Faced with higher speech-language pathologist (SLP) caseloads following the unexpected departure of an SLP, Murray County Schools in Chatsworth, Georgia, partnered with PresenceLearning to provide live online speech therapy.
“Recent budget cuts and the resignation of one of our SLPs left us with a hole,” said Allison Oxford, Director of Instructional Support Services at Murray County Schools. “PresenceLearning not only provides high quality speech therapy for our students, it also became a caseload management tool for us.” Research published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) indicates that large caseloads negatively affect student outcomes and contribute toward high rates of SLP attrition.
Murray County Schools is a medium-sized district serving 7,500 students, 653 of which qualify for special services. The district is currently using PresenceLearning to manage the cases of and deliver services to 55 students with speech therapy needs in grades K-6.
“Our four on-site SLPs work closely with PresenceLearning,” said Oxford. “We have a student coming up for reevaluation and the PresenceLearning SLP will be an integral part of that process. Both our on-site SLPs and the PresenceLearning SLP will participate in the reevaluation meeting with the student’s teachers and parents.”
PresenceLearning provides online access to a nationwide network of qualified, licensed speech-language pathologists who are available whenever they are needed. PresenceLearning also offers access to technical specialists, culturally and linguistically diverse speech-language pathologists as well as occupational therapists (OTs).
