Happy New Year! ISCA is getting ready for a great year, and we need your help. As you know, we hired our very own lobbyists this year.  We will have a great voice on the hill representing Iowa School Counselors.  However, as school counselors, we all need to do our part!  We all need to step up for school counselor advocacy.  Everyone is very busy, but these things do not take much time and can make a tremendous impact on what we want to achieve to be represented in the upcoming Iowa Legislative session!  

Please make a commitment and complete at least one of the following tasks!  BE BOLD!!  Join us for a webinar on Wednesday, January 28th.  More information will be sent out soon!!

1.  Contact your local legislators.  Either send a quick email or post card. Send them a  message of congratulations if they won last fall. Introduce yourself and tell them you are a school counselor in their district.  Let them know you will be contacting them again.  The first step is all about building relationships. Here is the page to look up who the senators and representatives are for your district. 

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find

• It doesn't have to be a long email.  It is recommended to keep correspondence short and to the point.
• We recommend that you use a private email address for communication with the legislators. It will ensure that your communication and lobbying efforts are private and that there are not any conflicts with your school district policy.  

2.  Attend your local legislative forums.  Find out when and where these will be held and attend!  You will especially want to go to the meeting that has an Education focus.  We will be sending out emails with information on where to find the meeting locaitons and times. Ask to be notified in your email for the information about the forums.

 3. On Wednesday February 25^th, please join educators from all levels and from across the state of Iowa in Des Moines for the Iowa ACAC and ISCA Visit the Hill Day.

• This opportunity is an incredible collaboration of school counselors, college admissions counselors, teachers, administrators and students coming together to  learn about the issues and advocating for important educational matters.  It is an incredible day!  Registration is now open, and the travel scholarship is available to bring your students.  
• Please check out more information about Visit the Hill 2015 and register by visiting the Iowa ACAC website, http://www.iowaacac.org/visit-the-hill.

4.  Celebrate National School Counseling Week during the week of February 2-6, 2015.  Whether it is an email to your stakeholders or sharing, I Heart My School Counselor stickers; everyone needs to celebrate this week and use it as an opportunity to advocate.  Please see other ideas on the ISCA website at http://www.iowaschoolcounselors.org/page-1778986

5.  Please use School Counselor instead of guidance counselor on ALL or your mailings, signs and signatures.  If you have questions about WHY you need to do this, please contact one of the ISCA board members.  We all need to stand together on this issue!  It is time!!!   

Sincerely,Susan Langan
ISCA Advocacy Chair
Cedar Falls High School Counselor
susan.langan@cfschools.org
1015 Division Street
Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613
319-553-2515 ext. 2632

Iowa School Counselor Association 
W: http://www.iowaschoolcounselors.org/
E:  isca@assocserv.com