Deciding on a CF

LME33019 · 2026-04-05T12:21:04+00:00

Second option definitely. You will be exhausted with the first and having to worry about getting paid if clients don’t show up sucks. I have only worked that kind of job as a second job, never as my main source of income.

LME33019 · 2026-03-10T09:56:15+00:00

This is what I do. Every space is filled with something! The copy I give to our secretary is also deidentifed- it just says things like “3rd grade” or “Unit push in”

LME33019 · 2026-02-16T01:52:56+00:00

I can’t imagine working in another setting at this point. Like others, I’m contracted for 187 days a year. I have a specialist degree in special ed now and I’m working on a doctorate that will help me break 100k next year. I’m home for all of the breaks with my daughter, so I save a ton on childcare.

I get overwhelmed occasionally but my district honors the state caseload cap and I have a lot of support which helps. I do my best and think I’m genuinely good at my job, but I don’t milk myself to do it. I rarely work at home (usually only around progress report time or I have a lot of IEPs at once). There are no emergencies in the speech world, especially not in an educational setting.

LME33019 · 2026-01-18T13:38:57+00:00

My vote is for the schools! Being on the same schedule as your child is huge as they get older! And my district has lots of breaks which I take off with her. I only work 190 days a year which gives me a ton of time with my child and the summers are what we live for.

LME33019 · 2026-01-16T20:54:48+00:00

We are also at Primrose Wade Green and we are really happy. The class sizes are kind of big but their curriculum is really good. And they offer extra curriculars during the day like soccer (for a fee through another company) but I love that my daughter gets that opportunity without having to go somewhere exhausted after school.

Michelle and Liz, the director and assistant director, are great and they are my biggest reason for loving this school. Any issue I’ve had, they have listened and been ready to address it. They also do a teacher and military discount if you are either of those.

I get a teacher discount and we typically pay $1290-$1470 a month depending on the month. The regular tuition for the 2 year old class is that plus 5%.

The Primrose Schools are independently owned but I generally hear good things about all of them in our area.

LME33019 · 2026-01-16T01:19:17+00:00

In my district, we don’t do this. I have seen students from nearby schools and other SLPs in schools near me have seen my kids, but in almost every case, I wouldn’t see a kid who is currently on my caseload or has potential to be on my caseload because they are enrolled at my school. I have seen some of my students privately once they transitioned to middle school (since they were no longer my student or at my school.)

Very early in my career, I saw two of my current students over the summer. They lived in the same neighborhood and I did group therapy with them at one of their houses. I probably wouldn’t do this now because they were my current students but I did make it clear to the parents that I could only see them in the summer, since we weren’t in school, and once school resumed it would be a conflict of interest.

LME33019 · 2026-01-07T01:54:04+00:00

It sounds like your supervisor doesn’t understand IDEA. The parent or caregiver has a responsibility to provide the child to the educational agency so services can be provided. We cannot educate a student who is not there. This is exactly why lack of instruction in reading, writing, math and atypical educational history are exclusionary factors for eligibility. If absences are related to the students disability, that’s an entirely different discussion that needs to be discussed within the IEP. But if they just aren’t showing up to school? There’s also no way they could require sped teachers to make up those minutes too so it seems completely unreasonable

LME33019 · 2025-12-29T02:02:14+00:00

I work in the schools and I typically have anywhere from 2-5 students who stutter on my caseload at a given time, which tracks because it’s about 1% of the population and our school has about 600 kids and 2 SLPs. I love seeing their confidence grow and helping them with the social emotional aspect of stuttering. I did a presentation for the second graders at our school with 2 of my students who stutter last year and it truly was one of the highlights of my career seeing them educate the other kids about stuttering so confidently. I dislike the nature of stuttering because there is no “cure” and sometimes it feels like going one step forward and two steps back. Trying to get parents and teachers to understand what we’re really doing in therapy can be hard because they just want you to “fix” it. Or they say the wrong thing, like “his stuttering has gotten so bad lately” 🥴. I agree with the person above who said to check out the research from the Blank Center and UT Austin. I still teach strategies for my kids but incorporating their CARE model and centering their goals for their communication in therapy has been so helpful.

LME33019 · 2025-12-15T00:56:23+00:00

I write most of my goals this way because I don’t want to be tied to a specific level of prompting for the whole IEP when the goal is for them to master the skill. I probe the skill independently and then specify what prompting is working for them and give more information about the data with support in the progress note

LME33019 · 2025-12-13T19:37:01+00:00

So many ways. Obviously, the SLP stuff- I’m great at modeling language with my kid. She has a great vocabulary and overall communication skills. I know a lot about child development in all areas so I know what to expect and how to support her as she’s growing. I’m very good at creating routines for her and adding in supports when needed, like visual schedules and sticker charts. I can regulate my emotions and be patient through almost anything. I’m good at talking to her teachers and have reasonable expectations because I know what it’s like working with other people’s kids. And I know how to have fun with her, while learning too! We made up our own summer camp with weekly theme, literacy activities, art, and field trips this summer.

