details on counselors in the schools, what they are doing and who they are serving.

They testified at a City Council hearing about a bill that would require the Department of Education to give annual information on the number of guidance counselors in each school, and the precise breakdown of the ratio of students to counselors. The department supports the bill. 

Chief executive officer of human resources, Lawrence Becker, said there are 1,188 counselors working in the high schools but he couldn't say exactly how many high school students the city has. One council member suggested the number was about 350,000 which would translate to a student to counselor ratio of 300 to 1, higher than the nationally recommended maximum of 250 to 1. 

This frustrated council member Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn. "Why has none of this information been captured anywhere?" he asked during a testy exchange with Becker.

Chancellor Carmen Fariña created a new office of guidance and school counseling this year. The head of that office, Lois Herrera, said she's trying to improve the quality of their work, adding that 250 counselors were hired this fall.

"Our office will continue to encourage counselor staffing in schools where we see additional need," she told the committee members.

The Urban Youth Collaborative has been pushing for a comprehensive assessment of college support programs, and more guidance counselors.

"This is a very pressing issue in the city of New York, were only 13 percent of our black and Latino students are graduating high school college ready,"  said Lawrence Booker, a youth leader with the group, who attended a small rally with other college and high school students outside City Hall on Monday.

Yu Xuan, a senior at Fort Hamilton High school in Brooklyn, noted that there are only two guidance counselors for his school of more than 4,100 students. 

"I cannot get support from my parents who cannot even speak English, so I have to resort to school," he said. "But the guidance counselor who is supposed to, like, guide me through the college application, they don't help me at all."

City officials said they are training other school staffers, including teachers, to meet with students about college applications.