Schools Caucus Results 2008

Ann Slone, Schools Professional Practice Representative

On March 8, 2008, approximately 200 school SLPs and audiologists were snowed into the Hilton at Easton and participated in the annual Schools Caucus at the OSLHA Convention. The following issues were addressed and recommendations made:

Issue #1:  Partnership Between Professionals in the School Setting and the Hospital Setting   Serving the Same Families

Background Information was presented by Jeff Stec, SLP at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, about the partnership with school SLPs that has been established in the southwest Ohio area through his department to meet the following challenges:

·         The same very medically complex children are being served in both settings and there is a need to collaborate the speech and language programs for these students.

·         Often equipment, services, devices, etc. are prescribed by hospital personnel that are not appropriate for the educational setting.

·         There is not enough direct communication between the hospital SLP and the school SLP so miscommunication often occurs.

Children’s Hospital Medical Center Speech Pathology Department has implemented a new policy in an effort to improve communication and collaboration among the hospital SLPs, parents, and school SLPs:

ü  Family referral pamphlet is given to parents at referral time and initiation of therapy at the hospital to urge parents to share reports from the hospital and school between the settings.

ü  Names and e-mail addresses of school SLPs are given to hospital SLPs to facilitate contact between the settings. School contact lists are updated yearly by the hospital department.

ü  Report “Do’s and Don’ts” were written for hospital SLPs to make sure they do not overstep their boundaries in making recommendations for the school setting.

Caucus Discussion and Suggestions:

1.      The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center model should be showcased by OSLHA to encourage collaboration in other regions of the state.

2.      OSLHA should make this partnership a state-wide initiative.

3.      The collaboration between schools and medical settings modeled by CCHMC and schools in the tri-state area of southwestern Ohio should be replicated at other facilities around the state.

4.      OSLHA should gather the children’s hospital representatives and school leaders together to discuss these collaboration issues.

5.      There should be ongoing cross-training events with attendance by hospital and school SLPs. These joint educational events could include discussion of methods for better partnership.

6.      Collaboration and communication between hospital and school settings must be done within the confidentiality requirements of HIPPA and FERPA.

7.      School districts and hospitals should “post” the release of information form on their website(s).

8.      Release of information should be obtained for communication between both settings for up to a year.

9.      Hospital SLPs should not write recommendations for the school SLP in their reports to accommodate the service type, amount of service wanted by the parents.

10.  Physicians and other hospital personnel should also be urged to not make prescriptive recommendations about speech and language services in the schools.

11.  Parents are often confused by the contradictory information provided by school and hospital SLPs.

12.  Hospital SLPs need to request information from the school setting when evaluating and treating children from school settings.

13.  Medical information is important to school SLPs, especially about medically related cases such as swallowing studies for dysphagia.

14.  Hospital SLPS should receive information from school SLPs about common children they serve , i.e. MFEs, IEPs, progress reports, etc.

15.  Hospital SLPs need to be made aware of eligibility criteria for school S/L services.

16.  Hospital SLPs should be educated about the parameters of school services (i.e. response to intervention, adverse effect, IEPs, etc.) so they understand the differences between their services and the school services and how they can complement each other.

17.  A complete list of school SLPs in the state should be published for hospitals to access and communicate with schools.

18.  OSLHA could ask for school contact information each year with membership and this could be posted on the OSLHA website for public access.

 Issue #2:  Retention Incentive: Supplements for National Certification for School SLPs

Background Information: As a result of discussion at last year’s Schools Caucus, Jean Smith, ASHA SEAL, obtained  ASHA grant money to establish a partnership between OSLHA and the Ohio Education Association. Jean’s work with OEA allowed her to gather information and provide resources to school SLPs and Audiologists to advocate at their district level for salary supplements:

• A survey of school districts in the state indicated that, of the 116 districts in Ohio, 96 do offer teacher supplements for national certification and 4 offer supplements to SLPs and audiologists for their ASHA CCCs.
• A survey on the OSLHA website asked Ohio school SLPs and Audiologists about how they are using their Educational Association to solve some of the concerns they have about their working conditions. The results were published in Communication Matters.
• A packet of resources was put together to assist SLPs and Audiologists in advocating for themselves at the grassroots level.  These resources were emailed to the Schools membership. Duplicates can be obtained by emailing Jean jeanbwt@aol.com . The packet includes:
• Data and Survey Results

Comparison Tables of National Certification for teachers vs. SLPs/Audiologists

ü  Sample letters to school administrators and local bargaining units

ü  Data and Survey Results

ü  Comparison Tables of National Certification for teachers vs. SLPs/Audiologists and

ü  Links to additional web resources including success stories.

