After having no applicants to fill their speech language pathologist (SLP) openings for an entire school year and lacking the funds to pay what other districts in the area were paying for SLPs, Fowler Unified School District (USD) turned to PresenceLearning, provider of online speech therapy services to K-12 students. The district is using PresenceLearning to provide services to 80 students located at the six schools within the district.
The district delivers speech on each school’s "speech day" and employs a speech aid who assists with the program.
“Students have expressed a lot of enjoyment with the online sessions and our parents are very impressed. We have some parents who log in live and see how excited their students are, which makes them excited! Since we began using PresenceLearning to provide speech therapy services to our students, we have seen a lot of interest from other districts, and the feedback from our students, parents and teachers has been great,” said Dustine Borges, Chief Psychologist and Director of Special Education for Fowler USD.
Fowler USD’s six schools serve more than 2,350 students in Fowler and Malaga, California. The rural district prides itself on providing staff and students with up-to-date technology in the classroom and features interactive boards for instruction, as well as high speed Internet access at all school locations.
“I was intrigued when I first heard about PresenceLearning a year ago,” said Eric Cederquist, Superintendent at Fowler USD. “I encouraged Dustine Borges, our Chief Psychologist and Director of Special Education, to see if they would be a good solution to solve our SLP shortage issues. PresenceLearning has turned out to be a great resource for our district.”
