VTSCA is pleased to share the results from our membership survey. We deeply value transparency and your voice. Click here for the findings that will help guide our priorities for the 2026–2027 school year and ensure we continue to meet your needs. We achieved close to 40% response rate, which is considered excellent given the size of our licensed school counselor membership.

Grade Level

What types of professional learning formats do you find most effective and engaging?

We will continue to offer our yearly conference, webinars, ongoing SIG opportunities as well as the school counseling cohort graduate course for credit. Some of these opportunities already do include peer collaboration, built in workshops, coaching, mentoring and sharing book group topics.

What type of VTSCA PD might you be interested in for next school year?

While there is strong interest in in-person professional development, there is a disconnect when it comes to leaving the building to participate. Based on the free-response feedback, many members shared that they are unable to attend due to lack of approval to be away from their schools and limited or no funding to support these opportunities. In response, we will continue to offer and if we can increase our volunteer support, consider expanding our online and hybrid professional development options.

Which of the following VTSCA opportunities are you most interested in for next year?

VTSCA offers several ways for members to connect and grow professionally, some through regional collaborations. Opportunities include SIGs (regional and grade-level), a mentoring program, workshops on using data, a comprehensive VTSCA framework document with an implementation plan, and a cohort-based school counseling graduate course. We share these opportunities in our monthly member letter and on Facebook. We encourage you to check both regularly so you can stay informed and participate.

Are there any barriers or challenges that prevent you from actively participating in professional development opportunities?

The results show that time is by far the biggest barrier to participating in professional development.

Overall takeaway: The data clearly points to time constraints as the primary limiting factor, with financial barriers a distant second, while all other concerns are relatively isolated and not widely shared across respondents.

What are the preferred days to attend professional learning?

We will schedule our webinar trainings on Thursdays. In last year’s member survey, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays were identified as the preferred days.

Did you attend the VTSCA Conference in November?

Preference on the amount of days for the VTSCA Conference.

Which location do you prefer for the VTSCA Conference?

Members prefer a one day conference. Central Vermont continues to be the most desired location for the VTSCA conference. This region includes towns such as Montpelier, Barre, Stowe, Waterbury, Waitsfield, Warren, and several smaller surrounding communities. However, it can be challenging to find a conference center in this area that can accommodate the number of participants who attend the VTSCA conference.

For 2026, we’ve secured a place in Warren, VT (Sugarbush) to meet our members’ requests. We have shared your responses with our conference planning team for upcoming conferences.

How far are you willing to travel for our conference?

Balancing location preferences with how far members are willing to travel presents a challenge as we work to meet everyone’s needs. If you’d like to be part of the solution, please consider joining our conference planning team.

All state school counseling associations, including VTSCA, rely on volunteers. What would be the best way to encourage school counselors to offer time to our profession?

This is one of our most important needs. In a small state like Vermont, it’s difficult for a small group of counselors to sustain the work required to provide the services and opportunities VTSCA has implemented these last two years. To help share the workload, we will be offering shorter, flexible volunteer opportunities that allow members to contribute in manageable ways and learn more about VTSCA. Volunteers are the heart, soul, and driving force of our nonprofit association. Our volunteers are not merely helpers, but essential ambassadors that deepen counselor engagement.

Which social media platforms would you like VTSCA to use?

Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform for VTSCA to utilize, along with Instagram.

How informed are you that the VTSCA actively advocates for the interests and needs of its members?

The results show that most respondents feel well informed about VTSCA’s advocacy work.

Overall, the average rating is approximately 4.2 out of 5, indicating that members generally feel well informed about VTSCA’s advocacy efforts, with relatively few reporting low awareness.

Advocacy updates are shared regularly via Facebook, Instagram, and our monthly letters; we encourage members to refer to these communication channels for ongoing information.

Advocacy was VTSCA's goal for 2025-2026 based on membership input. If the 80/20 bill does not go through this year, do you want the board to work on this again for 2026-2027?