OSLHA continues to work on supports for SLPs in the schools to obtain salary supplements for national certification. ASHA reports progress in other states and we hope Ohio will eventually follow.

Caucus Discussion and Suggestions:

1. OSLHA should support advocacy of supplementary stipends for school SLPs for ASHA CCCs.
2. OEA should be able to advocate for this cause at the state level rather than district by district.

3.      A few Caucus members reported that they are not permitted to be members of their local teachers’ union and cannot advocate through the union for their causes.

4. Some ESC s ?  don’t have bargaining units and thus they can’t go through the union to help with this issue.
5. At the school district level, SLPs and Audiologists are such a small number that it is difficult to be heard by the local union. Yet this is an opportune time to advocate for this retention issue because of the shortage of SLPs in the state.
6. Since Ohio Department of Education just raised their fees for licensure to $200 for 5 years and many  SLPs and Audiologists now hold three very expensive certifications/licenses (i.e. OBSPLA, ODE, and ASHA), perhaps there is a way to get a reduction in fees.
7. OSLHA should work with ODE to discount or waive the ODE licensure fee for SLPs and Audiologists who hold ASHA CCCs and OBSLP licensure.
8. Teachers holding multiple ODE licenses do get a discount and we should as well since we are paying for dual licensure (ODE and OBSPLA).
9. Patty Ralabate of the National Education Association would be able and willing to help SLPs and Audiologists with advocacy at no cost.  She might be a good speaker for next year’s OSLHA Convention schools strand.
10. OMNIE could underwrite the national certification supplements.
11. Perhaps OMNIE could help SLPS pay these additional fees, especially for first year SLPs.

Issue #3:  Collaboration with ODE to Decrease the Shortage of SLPs in the Schools

Background Information: OMNIE was recently  granted another $5 million dollars over the next two years to continue to support recruitment and retention of SLPs in the schools. Updates on OMNIE initiatives:

• OMNIE continues to support training and recruitment of SLPs into the schools by way of sign-on bonuses, distance learning, and tuition reimbursement.
• The intern program requires graduate students to have one year on campus during which they take 90% of their coursework. OMNIE supports them with $12,000 and full tuition waivers. As interns in the district, they receive $25000/year + medical and STRS during the internship. They then make a commitment of 4 years to the district in which they interned.  OMNIE is placing 32 interns this month. Districts can apply for an intern using the form on the OMNIE website at www.omnie.org.
• Project Inspire pays a $100-300 stipend to SLPs who propose a recruiting project to high school students and others who might be interested in learning more about training and working as SLPs in the schools. SLPs are urged to send in proposals.  More information at www.omnie.org.
• At last year’s caucus, SLPs recommended that the following areas be covered in Guidelines that will be posted on the OMNIE website.  These are under construction and can be viewed at www.omnie.org. The ten areas are: Role of the SLP in the Schools, Assistive Techology, English Language Learners, Autism, Hearing Impaired, Auditory Processing Disorder, Literacy, Workload/Caseload, Regular and Special Ed Procedures for the SLP and Response to Intervention. These will be completed on the website by September, 2008, and next year ten new topics will be covered in the Guidelines.

Caucus Discussion and Suggestions:

·         The Department of Education makes the selection of which districts will have interns based on rural vs. urban, with rural being first priority, history of need, and other criteria.

·         If a district applied last year for an intern, they probably do not need to reapply.

·         Interns must be supervised directly by an ASHA certified SLP for a large percentage of the time.  OMNIE is seeking to find SLPS to do this supervision. (i.e. retired SLPS, etc.). Compensation for this supervision will come from the district.

·         The Student Permit granted to these interns by the Ohio Board of Speech Pathology and Audiology is not limited to the schools.  It can be granted to anyone going through one of the participating Ohio universities. The OBSPLA trusts that the university will not allow a student into the field in any setting until they are confident the student is competent.

·         OMNIE should consider paying the salary supplements to school SLPs and audiologists for national certification.

Other Issues Written on Participant Input Forms at the Schools Caucus:

1.      OSLHA should address how to handle teams from other facilities outside the school who come in and recommend and insist on how the schools should serve their students, i.e. behavioral consultants who want to write IEP goals for SLPS.

2.      OSLHA should address caseload vs. workload for SLPs in the schools.  Workload has taken over the work and free time of SLPs in the schools.

3.      OSLHA should advocate for preschoolers who are denied speech and language services because they do not have scores that are -2 standard deviations on a test of phonology.  Evidence indicates that early intervention services for these children saves districts money and the need for special education in later years.

4.      OSLHA should lead school SLPs in the amending of IEP goals that are inappropriate, especially in the area of dysphagia/swallowing.