Vermont School Counselor
Vermont school counselors work with students from pre-K through 12th grade. The state projects about 80 openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $64,570. You’ll need a Vermont educator license with the School Counselor (64) endorsement, which requires a master’s with a school counseling concentration or the equivalent. Vermont has one CACREP-accredited program.
Vermont Links
Vermont is one of the smallest places in the country to practice school counseling, and that shapes the job. Many schools are small, so you may cover several grade levels, split your week between two buildings, or be the only counselor on staff. You’ll know students and families well, and you’ll have fewer specialists down the hall to share the load.
What School Counselors Do in Vermont
Vermont counselors work across the three domains of the ASCA National Model: academic, career, and social/emotional development. The state also has its own guide. In 2020, the Vermont School Counselor Association released the Vermont School Counselor Comprehensive Model, with support from the Agency of Education, to spell out what a counselor’s role should and shouldn’t include. It follows the national ASCA standards, so the two frameworks work together rather than pulling in different directions.
In practice, the work looks different at each level. At the elementary level, a counselor might run a small group for students dealing with anxiety or changes at home, then spend the afternoon with a teacher about a student showing early signs of learning trouble. In middle school, the focus shifts to study skills, friendships, and the first real conversations about the future. In high school, it moves to course planning, college applications, and career exploration, while still responding to mental health needs that may have gone unaddressed for years.
Picture Jonah, a sophomore at a small rural high school. His grades have dropped since his family lost their farm lease, and he’s started skipping first period. His counselor notices the pattern, talks with him about what’s going on, and works with his teachers on a short-term plan to catch up. She also connects the family with a local support agency and checks in every week. That’s the job in a small Vermont school: one counselor, many roles, and a lot of follow-through.
Vermont counselors also work within the state’s tiered support systems. The Vermont Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) network gives schools a structure for addressing behavioral and social/emotional challenges across the whole building, so a counselor isn’t handling every concern one student at a time. In many communities, the school counselor is also a student’s most accessible mental health support. A master’s degree in school counseling prepares you for all of it: the frameworks, the caseloads, and the day-to-day reality of small schools.
Job Outlook in Vermont
Vermont projects about 80 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034. That’s the figure to focus on. Employment itself is expected to stay essentially flat over the same period, with a projected change of 1.4%. For comparison, the national projection for the occupation in the same 2024-2034 round is 3.5%.
So where do the openings come from? Very few are new positions. Nearly all are replacement openings, created when counselors leave the occupation or exit the labor force.
For you, that means opportunity in Vermont follows turnover, not expansion. Being open to a split assignment across two schools, a part-time position, or a district outside the Burlington area can widen your options considerably.
School Counselor Salary in Vermont
Vermont school counselors earned a median salary of $64,570 in May 2025, slightly above the national median of $64,330. These figures cover the federal category for educational, guidance, and career counselors and advisors (SOC 21-1012), which includes some workers outside K-12 schools. Pay varies by district, experience, and region.
| Percentile | Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| 10th | $50,810 |
| 25th | $57,720 |
| Median (50th) | $64,570 |
| 75th | $78,800 |
| 90th | $94,010 |
The geography may surprise you. Burlington-South Burlington, the only Vermont metro area in the BLS data, reports the lowest median of the three areas. Both nonmetro regions report higher medians. Each area covers only about 300 to 500 counselor jobs, so the order can shift from one release to the next.
| Metro Area | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Southern Vermont nonmetropolitan area | $71,950 |
| Northern Vermont nonmetropolitan area | $67,400 |
| Burlington-South Burlington, VT | $62,920 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Vermont
Vermont has one CACREP-accredited school counseling program. The graduate count below measures the size of the program, not its quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Vermont | Burlington | M.S. | October 31, 2029 | 29 |
CACREP accreditation isn’t universally required for school counselor licensure. Vermont’s School Counselor endorsement requires a master’s degree with a concentration in school counseling or the equivalent, so whichever program you choose, confirm it meets Vermont’s requirements before you enroll.
How this table was built. Every program here is accredited by CACREP as a School Counseling program, verified against the CACREP register on September 30, 2026. Any program whose CACREP status shows a teach-out, closure, show-cause or withdrawal is excluded, because a reader cannot reliably enroll in it. Programs are ordered by the number of master’s graduates each university reported to the federal IPEDS survey for 2023 under CIP code 13.1101, which measures size, not quality. That count covers the whole university, so a school running more than one school counseling master’s program reports them together, and a low count can mean some graduates are reported under a different code. Treat the order as a rough guide to size rather than a ranking. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Vermont requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
Vermont lawmakers took up how counselors spend their time
In January 2026, Sen. Martine Gulick and Sen. Virginia Lyons introduced S.265, a bill that would have required school counselors to spend at least 80% of their working time providing direct or indirect services to students. The Vermont School Counselor Association testified in support in February 2026, pointing to the 2020 Vermont framework. The bill didn’t advance past the Senate Education Committee, but it tells you something useful: non-counseling duties pulling counselors away from students are a recognized problem in Vermont schools, and that’s worth asking about in any interview.
- Openings, not growth: Vermont projects about 80 school counselor openings a year from 2024 to 2034, nearly all of them replacement openings.
- Pay slightly above national: The May 2025 median is $64,570, compared with $64,330 nationally, and both nonmetro regions report higher medians than Burlington.
- One in-state program: The University of Vermont in Burlington offers the state’s only CACREP-accredited school counseling master’s, accredited through October 31, 2029.
- Small schools, broad role: Vermont counselors often cover several grade levels and may be a student’s most accessible mental health support.
- Role clarity is on the agenda: A 2026 bill to protect 80% of counselors’ time for students stalled in committee, but the state association is pushing the issue.
The University of Vermont runs the state’s only CACREP-accredited school counseling program, and Vermont licensure has its own requirements. Start with the steps.
