white paper: 4 leadership decisions to help slps decrease caseload size

8/20/2019 White Paper: 4 Leadership Decisions to Help SLPs Decrease Caseload Size

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4 Leadership Decisions to Help

SLPs Decrease Caseload SizeA A A

Courtesy The Hello Foundation, LLC

www.thehellofoundation.comWhite Paper 201

January 2013

ABSTRACT

School administrators have the potential to influence caseload size with four leadership

decisions.

SUMMARY

Caseloads and workloads of school-"based speech-"language pathologists nationally are

increasing and becoming more complex. In response to increasing demands, speech-"language

pathologists (SLPs) often request additional staffing from school district leadership to support

identified needs. Strained school budgets and recruiting challenges often make hiring additional

SLPs an unrealistic option for many school administrators. Simultaneously, most school

administrators are not familiar with the realities, complexities, and clinical demands and/or

outcomes SLPs are striving for and therefore, may struggle to identify alternative problem-"

solving options.This white paper outlines 4 leadership decisions that administrators can make to help

SLPs better address the demands of their workload with an emphasis on decreasing numbers on

their caseloads.

THE HELLO FOUNDATION PAGE 1



Decision 1: Define Educational ImpactThere is no nationally identified standard within the field of speech pathology as to what

constitutes “educational impact”. SLPs are often left to their own to interpret (often ambiguous)

district language. Clinicians often utilize professional judgment to identify students that

demonstrate both characteristics of a disability (i.e., standard scores or developmental differences)

and educational impact. Unfortunately, professional judgment can be influenced by a wide

number of variables, such as, building level priorities, clinical background, experience with

specific disability populations, and others.

Too often educational impact is interpreted as a student having difficulty in class. Such

criteria may be leading to an over identification of students with disabilities as all students

struggle intermittently within general education expectations.

With this type of global interpretation, SLPs then demonstrate how disability

characteristics manifest within the classroom, a necessary prerequisite for eligibility. A global

interpretation of “having difficulty in class” can lead to a multitude of students being made

eligible for services. In fact, only students requiring specialized instruction to access general

education curriculum should be identified as “disabled” within an educational setting.

Teams should only be qualifying a portion of the students that demonstrate difficulty on

standardized tests. Special education law requires SLPs and teams to consider a student’s ability

to access general education. In fact, teams are not mandated to

“remediate” student’s disabilities. Rather teams are expected to support students in order to

ensure access to general education curriculum.

THE HELLO FOUNDATION

4 LEADERSHIP DECISIONS TO HELP SLPS DECREASE CASELOAD SIZE

PAGE 2

Students that cannot

access Gen Eed

curriculum despite

interventions

students that also "have

difficulty in class”

all students that may demonstrate

standard scores below the “typical”

population



Decision 2: Expect Remediation and GrowthSLPs possess the tools and skill sets to remediate most, if not all, articulation errors. If an

SLP is struggling to remediate a student’s sound error or pattern of errors or traditional

therapeutic approaches are not being successful, it is reasonable and appropriate for district

leaders to expect clinicians to consult with other specialists within the school district or seek

outside collaboration. SLPs should not be expected to inherently know the ideal remediation

profile for all students with complex needs. Not seeking this support can result in students not

making growth and goals being carried over year to year.

However, leadership within a school district should not tolerate multiple years of identical

goals and objectives without supporting factors. Too often district leaders do not ask for

explanations as to why students are not making growth in the area of speech and/or language.

Lack of growth may be due to variety of factors: attendance, student illness, lack of follow

through or practice, student motivation, etc. District leadership need to make two critical

decisions, 1) students not making growth will have their treatment plan adjusted and 2) students

continuing to not make growth will have their eligibility reviewed.

Research tells us that as caseloads increase, it take longer for students to remediate in the

area of articulation. Larger group sizes equate to slower growth due to less attention. However,

carrying students forward without changing treatment plans when no growth is observed shouldnot be standard practice.

Decision 3: PreventionThe national association of speech-"language pathologists, ASHA [American Speech and

Hearing Association], outlines prevention as one of the workload responsibilities for SLPs

working within the schools. Prevention efforts within a building can be viewed as an intervention

effort. The goal is to bring the skills of specialists into general education classrooms prior to

individuals beginning to struggle.

For example, SLPs targeting phoneme awareness with kindergarten and first grade

classrooms can bring additional teaching methods to students and new modeling to teachers.SLPs may be able to implement intervention efforts for individuals or small groups prior to

students failing within the classroom setting. Important to caseload size, prevention efforts can

thwart referrals that can result in students qualifying and increasing the caseload of a SLP.



PAGE 3



Three leadership decisions often keep SLPs from implementing prevention efforts within

school buildings. One, administrators may direct SLPs not to spend time with individuals that are

not affiliated with an IEP already. Second, large caseloads can dictate pruning of workload tasks

not deemed essential. Prevention efforts are often the first to be viewed as dispensable. And three,

non-"discussion of the value of prevention can lead to SLPs not prioritizing intervention efforts

with teachers and classrooms.

Decision 4: Abandon Traditional SLP SchedulingSLPs typically spend a significant amount of time at the beginning of each year

establishing their work schedule and the schedule of student therapy. At the secondary level, this

scheduling can happen at the beginning of each semester. Variables at the building level often

make scheduling complicated. For example, protected reading periods, differing lunch, break andteaching planning schedules, and working to compliment scheduling with other special education

staff.

Once a SLP has established the framework for a building schedule of student service,

there is significant reluctance to deviate from this schedule. In addition, administrative leadership



PAGE 4



often request copies of schedules for accountability purposes further restricting SLPs from

making independent changes.

Unfortunately, students do not make progress in accordance to neatly outlined segments

of time that may be identified at the beginning of the year. For example, some students may

benefit from five minute intervention efforts every day while others may benefit from longer

sessions, less frequently. Some students will make greater generalization with the SLP working

more frequently with their classroom teacher while other student’s generalization may require

more frequent parent contacts.

The size of SLP caseloads would benefit from leadership decisions that encourage and

support flexible SLP scheduling. SLPs require the opportunity (mandate) to change service based

on student needs. Without this leadership direction, SLPs often restrict their intervention to theconfines of a school directed schedule that may not be in the best interest of student progress

over time.

CONCLUSION:

School district administrators can do much to support SLPs decreasing caseload sizes. Defining a

system-"wide interpretation for educational impact will ensure students being considered for

special education will all be compared against a similar benchmark. Expecting remediation of

some students with articulation needs should be reviewed and standard practice. System change

that demands support for students prior to crisis in the classroom in the form of prevention keeps

some students from struggling to the extent they would need special education. Finally,abandoning traditional scheduling to give SLPs the freedom within a building to meet the

individual needs of students will go a long way to moving student growth forward, both within

the classroom and their speech experience.

REFERENCES:

Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 34 C.F.R. Part 104

(2006) National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities

www.nichcy.org/Disabilities/Specific/Pages/speech- "language.aspx.

Power-"de Fur, L. (2011, April 05). Special Education Eligibility: When Is a Speech-"Language Impairment Also a Disability?. The ASHA Leader.



PAGE 5



ABOUT THE HELLO FOUNDATION

The Hello Foundation is a forward thinking company that invests heavily in their

internal network of specialists. Hello believes by making business decisions and

practices that are in the best interest of students and school districts they are

poised as the only ideal staffing company. Any company can supply a body. Hello

stops to ask what your students need.

Copyright © 2014

Published by The Hello FoundationPO Box 623

Gladstone, OR 97027

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Act of

1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or

retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Visit our website at www.TheHelloFoundation.com

THE HELLO FOUNDATION PAGE 6


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