You have accessThe ASHA LeaderSchool Matters1 Aug 2019How to Use Colleague Education to Help Your CaseloadSchool-based SLPs balance many roles, but going beyond those roles to partner with colleagues can save time. Marie IrelandMEd, CCC-SLP Marie Ireland Google Scholar More articles by this author , MEd, CCC-SLP https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.SCM.24082019.38 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favorites ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In The new school year is an exciting time for school-based speech-language pathologists. They immediately begin serving students on their caseloads, collaborating with educators, and communicating with parents. A new school year also brings opportunities to work with teachers and school teams to address concerns for students who struggle. Here are some strategies to help balance these roles. Comprehensive evaluation With high caseloads and shortages of SLPs across the country, it is critical that school-based providers deepen their understanding of—and reinforce the team’s need to adhere to—the real eligibility requirements for IDEA. When others refer to our services as “just speech,” we need to share the seriousness of identifying a child as having a disability. Your school colleagues might not realize that misidentifying a child under IDEA violates the child’s civil rights. Dangers of over-identification can include lower expectations, a less rigorous curriculum, and social stigma experienced by students with IEPs. Inappropriate identification also increases SLPs’ caseloads and takes valuable time away from students who truly have disabilities. A student must meet all three prongs of the federal definition—and any additional state requirements—to be found eligible under IDEA as a student with a speech-language impairment. IDEA requires the team to document: Speech or language impairment. Educational impact resulting from the speech or language impairment. Need for specially designed instruction. Meeting these requirements differs from clinical identification. School SLPs must gather input from a variety of data sources. Classroom teachers should provide data on educational impact, strategies they tried to help the student, and outcomes from those attempts. SLPs should perform comprehensive evaluations, and gather evidence of educational impact and the need for specially designed instruction. Provision of direct and indirect services Many school-based SLPs provide direct services in the “speech” room. However, providing direct services in the least restrictive environment (LRE) is a longstanding part of IDEA regulations. A federal data requirement, Indicator 5 Least Restrictive Environment, now requires states and school districts to report the amount of time each student spends removed from general education. SLPs who frequently pull students into a separate room might unknowingly hurt their own school and school district’s performance. Integrating direct services into students’ classroom settings—when appropriate—helps ensure services in LRE (see “Think Beyond You: Activate the Power of Your School Treatment Team”). In addition to the policy changes that support in-class services, some research shows in-class services to improve students’ curricular vocabulary skills are as effective as pull-out services. Being in a classroom also makes it easier to gather data on students’ functional communication skills. These data inform educational impact and the need for specially designed instruction required for eligibility (and dismissal) decision-making. Beyond these advantages to students on SLPs’ caseloads, students who don’t have disabilities can also benefit from SLPs in the classroom. This “incidental benefit” is permissible under IDEA when services are “provided in a regular class or other education-related setting to a child with a disability.” In addition to direct services, SLPs can provide indirect services—supports or services offered on behalf of a student. Examples of indirect services include consulting with teachers, modifying assignments or tests, and programming assistive technology devices. Including indirect services in an IEP also highlights the important contributions of the SLP beyond direct service and might increase communication supports from others working with the student. A popular method combining direct and indirect services is the 3:1 workload model. Interprofessional education (IPE) IDEA requires school staff and parents to work as a team. As vital members of eligibility and IEP teams, SLPs can also influence others beyond the teams. Initiatives such as multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and response to intervention (RTI) provide opportunities for SLPs to learn from, educate, and practice alongside other educators. Through IPE, school SLPs are uniquely poised to help general educators learn about difference versus disorder, language diversity and dialect, the impact of poverty on language and learning, and strategies to improve communication. When SLPs share their expertise, they can improve outcomes for the wider school community. School SLPs can present at a faculty or PTA meeting, or write about the importance of communication for the school newsletter. As school-based professionals, we already serve students with disabilities and their families. We can also influence others by sharing our knowledge and expertise. As school SLPs move forward into the new school year, it’s a perfect time to reaffirm our roles and try something new. Strive to reinforce that what you do isn’t “just speech.” And let others know that special education is for students who are truly disabled and meet all federal and state criteria. This is also an ideal time of year to educate others about the importance of communication and to consider possible changes in your service delivery to better align with education policy and research. Working together, we can make effective communication accessible and achievable for students in our public schools! Author Notes Marie Ireland, MEd, CCC-SLP, ASHA vice president for speech-language pathology practice, is a specialist for speech-language pathology at the Virginia Department of Education. She is also Virginia’s representative to the State Education Agencies Communication Disabilities Council and an affiliate of ASHA Special Interest Group 16, School-Based Issues. 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