Virtual Professional Development: Events and Options for School Counselors


In my role as a school counseling department chair, I am always on the lookout for professional development opportunities. I know how challenging it can be to find relevant professional development that meets school counselors' needs. Below I share a few virtual professional development events and options for school counselors. These ideas and suggestions would be excellent options to for you to attend solo or to share with other school counselors in your district! 

Hatching Results School Counseling Institutes

Hatching Results is hosting two upcoming School Counseling Institutes! They are hosting a Secondary School Counseling Institute on November 15th and an Elementary School Counseling Institute on November 16th.

For more information and to register for the School Counseling Institutes visit: https://www.hatchingresults.com/virtual-events/

You can participate in the sessions live and you will have access to the recordings for three months!

Both School Counseling Institutes are virtual and hosted on Pacific Time. 

I am soooo excited for these sessions! They look amazing. You can access the full SSCI agenda and the ESCI agenda now!

Thank you to Hatching Results for providing me with free registration to the Hatching Results School Counseling Institutes! 

ASCA @ Home Virtual Conference: Student Mental Health

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) is hosting a virtual professional development event, ASCA @ Home Virtual Conference: Student Mental Health on December 1st and 2nd, 2022. 

For more information and to register, visit: https://ascaconferences.org/at-home/.

Virtual attendees can watch the sessions live or on demand through March 3, 2023.

A schedule at a glance is now available for the virtual conference. Topic include suicide prevention, school counselors' role in mental health, trauma-informed practices, mindfulness, and much more!

Student mental health is a timely and relevant topic for school counselors!

ASCAU Ignite

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) hosted a virtual event, ASCAU Ignite: Practical Strategies for a Successful Year, in July 2022. This event was designed to provide professional development for new school counselors and as a refresher for building a comprehensive school counseling program. 

You can still purchase and have access to ASCAU Ignite. All of the sessions are pre-recorded. With your purchase you have access to over 40 hours of sessions that you can access on-demand until June 15, 2023. 

You can view descriptions of all the sessions here. The lineup of presenters and topics is truly impressive!


Local and State School Counselor Association Conferences - Virtual Options

Check out your local and State School Counselor Association to see if they are offering virtual events or virtual options to their annual conferences.

I am a school counselor in Pennsylvania and our state annual conference, the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association Conference (PSCA) has a virtual option. The PSCA Conference, Kindness Changes Everything, is on December 8th and 9th. Select sessions are pre-recorded for the virtual conference. Virtual attendees have access to those sessions live during the conference and on-demand after the conference.

ASCA has a list of all the state school counselor associations. Check out your state or a nearby state to see if they are hosting a virtual option to their conference!

As a side note, I am presenting at the PSCA Conference in-person! I will be presenting two sessions on December 8th:
  • Get Funding for Your School Counseling Program
  • Ten Tech Tools to Save You Time with Lezlie DelVecchio-Marks (2020 PA School Counselor of the Year!)
I will update this once I know if I will also be pre-recording my sessions for the virtual conference.

What virtual professional development events are you looking forward to attending?

If you need some tips for attending a virtual conference, check out this post I wrote for tips for Attending the ASCA Virtual Conference for some ideas!

Want to learn even more ideas to level up your school counseling program? Request a workshop for your local or state school counselor association here: http://bit.ly/drsworkshop

Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. 

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