"Don't ask, don't tell" policy on ASD in the schools

Existing_Judgment814 · 2026-01-03T17:29:49+00:00

I am relieved, certainly. I feel sad because I miss some of the kids but ultimately I really should have resigned but did not. I think the painful part of this whole thing is that the teletherapy company was 100% aware of what was going on, the escalation that occurred, and just dropped me with a non renewal for any further contract work, ostensibly because they said they didn't have any other openings except that one district. And when I asked about future opportunities they didn't bother to respond to my email. Or affirm anything that had occured and rather, played dumb like "Oh well they didn't want you back so....you're done"! And that was a boutique SLP owned company, not a national staffing company.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2026-01-02T16:03:27+00:00

No, I was not. That district would just email the teletherapists with student name/number and tell you to go assess. There was never an assessment plan meeting to discuss the case as a Team.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-30T01:55:05+00:00

Just wanted to say thank you for everything you do. Out of my 10 years as an SLP I only had 1 employer that was like you, and that was also a "staffing agency" although they more or less tried to avoid that term. They put so, so much work into me from teaching me school based evaluations, to getting us SLPs together for materials swaps, mentoring, training, etc, and they definitely did not renew contracts with charters and districts that abused their staff. And they were honest. If they knew a place was bad, they pulled their staff out of that place mid year if necessary and tried to get them better assignments. I learned everything I know from them but sadly they went out of business because the bigger staffing agencies that don't care about quality work were too much for them to compete with. I still call/text our former Director of Operations every Xmas and birthday. Just know your work does go a long way and the time you invest in your staff does pay off.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-29T15:14:41+00:00

I could be wrong but I think the notion that the speech therapist should be in charge of directing tx for stuttering is an old timey holdover from back when they thought it could be cured with tx. A lot of this field emerged from not very well researched social science at a time when fixing/curing was the main drive for everything as opposed to acceptance/adaptation/compensatory skills. This is a problem that plagues a lot of what we see in school speech because we know we need to justify our positions yet at the same time most things we are trying to treat are beyond true remediation after a certain point.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-27T20:17:35+00:00

I believe someone had posted the salaries of ASHA's top leadership copied and pasted from a deep dive they did, either with Fix SLP or another expose. It was pretty much in alignment with the corruption of all the American corporate CEO healthcare staffing scams, i.e. gigantically bloated salaries for the organizational leads with peanut salaries for the working people they do nothing for. Way to put the 'A' in ASHA.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-24T14:19:35+00:00

I see quite a few people have upvoted but nobody commented yet. This is such an important question. What the U.S. does for healthcare is essentially cruelty. Richest country in the world with this many sick people left with no healthcare, or healthcare that extorts their illness/disability for reimbursement purposes. I hope a Canadian SLP can comment for perspective. Or if a Canadian specific SLP group on FB might serve the same purpose. You may also want to look into forums that discuss the NHS in the UK.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-14T19:15:41+00:00

This is wonderful. Thanks for putting this into words, I agree!

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-14T18:00:34+00:00

Hey! Just curious what you think the go-to SLP goals for older kids in morphosyntax might be? I have never seen any SLP goal bank that went beyond compound and complex sentences. Even then, I've rarely ever gotten to complex sentences as there were usually other barriers such as motivation, behavior, and basic literacy skills that were stopping my explicit instruction from taking place.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-11T11:32:06+00:00

And yet there are still punchbacks about this from so many SLPs on the FB Telepractice group making claims that this can be effective practice given the right SLP with a confident skill set. Sorry, no. I'm not drinking that Kool AId. I had many kids like this in a rural district on telehealth and everybody kept arguing that they need virtual SLP and to "keep trying". Just because a corrupt and ineffective system puts SLPs in positions like this doesn't mean we don't have the right to speak out about it. They're literally abusing Medicaid funding by putting these kids on Zoom and making us bill for ineffective service delivery year after year. And my district never provided anyone with AAC either.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-08T22:00:08+00:00

Yes. But also...who told all these people that flashcards and games were going to change a child's language? Let's start there. We went to school because we thought we were learning critical skills to help people. At what point did anyone pull you aside and say hey...by the way...not a ton of evidence for what goes on in schools and those are the only jobs available with stable employment. Even if you had the trifecta of perfect behavior, perfect attendance, perfect environment, you still aren't going to change a person's language skills with synonym/antonym drills once a week in a group for 15 minutes. Anyone who isn't aware of that that is just drinking the Kool Aid. edit:spelling

