Mountain Peak Charter School has implemented PresenceLearning, provider of online speech therapy services for K-12 students.
“I was extremely hesitant and resistant at first because I come from a very long line of traditional SLPs, working in-person with small groups or individual students,” said Barbara Schmidt, coordinator of special education at Mountain Peak Charter School. “Although I was questioning the effectiveness of this delivery model, I am now a firm advocate for online speech therapy. Now that we have implemented PresenceLearning, I find that it is just as effective as having someone in the building.”
Mountain Peak Charter School serves approximately 500 students across three southern California counties, each of which has its own homeschooling independent study program. Mountain Peak Charter School also has a brick and mortar school in San Diego County which provides students with a traditional school setting Monday through Thursday and an enrichment day on Friday, allowing students to either get additional help in school or complete supplemental lessons with their families.
“In the past, we had to contract with SLPs through an agency, which led to inconsistency in therapy and the accumulation of compensatory time,” said Schmidt. “However, our PresenceLearning SLP is always here virtually. She works with our resource specialist to plan and set goals just like an on-site SLP. She is very much a part of our staff even if she is not here in person.”
Since 2009, PresenceLearning’s online speech therapy has provided schools with web-based access to a nationwide network of licensed speech-language pathologists who are available whenever and wherever they are needed.
