Legislative Priorities
A list of legislative priorities gives purpose to the work of your SCA advocacy committee, paving the way for clear messaging when engaging with lawmakers or other governing bodies. A firm knowledge of the issues that are most important to your members will help you determine where you should focus your legislative advocacy efforts. Members want to know what the SCA is doing on their behalf. Knowing and sharing your legislative priorities ensures your members are informed of your advocacy goals, which encourages them to engage in advocacy events and activities.
While there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach for developing and updating legislative priorities, ASCA encourages SCAs to ensure they capture the issues members believe are most important within the state. Some SCAs use member feedbacks to create agendas, while others create agendas in collaboration with their state education agency representatives. Ultimately, your legislative agenda is an important part of developing and maintaining sustainable advocacy efforts.
How To Develop
How to develop your SCA’s legislative priorities:
- Determine how often you would like to update your list of priorities. Considerations include aligning efforts with your state legislative sessions, anticipating specific trends that may shift current priorities, considering the frequency of member surveys and aligning with other board needs.
- Discuss within your committee or board a tentative list of priorities based on current issues in school counseling and education within the state. Share this list with members so they choose or prioritize the issues.
- As you determine the method for capturing member feedback, allow for open-ended responses to also gather issues that may not be listed.
- Use feedback from members to identify which items are most important.
- Post and share your priorities. Use your legislative priorities list as a guide to coach members in navigating conversation with lawmakers and representatives from other regulating agencies.
Examples of SCA Legislative Priorities
Resource: Connecticut School Counselor Association