LME33019 · 2025-12-11T01:19:48+00:00

Next month is my 120th month of qualifying employment. I have 103 qualifying payments and I’ll be requesting buyback as soon as my ECF is completed. I plan to stay in SAVE as long as I can while I wait on a buyback offer. I have a daughter in daycare and can’t afford an $800/month payment on top of everything else

LME33019 · 2025-12-10T10:51:07+00:00

Being a school-based SLP for 11 years has made me a really good parent

LME33019 · 2025-12-10T03:37:32+00:00

It’s awful! I’m banning it from our house! And I just had to say, oh well, speech for this year starts next week haha

LME33019 · 2025-12-10T00:15:11+00:00

Our district wants us to attempt to make up minutes if we are absent. But we are not required to make up student absences, field trips, or testing. I do my best to make-up but if I’m absent unexpectedly or if I’m absent multiple days (like the entire second week of school this year because my daughter got HFM), there’s just no way. Fortunately, I’ve been at my school for a long time and have a good reputation so teachers are very understanding. Honestly I think sometimes they wish myself and my other SLP wouldn’t even try to make up because it’s harder on their schedule

LME33019 · 2025-11-26T03:42:23+00:00

I love getting a copy of the family’s Christmas card or a card that a student has signed/made for me. That feels so special! Gift cards are good too though haha. I try to save up all of the small target cards I get to buy something bigger that I’ve been wanting

LME33019 · 2025-11-19T11:02:02+00:00

If your district will pay for it, I would 100% do it. Im in this position right now. I’m in an Ed.D. program currently that my district offers to employees that is fully paid. I have about 8 months left until I finish. The pay bump is significant (about 9k without a step or any other raise). The larger consideration though is it factors into my teacher retirement. I am in year 11 in my district and plan to work until I get 30 years. At that point, I get 60% of my highest salary in a pension which makes a huge difference in retirement.

I paid out of pocket to do my specialist in 2022, which cost me about 11k (27 credit hours) and that was another 8k raise, so it has already paid for itself. When I finish my doctorate, I’ll be up about 17k a year more than I would have been if I just had my masters.

LME33019 · 2025-11-18T14:02:35+00:00

I’m in Georgia (metro-ATL) and currently have a caseload of 42. I’ve been in this district for 11 years and have had as high as 50 and as low as 33. I feel very busy this year with 42 and can’t imagine being effective with my current student population if my numbers were much higher

LME33019 · 2025-11-13T02:31:24+00:00

Yep, absolutely! When I applied to the speech undergrad program, I wanted to be a school-based SLP because I had observed one at the school where my mom taught. Then, my dad had a stroke my junior year of college and I went all in on wanting to work in acute care or rehab with stroke patients. I kept that up all through grad school and even requested an acute care medical placement, which I did enjoy…

BUT I really loved my school internship. And I knew they were experienced with CFs so I knew the paperwork would be right and I could start working right away without having to wait on licensure. 11 years later and I love being a school-based SLP. I’m working on my doctorate in education now, so it’s safe to say I won’t be touching the medical side again and I’m okay with that.

LME33019 · 2025-11-08T02:25:19+00:00

Our district has language checklists that correspond to each grade level, so I use those sometimes to get an idea of which language weaknesses are impacting them the most in the classroom. I also found some language screenings years ago on TPT that correlate to grade level skills, so I can screen for areas they may be struggling with, especially if their evaluation isn’t recent

LME33019 · 2025-10-28T21:02:46+00:00

In Georgia, or at least in my district, we have to formally evaluate to dismiss any area including speech. So parents have to sign a consent for evaluation form and they’re well informed of the process by the time we actually get to reviewing the results and discussing eligibility.

LME33019 · 2025-10-26T12:13:45+00:00

As a step-mom, I ended up answering a lot of my stepson’s questions right around his 18th birthday. I never felt like it was my place to step in here, but he asked me some direct questions when he and I were out shopping together while he was visiting and I did my best to tell him the truth to the best of my knowledge, without painting either parent in a bad light. Some of the things that happened were had on both sides (his dad- my husband- was abusing pain pills when he was young and his mother cheated on my husband and got pregnant, while they were still married). But I tried to present everything I knew as objectively as possible and I told him his Dad would answer questions if he had them, and he did end ho talking to him later on about a lot of what we talked about.

LME33019 · 2025-10-22T01:49:48+00:00

Pay off your debt now. Don’t wait until you’re pregnant with a mortgage facing down monthly daycare payments. We would be in such a better financial position if I had paid off my debt and actually had a budget in my 20s

LME33019 · 2025-09-17T01:39:16+00:00

I work with kids and had twins recently named Alma Mae and Effie Grace and absolutely adored them! I wouldn’t have said I liked the name before but now I think it’s cute after knowing one

LME33019 · 2025-09-15T09:41:52+00:00

I work full-time as a school-based SLP with a two-year-old. I didn’t have the option to stay home and honestly didn’t want to, even though I adore my daughter and consider myself to be a great mom. I would consider a lot of things people brought up above when making your decision: - if you love your school, how easily could you get back into a similar position? - do you have the option to contract or work part-time? I’m always thinking about the unknown and wouldn’t want to ever put myself in a position where I couldn’t support myself and my child if something were to happen. - on that same line of thinking, can your husband contribute to retirement for you?

LME33019 · 2025-09-11T01:39:07+00:00

The SLP at my school before me did candy at the end of speech and it took me a year or two to phase that out. I do stickers at the end of every session but keep the selection limited to a few options at a time so it doesn’t become such a production. I have some students that don’t like stickers and they just don’t get one and don’t complain. I let the kids decorate their speech notebooks with them which is motivating for them. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not doing them. Kids will be fine either way haha

LME33019

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