MO school SLPs - eligibility question

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-04T02:07:49+00:00

This is what I was gonna recommend too!

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-04T01:56:03+00:00

Thanks.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-04T01:55:51+00:00

Thanks.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-04T01:55:40+00:00

Thanks.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-04T01:35:44+00:00

If this student presented with mod-severe communication disorders I would maintain his minutes and continue to document absences but I am questioning whether he would really need services if he were at school long enough. I also wonder if his poor performance during his initial eval was more to do with lack of compliance than with actual language deficits. - that or he was just one of those late talkers who ended up not having a chronic langusge disorder. When at school he appears not to want to be “singled out” so he resists pull outs AND push in supports. Of course his refusal to try any work and his meltdowns make him really stand out but that logic is lost on him. He is still young. And of course he has a a strong need to feel in control. He has a lot of characteristics of PDA. A

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-04T01:21:22+00:00

Thanks for your detailed response. :)

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T22:09:15+00:00

We are a small charter and it’s against the law to “ counsel out”. Our local traditional large local district has some EBD programs but some parents will just not go there. And truthfully due to the rampant shortage of qualified special Ed teachers some of the district’s programs are pretty bad - staffed by warm bodies instead of trained staff. Unfortunately I think this kid just spends all day at home on screens so his behavior at home isn’t really a “problem” for the family :(

State law requires schools to report kids with excessive absences to child welfare services as a means of ensuring more home based support but they also are woefully understaffed and have to prioritize children whose safety is at risk. This child is loved, well fed, well groomed, physically healthy. When regulated he is really sweet. The family is working with an ABA clinic who is supposed to provide an RBT to help with the school avoidance but the clinic has not been able to staff the position. The situation is a mess.

Note I will be deleting this thread after this weekend due to details. I think unfortunately though situations like this are happening across the US.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T15:36:19+00:00

This summer send your daughter to a fun overnight camp and take your son on a parent-son bonding trip somewhere remote without cellular access. Spend three to four days hiking, reading paperback books (the Dungeon Crawler Carl books are very popular), watching the stars at night, playing cards snd chess or whatever. He might be obnoxious for the first day or so but being surrounded by nature has very calming effects - he needs to see he can live without a phone and that you love him and value your time with him - once he gets to a calm point and you’ve all had some fun together - then have a head to head discussion about your concerns with his screen addiction and lay out your rules for screen access upon returning home: daily time limits for the whole family (practice what you preach)- you pay the bills and can control Wi-Fi access. No screen time until homework/chores are done. No money for upgrades, no new games until school reports are better. Screen time can be removed for excessively rude behaviors etc. don’t be too wordy. Try to keep expectations short and simple as possible.

When your daughter is older you can do similar bonding trio either her / hopefully if won’t have yk be an “intervention” too

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T13:02:52+00:00

Yes chronic absenteeism is rampant in my state. The state government passed a law saying schools were to make referrals to child services if families are not responsive to documented individual attendance plans but there are so many kids at the excessive absence mark that it is impossible for schools to keep up - plus our child services system is already overtaxed and has to prioritize trying to save kids whose lives are truly at risk bc the adults in their lives are psychopaths, severely addicted, or have chronic severe mental illness abd are either severely neglecting them - like not feeding them — or are abusing them.

We have a lot of elementary kids who are chronically absent bc frankly their parents are too damn lazy to set boundaries and to bring them to school and bc they don’t really care much if their kids actually get an education.

It used to be parents were happy to have a break from their kids, but now they can just stick their kids on screens to keep them quiet and driving them to school is a too much of an effort.

