Fossil School District in Fossil, Ore., has partnered with PresenceLearning, provider of online speech therapy services for K-12 students. The new partnership allows the district to provide speech therapy services to students in the district’s Distance Learning Program.
“Prior to using PresenceLearning, we had to subcontract with SLPs in different areas, which was very difficult to manage” said Brad Sperry, superintendent of Fossil School District. “We had to have different SLPs in different cities to accommodate the students in the Distance Learning Program. PresenceLearning not only consolidated SLPs, it streamlined the student progress reporting process and our accounting.”
The Distance Learning Program, now in its fifth year, provides online learning options for 140 homebound students in Oregon’s Willamette Valley area, approximately 400 miles away from Fossil School District. The district provides the homebound students with the same support services and treatment that an on-site student receives, except it is done online. The students use district-issued iPads to work with a live online SLP.
“The specific needs of our families vary greatly,” said Sperry. “Because the Distance Learning Program is based at home, the PresenceLearning SLPs have to contact families directly, not the district, to schedule sessions. The SLPs have been very flexible and willing to work with families’ specific needs. I have heard nothing but praise about the program and we plan to use PresenceLearning’s services for as long as our students need speech therapy.”
PresenceLearning’s online speech therapy provideds schools with web-based access to a nationwide network of licensed speech-language pathologists. PresenceLearning also offers access to technical specialists, as well as culturally and linguistically diverse speech-language pathologists.
