State Board of Education Manual of Rules and Practices

Section 2360 Special Education; Eligibility Regulations Click Here

  

 Adverse Effects for Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension Click here

 

The Vermont Coalition to address personnel shortages in speech-language pathology convened five meetings between 9/26/06 and 10/10/07 to define causes of the shortage, prioritize strategies, and begin to implement solutions. Twenty-three stakeholders representing school administrators, policy makers, consumers, and speech-language pathologists attended the initial coalition meeting, out of which three committees worked on the plan. The committees focused on the top three prioritized strategies for solving the SLP shortage in VT educational settings: 

1. increasing the annual number of Masters level SLP graduates from Vermont programs; 
2. improving effective/efficient use of SLPs by increasing knowledge of/training on best practice service delivery models; and 
3. improving recruitment/retention efforts by understanding the effect of compensation and other work aspects on job satisfaction. 

Feel free to view the following documents:                        See survey results:

Coalition Summary Document                                         SLP Compensation/Job Satisfaction 
Malinda Hartwell Research Paper                                     School Vacancy Data/Incentives
 

Meeting of the State Education Advocacy Leaders

Chicago

November 21, 2008

 

In Chicago the State Education Advocacy Leaders (SEALs) met for a three part meeting.  We began as part of a joint meeting with the State Advocates for Reimbursement (STARs) and the Medicare Intermediary and Carrier State (MICs).  These are the two member networks that advocate for improved reimbursement for services.  The purpose of this section was to receive training in negotiation and the importance of data, a win-win attitude and presentation.  Each network member received a copy of the book, The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, by G. Richard Shell.

 

The second part of the meeting was with SEALs exclusively to practice applying negotiation skills.  In groups of 6-8 states, we discussed strategies to advocate for:

·         Using a workload over caseload management system

·         Getting bargaining units to adopt a platform that includes salary supplements for SLPs, and

·         Reimbursement of expenses from State Associations to attend SEALs meetings.

 

For each scenario, there was a member state in my group that had actually advocated successfully for each of these issues.  It was great to hear their experiences.  For your information the expenses for Vermont’s SEAL are reimbursed by VSHA, which is a terrific benefit of the role.

 

For the last part of the meeting, the SEALs chose one of two discussion groups: Response to Intervention and Personnel Issues.  I attended the latter and heard about a new credential in California that allows a person with a bachelor’s degree (in almost anything) to write and implement IEPs related to speech and language issues.  There is great resistance to this effort.  ASHA and the State Association are advocating against this and it may go to the Court system to be resolved.

 

There are two opportunities for individuals to be more involved in ASHA related activities:

1.       Sign up to be a member of the School programs Input group (SPI) to respond quickly to policy and legislative issues.  Get more information from Deborah Adamczyk, dadamczyk@asha.org.

2.       Be involved in issues addressed by the national Joint Committee on the Communication Needs of persons with severe Disabilities.  Contact Nancy Brady, Chair of this Committee at nbrady@ku.edu.

 

Informally we had a chance to give input on speakers and presenters for the Schools Conference to be held July 17-19, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

Please contact me if you would like to get information from other states.  We have a responsive network.  I appreciate the opportunity to represent Vermont on this network.

For information on the ASHA Schools 2009 Conference CLICK HERE