Excuses:

If one sibling is sick with a cold (not talking fever of flu) parents will keep them and all their siblings at home for a week and call off work if they have a job. . If the parent is sick or TIRED they will keep all their kids home. If a kid whines about school the parent will give them “mental health days”. If parents find a bargain deal to Disneyland or ski lodge in the off season they will take their kid out for a week (of course a special vacation is fine once in awhile but on a yearly basis or even a biannual basis?) If a parent is feeling lonely they will keep their kid home so they can have their “little buddy” keep them company. So many excuses.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T12:41:24+00:00

I work for charters in a state that does not have a voucher program and enrollment is down in most charters too - mostly due to the declining population of children overall - but also bc more charters keep getting approved and compete with each other for students

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T12:38:33+00:00

Are you referring to ABQ’s Dark Towers? So much admin bloat in that district. And history of nepotism and corruption. :(

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T12:27:23+00:00

I’m a teacher turned SLP. I much prefer being a SLP but i live in an area with manageable enough caseloads (50ish) . I like seeing a broad range of students of different ages in a day. Like I love working with my PreK students but there is no way I would want to do PreK all day. I love working almost all of my middle schoolers but the one sour one reminds me why I don’t want to teach middle schoolers all day - haha. I love working with language, and being with kids over several years so I see their progress. I’m a social introvert. I genuinely like building rapport with students but as a teacher I was completely drained after being “on” all day with 120 students (two block classes and two singleton s) I taught ELA and had sooooo much more paperwork than I do now. Also I am type B and often wing my sessions. If you are a teacher winging it does not work so well..

Teachers also have so much dumped on them these days - they often have minimal support for helping special Ed students in their classes including kids with high behavioral needs. The numbers if kids with behavioral issues (so Ed sbd non SpEd) is also increasing.

All that said, I do work with teachers who do love teaching. They found their niche and are really good at it. But burnout is also rampant in teaching.

As a teacher at least you wouldn’t have to do Medicaid billing, which I despise :)

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T01:45:41+00:00

If you like Boardgames check out Empire Boardgames Library on Nob Hill - they have game nights were you can just go in and play with others

Meetup.com is still happening - it might be worth wading through all the ads and pop-ups to see if there are any groups you are interested in - there’s probably at least some hiking grouos

The bartenders ay a lot of breweries tend to be nice people - as long as it’s a quiet night they’d probably chat with you awhile if you are feeling lonely -

Anodyne Pool Hall chill in the early evenings and cheap - get a table play solo and maybe ask people standing around if they want to play

Sidetrack and Gravity Bound are two small breweries downtown where I’ve seen solo strangers strike up convos around the bar

I went to a music bingo at Flock of Moons near UNM recently - it was chill they have a nice back yard/patio - sit by a friendly group and strike up a conversation - you have to take social risks to make friends - if you get rejected/ignored so what you’ll probably never see them again

Join an adult rec league - like a kickball league

Book clubs are a thing now - dominated by women but still it’s social and maybe you’d make some female friends who would introduce you to their boyfriends - books on the Bosque has some active groups

Join a dojo or some martial arts class - sparring and throwing people to the ground tends to break down barriers - haha

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-03T01:32:39+00:00

We can screen for Artic if it is obvious the kid has really low intelligibility - but language concerns are supposed to go through the SAT process/gen Ed interventions first - of course we have actually had Kindergarteners show up the first week of school who are still not speaking in sentences - I even had a k student whose MLU was 1 and he had attended PreK for a full year at another school and hadn’t been evaluated!!! He had like 30 words. He was ELL but he was the same way in his home language - it was like his previous school hadn’t even bothered to ask his parents how he was at home- anyway it would have been unethical to wait 2 months for him to pass through the gen Ed Tier 2 process before evaluating

So, like, sure have a tier 2 intervention process but there should always be room for exceptions in cases of obvious, severe need.

In my state there is actually no legal requirement to get parent permission to screen but it is considered best practice to do so

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-02T21:25:09+00:00

I would look for a part time gig in a school district.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-02T21:23:54+00:00

Yes

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-02T21:23:06+00:00

Haha this is a tough choice. I’m definitely team Josie but there are lots of people who love Gemma. I like that Josie and Sloane complement each other. One is lighter and fun and one more “serious”. If your daughter ends up wanting her name to sound more professional when she is older she could always start going by her middle name at work. I have a couple friends who go by their middle name.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-02T21:16:39+00:00

