Vermont State Colleges report rising health-program enrollment, evaluate dental-therapy plan

The chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges system (name not stated on the record) told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that state investment has increased enrollment and completion in health-related programs and that the system is focusing on workforce pipelines across nursing, dental hygiene and allied health.

Why it matters: Committee members were presented data the colleges say show growth in health-care training that directly feeds local hospitals and clinics; the colleges asked the committee to sustain support for scholarship and workforce programs that helped increase enrollments.

Chancellor (on the record, name not provided) said the system educated 328 new nurses for Vermont and that graduation rates rose after the legislature funded critical-occupation scholarships. “We have educated 328 new nurses for Vermont,” the chancellor told the committee, adding that NCLEX pass rates for the system’s programs exceed 90% in aggregate.

Sharon Scott, chief financial and operating officer for the Vermont State Colleges, described scholarship and loan programs. Scott said the system’s forgivable loan program for nurses includes an in-state residency requirement; other scholarship programs administered by the colleges do not carry a residency requirement. The witnesses said nearly $19 million in free and reduced-tuition scholarships were awarded from 2021 to 2024.

Caitlin Stover, dean of nursing and allied health programs at Vermont State University, said total nursing enrollment for academic year 2024–25 is 702 students across five programs, about 50 seats higher than the previous year. She said some newly added seats remain unfilled and that the system will continue outreach to recruit students. Stover said clinical placements are generally available but that hiring clinical faculty remains the system’s bigger bottleneck.

The colleges are reviewing a dental-therapy program the system began developing in 2016. The chancellor and other witnesses said dental therapy—an expanded-scope oral-health profession that sits between dental hygiene and dentistry—could increase access to restorative care, but they also said the program requires substantial clinical resources and possible collaboration with a dental school. The chancellor said the university is “evaluating that right now” and will report back on cost and feasibility.

Leaders highlighted the dental-hygiene program as a success: the chancellor said graduation in dental hygiene rose about 50% since 2019 and that roughly 75% of dental-hygiene graduates remain in Vermont. Stover added that most graduates of Vermont State’s respiratory therapy and radiology programs also stayed in the state.

Committee members asked how many graduates remain in Vermont. Stover said that for the 2023–24 graduating cohort, “just shy of 90% of the nurses across the programs sat for their first licensure in the state of Vermont,” which the college treats as an indicator that most are entering Vermont’s workforce. Scott said the average nursing student age is in the upper 20s, which the colleges say increases the likelihood graduates will remain in their local communities.

The witnesses thanked the legislature for past investments and offered to return with additional data. Representative Lynn Dickinson, board chair and legislative trustee for the Vermont State Colleges, attended and thanked the chancellor and staff for the results the system presented.

The colleges did not propose immediate statutory changes in the hearing; they requested continued legislative support for scholarships, clinical-education capacity and workforce development as the system assesses the dental-therapy program and expands allied-health seats.