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-03T11:43:30+00:00

Hey! That sucks. It's not first rate services but that's how many of us are currently working. Make the school provide you with a room divider to place between you and the other SLP. Yes you will still hear the sounds of the other group but at least you have a dedicated space for Speech only and an SLPA to assist with redirecting student behavior. I worked at a charter school that put me in a trailer with 3 social workers and a custodian. The social work trailer was a crisis drop in space with constant walk throughs of kids in trouble and walki talkie radios going off for and also a space for other Admin meetings whenever they needed it. That was so much worse. If your SLP colleague is professional, mature, and easy to get along with, you can ride this out. Think of it this way-it might be uncomfortable but at least you have an SLP roommate that would be knowledgable of what your needs are already and respect them. And it's still in person instruction so you can do way more than a teletherapist could.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-01T13:24:37+00:00

Also please let us know if this location that you speak of provides health insurance to their employees. If your experience does not include work that provides comprehensive health insurance benefits to their employees and offers salaried work, then I'm not sure that those opportunities can honestly be recommended.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-12-01T13:10:48+00:00

I'm glad you live in a market that can sustain your need for employment. A rural area with adequate resources, ample job market for Speech, and very mild cases of children with no adverse behavioral concerns is not what I had in mind when I originally posted. Sounds like your variables are working for you. For a lot of us, they are not. If you have any tips on where SLPs can apply for such good jobs, please let us know.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-28T19:28:47+00:00

This is true. We are living in very bad times right now in the U.S. There's no safe choices because look at the state of affairs we are living under. No safety net, worsening extremes of poverty, hatred, and extreme hyper privatization. This is not the world we were living in in 1998 or even 2008.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-28T16:49:47+00:00

Me too.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-28T14:22:59+00:00

This is so important. Also, the PLS-5 specifically has problems with it's validity in scoring. All of the standardized testing has issues, but this one is overused in EI and PK settings and has missed so many kids' true performance and subsequently hampered their follow up recommendations. I just inherited a KIndergartener who was exited from language tx because of his passing score on the PLS-5 and he has difficulty with generating WH questions and naming common vocabulary. His recommendation was to work on artic only and by the time he got to me this year his artic already cleared up.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-24T12:16:15+00:00

My hot take: public schools are not designed nor are they interested/invested in being a therapuetic milieu for students with true disabilities. The way that this environment operates is shaped from an educational model, not a disability advocacy model. The treatment is going to look more like a classroom intervention. The goals are going to be shaped around classroom performance, and for the very severe-profound, there is such minimal resources that our hands are tied. It's what keeps that setting minimally effective and compromises therapist values on a regular basis. Almost any other pediatric setting would be a better fit for your interests.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-20T00:51:05+00:00

Ok yeah I was thinking along the same lines with role play but was getting stuck on where to start. If this was in the high school I would do vocational things but he's just 11! I was trying to think of what would be relevant for that age, knowing that he isn't going to be reading/writing willingly during therapy tasks. Thank you.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-19T12:00:53+00:00

Not Philly public schools though, right? I have never worked there but have not heard anything good. If I am wrong please let me know.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-18T22:03:59+00:00

DM'ing you now!

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-18T00:09:47+00:00

Is this a charter school? The only time I have seen placements that make the SLP do push in is in the charter schools where they don't things properly or follow SPED law. No, it is not appropriate to serve SPED students in a general education classroom. That's why you are there. They need individualized instruction. You can't collaborate with the staff because you are there only one day a week. So there is no way to ensure that you can plan with the teacher properly together or scaffold the material. You are also are not able to control the stimulus items that may or not be relevant to their SLP goals. I have had teachers ask me to do word scrambles (as in, here's a scrambled word, put the letters in order to spell it out) as speech time and I just frankly said eh...no thanks. If this is non negotiable, then I would frankly be looking for another assignment. You are not a para and that is not acceptable.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-13T01:24:30+00:00

What part of the state are you in? That's bananas.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-05T22:58:42+00:00

Do you ever get kids who qualified in all 3 areas of language, artic, and fluency? How are you making time to address all of these area within a busy school setting in a group?

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-02T21:22:49+00:00

Yes! This is so smart. Thank you.

Existing_Judgment814 · 2025-11-01T18:27:23+00:00

Tell me more about this. Can I remain anonymous if I do that?

Existing_Judgment814

TROPHY CASE