For Chapter Advisors
Running a HOSA chapter is a second job that nobody trains you for. This is the training.
Everything a DC HOSA chapter advisor needs in one place: the professional development programme, the deadlines that actually gate your students, the templates that save you an evening, and a straight answer about who to ask when something goes wrong.
Most advisors inherit a chapter rather than choosing one. Start wherever you are.
Where to start
I'm new to this
I've run a chapter before
I've run a chapter before
You were handed a chapter and a login. Track 1 is six modules and five and a half hours, and it covers what DC HOSA is, what your chapter owes it, and what it owes you back. Start with B1 and B2, in that order, before October.
I've run a chapter before
I've run a chapter before
I've run a chapter before
Skip the orientation. Track 3 is the competitive events season end to end, Track 4 is growth and partnerships, and Track 5 turns HOSA into classroom instruction rather than a club that meets on Thursdays.
I want to start a chapter
I've run a chapter before
I want to start a chapter
A new chapter is a school, an advisor, five affiliated members, and a charter. Module B5 walks the provisional year, and the ninety days after you say yes are the ones that decide whether the chapter is still here in three years.
The Advisor Development Programme
42
38.0
38.0
modules
38.0
38.0
38.0
clock hours
5
100%
100%
tracks
100%
100%
100%
offline-capable once downloaded
Every module is one sitting. You read for about eighteen minutes, you build one real document for your chapter for about thirty, and you log it in seven. The artifact is something you were going to have to make anyway — a compliance calendar, an election packet, a prep season schedule, a partnership target list — so the module produces work rather than describing it.
Hours are professional learning units. Each module is classified General or Content-Specific and carries an OSSE focus area, and both print on your certificate. You do not type your own hours; the verification form already knows which module you finished.
Nothing is sequential except where a module says so. Take B1, B2 and B6 early. Take the rest in whatever order your year demands.
The five tracks
Track 1 · Foundations
Track 2 · Student Leadership
Track 2 · Student Leadership
6 modules, 5.5 hours. Chartering, compliance, affiliation, fees, the provisional year, and how to get help.
Track 2 · Student Leadership
Track 2 · Student Leadership
Track 2 · Student Leadership
9 modules, 8.0 hours. Coaching, elections, officer teams, the Program of Work, delegation, the delegate program, the middle school pipeline, and succession.
Track 3 · Competitive Events
Track 2 · Student Leadership
Track 4 · Growth, Partnerships and Sustainability
11 modules, 9.5 hours. Guidelines, the event landscape, student placement, rubrics, prep seasons, Round One, skill events, presentation events, team events, ILC, and judging.
Track 4 · Growth, Partnerships and Sustainability
Track 4 · Growth, Partnerships and Sustainability
Track 4 · Growth, Partnerships and Sustainability
10 modules, 9.0 hours. Administrative support, recruitment, retention, families, healthcare partners, service, fundraising, storytelling, Standards of Excellence, and advisor succession.
Track 5 · Classroom & Content
Track 4 · Growth, Partnerships and Sustainability
Track 5 · Classroom & Content
6 modules, 6.0 hours. HOSA as curriculum, events as assessment, content you do not teach, clinical skills, career readiness, and Perkins V.
The dates that gate your students
Seven of these are hard gates. Missing one does not generate a reminder — it removes an opportunity from a student, and it usually cannot be reversed. Confirm all dates against the current Calendar of Events.
31 August 2026 — Chapter officers and advisors affiliated. This gates everything — students cannot affiliate until you have.
1 September 2026 — Chapter Advisor Responsibilities & Code of Conduct Form · Chapter Leadership Contact Form · Local Chapter Affiliation Fee & Membership Acknowledgement
30 September 2026 — Fall Leadership Conference
31 October 2026 — Affiliation deadline for SLC competitive event qualification · Mid-Winter registration
1 November 2026 — Chapter Program of Work · Local Administration Support Form
1 December 2026 — Final membership affiliation. No member can be added after this date.
13 January 2027 — SLC registration closes
27 January – 10 February 2027 — Round One testing window and all SLC uploads
March 2027 — State Leadership Conference [TBD — exact dates]
1 May 2027 — ILC registration, DC deadline (two weeks ahead of national, on purpose)
5 May 2027 — ILC uploads, DC deadline
30 June 2027 — Standards of Excellence submission · outstanding balances cleared
Friday 30 October 2026 is the biggest day of your year. Four obligations land on that weekend: SLC competitive event qualification and Mid-Winter registration on Saturday the 31st, the Chapter Program of Work and the Local Administration Support Form on Sunday the 1st. Your practical deadline for all four is Friday the 30th — minus however long your building takes to sign things. If your principal needs ten days, you are working to 20 October.
A student who joins in February can attend SLC. They cannot compete at it. Competitive event qualification closes 31 October and membership closes 1 December. That is a much easier conversation to have with a sophomore in September than in February.
Questions advisors actually ask
No. There is no completion requirement and no deadline attached to the catalogue. Take what your year needs. Most advisors do Track 1 in their first autumn and pull from the others as things come up.
Yes, and you should. Every adult in an advisor or co-advisor role should be affiliated annually, and each of you logs your own hours on your own verification form. The exercises are for learning, not for producing one submission per chapter — duplicate answers across a chapter are expected and fine.
Each module carries clock hours and an OSSE focus area, classified General or Content-Specific. Whether your LEA accepts them toward a given credential is your LEA's decision. The certificate names the hours, the classification and the focus area so you can submit it.
They are view-only so the master stays intact. Open the file, then File → Make a copy for Google Sheets or Docs, or Download for Excel and Word. Then it is yours.
At thirty days you get a friendly reminder and an offer of a payment plan. At sixty your administrator is notified and you are offered a written support plan. Ninety days is Provisional Status, and that is the rung that costs students — no conference registration, no competing at SLC, and your delegates cannot vote. The sequence exists to catch chapters, not to mark them, which is why it opens with an offer of help.
Often, yes. Extensions are granted for documented financial hardship, emergencies, and circumstances outside your control, and a school transitioning advisors gets an automatic sixty-day extension. One condition, and it is not negotiable: the request must be in writing and approved in writing, in advance. The State Advisor cannot grant retroactively something nobody asked for. An extension requested in week one is administrative. The same request at ninety days is a restoration plan.
That is the single largest risk to any chapter in the District, and Module C10 is written about exactly it. Build the continuity binder and recruit a co-advisor before you need one.
When something goes wrong
Advisor Huddles — a standing call for advisors. Attend live or watch the recording; either counts toward the communication requirement.
The Resource Index — every DC HOSA document, form and portal in one list, kept current.
Email the State Advisor — hosadistrictofcolumbia@gmail.com. Advisors are asked to answer state communications within ten business days, and the same courtesy runs in both directions.
Module B6 is thirty minutes and teaches you how to use all three before you need them. It is the shortest module in the catalogue and the one most worth doing in your first week.
Start where you are
Forty-two modules, thirty-eight hours, and no deadline attached to any of it. Open the one that solves the problem in front of you this week.
This website uses cookies.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.
