{"id":129,"date":"2009-01-29T11:29:38","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T16:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=129"},"modified":"2017-02-07T16:20:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T20:20:32","slug":"do-you-know-who-is-providing-your-childs-speech-language-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/do-you-know-who-is-providing-your-childs-speech-language-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Know Who is Providing Your Child&#8217;s Speech Language Therapy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Do%20You%20Know%20Who%20is%20Providing%20Your%20Child%27s%20Speech%20Language%20Therapy%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><em>If your child receives speech language therapy, you need to pay attention to how the service provider is described in the IEP. If the IEP includes acronyms, you need to ask questions so you know what they mean. Why?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft alignnone\" style=\"float: left; margin: 3px 5px 3px 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/images\/girl_mom.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>If your child&#8217;s IEP says speech therapy services will be provided by a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), this is legally correct and legitimate.<\/p>\n<p>If your child&#8217;s IEP says speech language services will be provided by &#8220;SLP\/Staff,&#8221; your child may receive speech therapy from an untrained, unlicensed individual.<\/p>\n<p>Some administrators encourage IEP teams to write &#8220;Special Education Staff,&#8221; &#8220;SPED staff, or &#8220;SLP\/Staff&#8221; as the speech therapy provider on the child&#8217;s IEP. The term &#8220;Staff&#8221; may refer to anyone on the staff who is willing to do speech therapy &#8212; including untrained substitutes, aides and paraprofessionals.<\/p>\n<p>Substitutes, aides and paraprofessionals usually have high school diplomas. They are not licensed by your state Department of Education, nor are they certified by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asha.org\/default.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)<\/span><\/a>. ASHA is the professional, scientific, and credentialing association for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists.<\/p>\n<p>Substitutes may sign off on the IEP paperwork as &#8220;Speech Therapy Substitutes.&#8221; This suggests that they are legitimate, certified Speech Therapists when they are not.<\/p>\n<p>Schools are using this back door approach to get around hiring trained, certified Speech Language Pathologists.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, there is a shortage of certified Speech Language Pathologists who are willing to work in schools. There are also shortages of other service providers including Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists. There are many reasons for these shortages including lower pay, high caseloads, and poor working conditions.<\/p>\n<p>If your child receives speech language therapy, make sure the IEP states that these services will be provided by a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Know Your State Requirements<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>States have different regulations and requirements for speech-language support personnel. State laws may differ from ASHA&#8217;s guidelines and requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Check your state regulations for education and licensing requirements for SLPs and SLPAs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.asha.org\/advocacy\/state\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">ASHA State-by-State Licensure Requirement, Support Personnel Requirements, individual State information, and State Contacts<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To see where your state stands on support personnel licensure trends, please view the ASHS trends charts which are updated annually &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asha.org\/uploadedFiles\/Support-Personnel-Requirements-School-Settings.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Support Personnel in School Settings (PDF)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Get up to speed on your state regulations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.asha.org\/PRPSpecificTopic.aspx?folderid=8589934664&amp;section=Key_Issues\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">ASHA Speech Language Pathology Assistants Overview and Key Issues<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wrightslaw webpage: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/relsvc.sp.lang.providers.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Do You Know Who is Providing Your Child&#8217;s Speech Language Therapy?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/do-you-know-who-is-providing-your-childs-speech-language-therapy-part-2\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Do You Know Who is Providing Your Child&#8217;s Speech Language Therapy? Blog Discussion Part 2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your child receives speech language therapy, you need to pay attention to how the service provider is described in the IEP. If the IEP includes acronyms, you need to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/do-you-know-who-is-providing-your-childs-speech-language-therapy\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,57,5,18,1274,136],"tags":[247,249,248,246],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy","category-fape","category-idea-2004","category-ieps","category-related-services","category-strategies","tag-related-service-provider","tag-slp","tag-speech-language-therapist","tag-speech-language-therapy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21034,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/21034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}