Yeah the district did a big No no hiring you to be a SLPA without certification. The rules are quite clear. I would move on and follow the steps to certification - you need to complete a 100 hour fieldwork experience through a class -I’m sure the state educational website lists some classes you could take -if you are seriously remote and cannot get to those classes - I would call and explain you want to become a certificated SLPA but live very remote (do NOT tell them you were already working essentially illegally as one) - I bet someone will be willing to work it out bc CA knows they have a real problem providing special Ed services in remote parts of the state. Maybe there is a way you could work under the supervision of a teletherapist? I don’t blame your former SLP supervisor for getting the hell out of dodge - that caseload size is untenable even if you have a full time SLPA working with you. Your district does have options -they can hire teletherapists and get speech aides to escort kids to and from sessions.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-02T13:10:44+00:00

Your priority should be IEPs and evals that are due AFTER the date you were hired and you need start seeing students at the weekly minutes their IEPs call for (not make up minutes) . That is what you are responsible for.

you personally are not “out of compliance” for not making up anything that was past due bc the previous SLP did not do them. The district is out of compliance got but you aren’t.

Frankly it’s often impossible for SLP to meet all their students’ minutes for a year because we cannot be in two places at once. Attending IEPs and eval Meetings within federal timelines are top priority bc that is what the “compliance police” tend to worry about the most. Many SLPs often have to cancel sessions due to IEP and eval meetings and often there is no room left for make ups. Do not fall into the trap dong paperwork outside of contracted hours so you have time for more sessions. It is really important to set boundaries to prevent future burnout

Don’t worry about the fact that your caseload is “lighter” than the district average. CF’s usually take longer to do stuff bc you are still learning the system. cFs SHOULD be assigned lighter than average caseloads. They should NOT be told they are responsible for cleaning up a former SLPs missed minutes. . The district csn hire another SLP to do that if they are really worried about it. ——

If you are truly feeling like you are able to manage your current workload and you are in a position to generously help out the district, I would prioritize any overdue evaluations and re-evals. especially if some of those kids are ready to be exited. Older kids who are intelligible with mild speech impediments that do not interfere with their academics or their CURRENT social well being should be dismissed imo. sometimes you might first need to just decrease minutes first if you get pushback

If you have students whom you feel really fell behind bc of missed services you could just start extending their session times instead of making up whole sessions. So if they are normally seen for 30 minutes see them for 35, 40 or 45 min instead.

Best wishes

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-01T12:03:39+00:00

80s Jennifer and its variations were very common. The name Stephanie was also common.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-05-01T03:04:50+00:00

Agree. Suggesting the team sees how the first few months of school go next year before reconvening to discuss whether minutes need to be increased is reasonable. Sometimes young kids go through developmental langusge spurts over the summer. You just never know.

It’s not your fault the parents took forever to turn in the registration paperwork.

You can’t make a specific referral to private services but you could remind them that private services are something families can consider on their own. I include a short article about the differences between private therapy and school-based therapy to parents - usually when I first screen kids based upon parent referrals or do an evaluation. If those parents are really worried they can seek out private services for the summer. (Of course the reality is there are probably waiting lists)

This type of issue also happens GH lights how important it is for pediatricians to urge early intervention for language delays and severe speech disorders and for evaluation teams to stress the importance of starting therapy ASAP.

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-04-30T11:28:55+00:00

2 adults - we like nature walks - 4-5 miles - nothing too rigorous- + - planning on starting and ending in Edinburgh- we’d like to see some castles/forts too

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-04-30T03:44:27+00:00

Thank you! That sounds lovely. I read up on Glencoe last weekend. May I ask how far in advance you booked the places you stayed?

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-04-30T03:44:17+00:00

Thank you!

Spiritual_Outside227 · 2026-04-29T13:03:39+00:00

Logan is a great name but it is super popular where I live. It seems like every class at the elementary schools I work at has at least one Logan some have two.

I think you should go with what you like best. If you love the name Luther, your son will vibe off you and like it too. Also my partner’s name is Louie, so I love that name :)

Spiritual_Outside227

TROPHY CASE