Starting out the school year for school SLPs is always a challenge, but Coronavirus has added an extra element. As SLPs, we often may not know if our schools are starting out in person or virtual until (what feels like) the last minute, and after being exhausted from the Spring and providing emergency telepractice services, it’s been an even bigger challenge. This blog post explores what to do your first month of work in the school setting.
Week 1: Figure out Your Caseload
There are typically a lot of changes during the summer. As families move in and out of the district, you’ll realize the caseload you thought you had isn’t your real caseload. You may get emails from the front office or IEPs in your box for students who have moved in. Alternatively, parents may have indicated on their child’s registration form that they are on an IEP, in which case if it didn’t arrive with their Cumulative File (their non special education file), you may need to fax a request to their school to get a copy.
Because of this, you can’t trust your district’s online IEP system to have the most recent information as students move in and move out. I create my own Google Spreadsheet from the Speechy Musings Blog (it’s free!).
Week 2: Begin Seeing Students
Some districts mandate when speech therapy groups will start, and in this case it’s likely the second week of school. Although I don’t have a real schedule at this point, I can pull students. This is great for rapport building and (when I have time) taking probes to figure out where these students stand with their goals. When doing telepractice, it may take a few sessions for the novelty of having you as the SLP on a computer screen to wear off - so this is a great time to informally see as many of your students as you can.
Week 3 & 4: See Groups on a Tentative Schedule & Practice Behavior Expectations
However you make your schedule, it will change. I once counted that I got to 8 drafts before a final schedule. Teacher’s schedules tend to change frequently the first month of school, so as SLPs we need to be flexible and open to changes.
This year (Fall 2020) with Coronavirus, I’ve never had more challenges scheduling. I work for a district that is doing in-person school (all kids, all days). Thankfully, they are taking plenty of precautions, but this does make it hard to create groups because I want to keep students in the same class together and not cross classes by seeing students from different classes at the same time. This keeps students safer, but it’s a real scheduling challenge. I still haven’t figured out how to make it work, and it is a headache.
Once groups begin, take your time to go over expectations. These include things like how to safely and quietly walk to the speech room, sitting down quietly once they enter and any other speech room rules (look at the person speaking, mouth quiet when others are speaking, point your shoulders and knees towards the group, etc.) Teaching these expectations looks very different depending on the age of your learners, but I’ve found that typically we (myself included) don’t take enough time to reinforce these the first few weeks of speech. Set your expectations low for providing too much actual therapy at that time, as most of your students may be excited, distracted, or just learning how to listen.
However you start this school year - remember that educators are exhausted and running on fumes. Give yourself and your team time and grace to move forward.
If you want more on this topic, please listen to Episode 73 of the podcast. You can listen on Apple Podcasts here or on Stitcher here.
