Start date for speech therapy in NY schools

[tortoise]

Are there any NY school-based SLP's that start speech therapy on the first day of school? If not, when do you begin?

Who makes the decision and what is the decision based on (ie, what are your beginning of school year responsibilities?) What does the IEP say?

Just wondering because my boss is pressuring us to start right away and we try to explain to him that it is impossible. THe first day of school was 9/3 and I plan to start on 9/15. That gives me 8 school days to test, screen, consult, meet with teachers regarding scheduling, actually schedule the students which takes forever, and a million other things. Even starting then is pushing it.

One problem is our IEPs say the starting date is the 1st day of school and the ending date is the last day of school. When I requested that it be changed, he said it can't be done. Is this true? THere are a couple of parents who are complaining that therapy did not start on the first day but he insists that he is not pressuring us because of the "squeaky wheels." I say we cannot run our program unless all aspects of it are accomodated. We have many more responsibilities besides therapy.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

[slpbiddle]

Here in my district in IN, the PTs, OTs, and SLPs are generally allowed to write in that our therapy will start 2 weeks after the school year starts and end 1 week before the school year ends. At the Annual Case Review, I always explain to the parent about needing that time to fulfill many of the other responsibilities of my job like screenings, testing, scheduling... We have had good support from the adminstrators on this. Also, there is no way that I could have my schedule set by the first day as I have to wait until the other SPED teachers have theirs done since I can't take kids out of their classes (or recess, lunch, art, library....) Scheduling has definitely been my hardest thing to accomplish this year.

I hope you find a good solution. If you haven't already, I would make out a list of all of the responsibilities of your job and give it to your adminstrators. It seems that many administrators don't know the full extent of what we do and how much time it consumes!

Good luck to you!

[speechteach13626]

At my districts, I've been instructed that I am allowed to fulfill my duties (screening, consult, testing, scheduling) within the first week or so of school, however I must TRY to plug the "identified" students into my day in order to show that service was provided. Normally during this time I briefly go over the rules, goals of therapy for the year and expectations. It's frustrating because the teachers need to be extremely flexible and allow the students to go out of the room at a variety of times for the first week or so. Really, I don't know if there is an ideal way of dealing with this because we do have to honor the IEP's. Hope that this helps...

[Crowesgirl]

In my new district, we write the start and end dates from the date of the annual review 4/8/03-4/8/04 just like everyone else. What we do differently is services times are written in as 45 sessions of 30 minutes each....works out to about twice a week....sometimes the SLP writes "minimum of 45 sessions 30 mins each" or "25 sessions,30 minutes each". This gets us away from the twice a week problem and allows us a couple of weeks at the start of school for scheduling etc. It also covers you if you're out sick for a few days because no where does it specify "twice a week". I know other districts in my area are also going to this method.

[bilgor]

We no longer list x#min/week of therapy. We now go to x# min/year..We look at the number of weeks that school is in session....we allow for scheduling and staffing issues. We specifically say "when school is in session because we had a parent demand therapy during spring and winter break. This new system really helps. And to document it all we have the students sign in at their weekly sessions.

[jhofstad]

How do you have the kids sign in? Do they sign in their individual folders? Do you have a list posted for each grade, speech group?

[dianne2]

The i.e.p. needs to reflect the number of minutes per week or per year that are judged necessary to reach the goals; not to match the school year. I begin with my case load in the first five to ten days of school, I write my schedule without teacher input, they know I take into consideration reading and math time and sometimes students miss part of a special such as music, art, library, computer of bookmobile. Since my teachers know I consider all these factors along with parent input from the I.e.p. meeting; I haven,t had too much of a problem.

[judyra]

Has anyone tried using what used to be called a block schedule for therapy? We have so many children and so few SLPs we are having difficulty fitting them all in a schedule.

[Farmingtonway]

Yes! I tried a block schedule for 1 year. I decided to do it after a nightmarish school year with a huge caseload that left me feeling I was spinning my wheels and acocomplishing nothing.I split my caseload in half by grades (I was full time at one elementary school) Since our district allows SLP's to cancel their schedule for 1 week out of 4 (Support Services week) to allow for testing, observation, IEP's etc.) I made the blocks 3 weeks long. I scheduled the students for double their usual time during that 3 weeks. On their off weeks, I wrote them as monitor and consult.
There was a huge amount of paperwork involved - 2 separate schedules, redoing iep's to reflect this, etc. etc. The plus was that I saw much more progress - even with some difficult kids - and I really felt that I accomplished a lot during the blocks. I was able to really dig in to a therapy plan - it wasn't nearly so chopped up. I was able to incorporate curriculum activities much more. Teachers could never keep it straight - I had to remind them whenever the schedule was about to change. (Half the time they can't keep a regular schedule straight!).I missed the kids I wasn't seeing during a block. Overall I think the block was better for kids and for me. If I did it again I would try to shorten the length of the block - to 2 weeks maybe. The only reason I haven't tried it again is because I am on an administrative assessment team now and not doing direct service. If I were still in the schools I would try it again.

[julie13]

I am in a school system in Virginia. I know state regs are different. This is how we do it: Lets say first day of school is Sept.3. We put 9-3-03 to 9-18-03 consultative then 9-19-03 to 5-28-04 2x 30 mins per wk. then 5-31-04 to 6-11-04 consultative. This allows for scheduling, testing etc at the beginning of school and writing IEPs and testing at the end of school. We have passed administrative review.

[sschloss]

I am in CT so don't know if this helps. We always write a date that is 5-8 days into the first day of school, like you are proposing. The first few days it is too hard to see kids - they need to be in the classrooms to get all the beginning of the year info. Teachers need time to make their OWN schedules, and then we work from those. We also need time, as you said, to consult, plan, test etc. I alwyas do write the last day of school, but let teachers and parents know, well in advance, that therapy stops about a week before school stops. then I can do all of my end of the year paperwork. Perhaps all the SLP's in your districyt should get together and then approach your supervisor. If you truly have it written on IEp's there will always be that ONE parent that insists you start on that first day...hope this helps.

[tortoise]

We have tried this but our supervisor will not let us change the IEP start and end dates for services!!!

[psonnefeld]

As a form of documenting students receiving my services, I have a sheet of paper with "Speech-Language Therapy Attendance 2003-2004" across the top in bold letters. I make 185 sheets, one for each day of the school year. Each child I work with is instructed to sign in daily when they arrive. Additionally, I use the "Webber Plan Book" from Super Duper to assist as a back up to record my therapy sessions with the children. Student's names who are absent, on a field trip, have early dismissal, or who are unavailable for whatever reason are recorded by me on this attendance sheet with an acronym or note indicating why the service wasn't provided.
I have 2 folders with all the attendance forms (one for past attendance dates and one for future attendance dates). The signatures are authentic, and can't be be challenged for the most part. I remind students to sign in upon arrival and sometimes on dismissal if they had arrived late to their session.
Additionally, I use a Medicaid form with a 12 month calendar on it, for each student I service. I check off almost daily if the student had therapy that day. If I forget to check off a student or can't remember if they received services I can go to my daily sign-in sheet for back up. This works out well when you are supervised by a SLP in NY state as "under the direction of" for medicaid purposes.

Having students sign in their presence assists them in penmenship enhancement, developing printing and cursive techniques. I had one student reach a classroom IEP goal of being able to write his first name and then his full name (the following year) by practicing on my attendance sheets!

It also helps them understand why attendance is taken at things later on in life.

An absence pattern is also easier to observe.

Happing signing!