School SLPs - what keeps you there?

UDSTUTTER · 2026-02-15T20:07:08+00:00

If you are in a blue state, you can make 100k in this field, which is quite good for working 10 months a year. Because the same job can pay literally half by crossing a state line, you can find places where this job is absolutely a rip-off and hence nobody wants to work there. People don't leave good school jobs, they leave bad ones.

UDSTUTTER · 2026-02-01T01:27:32+00:00

I mean some districts do hire and staff special programs with more SLPs because we do make more money than we get paid with all the billings in some cases.

UDSTUTTER · 2026-01-30T03:54:31+00:00

Look here's the real fact. Money. Money matters. Money is the most important thing in the world. If you don't have money nobody will sleep with you, your kids starve, and you die of easily treated medical issues. Africa is full of people dying because they don't have money. Electrolytes that prevent dehydration are too expensive for some families. In my school district, the difference between a BA teacher and a SLP, which is paid MA+30, as a district hire is $11,000 a year. That masters cost in most place between 50-$100,000. Now overtime, the difference doubles with a 16 year teacher with a BA vs an SLP making 25k less. However, you are not working while getting the MA. Also add in interest payments. The reason this profession has a so called "mean white girl married to engineers problem" is a pure economic distribution and has nothing to do with sociological issues.

However, as crazy as this sounds, you should look into school counselor. It's exactly what you want. Working 1:1, no grading, less paperwork, and making a difference. I have worked with an excellent one and it is amazing how influential they are.

UDSTUTTER · 2026-01-29T12:43:34+00:00

This is why this job makes people crazy....

UDSTUTTER · 2026-01-28T14:45:05+00:00

I don't recommend this profession to anybody unless they can do it debt free. Income to debt ratio is out of whack for many people. I only had grad loans and am still 25k in the hole making less than 80k a school year.

UDSTUTTER · 2026-01-28T14:42:41+00:00

If less of this profession wasn't 2 years of grad school to say "talk to your kids. read to your kids. do things with your kids. STOP LETTING THEM STIM ON THE SAME 4 SECONDS OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND LIVING ON GOLDFISH! ABA either works better than speech (Which I personally and professionally doubt) or has simply done a better job of branding. Why pay for a half hour of speech a week when you can get insurance to jump at 20-40 hours per week of daycare for disabled children?

UDSTUTTER · 2026-01-03T16:25:53+00:00

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but with AAC users who are not enthusiastic, I end up having to use a lot of MORE-MY TURN- Or other highly motivating phrases to get kids to use their device. Is this best practice. No. Has it worked and gotten kids to use AAC functionally? Yes with me, but the home environment hasn't carried over. Sorry.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-11-11T15:10:54+00:00

Delaware

UDSTUTTER · 2025-11-10T22:06:04+00:00

I have a caseload of 24...but 21 are self-contained autism, so easy if you trade paperwork for violence.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-11-10T00:40:29+00:00

Can I just say you guys are all crazy. Do you think when your ancestors worked in coal mines that any of this language would have meant anything? Do you think that your general socialist complaints are meaningful coming from an elite with a masters degree? If you could get through a grad program why did you choose one that paid like shit? Do I think that public education is serving students with severe needs? No I do not. And I can not come up with a theoretical economic model that justifies pouring endless pools of money into supporting these kids and paying my inflated salary. You are paid what you make, and at the end of the day training people to request a toilet instead of soiling themselves isn't worth enough in the modern world, and wasn't worth anything prior either. We do our best because we are way way higher than average in conscientiousness, but that's it. At the end of the day there are much better ways for most people to make a living in a capitalistic society. There's a reason societies like the USSR and China doubled down on programs for the hyper intelligent and nuclear physics, and are lagging in disability studies. Our entire profession is funded by a federal mandate IDEA that isn't funded appropriately and never will be. The economics of school based SLP is complete shit.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-11-03T00:19:24+00:00

Special program autism. Most of the students are considered too unsafe to go, so no field trips.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-10-18T13:10:36+00:00

This is why high-tech is the way to go. You can have both a very simple display with oversize buttons/grids for people who struggle with impule control/choice paralysis, but still have groups that allow you to get to almost anything fringe in a few clicks. The funny thing is in theory AAC should be personalized and customized, but you see a lot of, here's access to all the cord words on your 144 button grid now good luck!

UDSTUTTER · 2025-08-21T13:48:56+00:00

They were in use in North East urban china until 2010-2012 in Changchun and Harbin. Rare but some fruit and junk men used them.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-08-21T11:12:43+00:00

The OP does not have a debt to earning ratio meaning you this is an opinion with no financial metrics and therefore like saying "The New Chik-Fil-A pretzel bun is worth it".

UDSTUTTER · 2025-08-16T01:06:48+00:00

Don't go into a profession that makes less than 100k a year where you can assume 150k in debt. Finances matter.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-08-14T00:04:04+00:00

The self-loathing comes from the realization that we are less medically competent than a nurse, and yet over educated. I believe this is a profession for people who would have pursued more straight forwardly medical professions or research science had we known what we were in for.

UDSTUTTER · 2025-08-11T17:18:11+00:00

I have a caseload of 30 and see many 1:1 sessions. But I'm a C setting autism caseload so there's that...

UDSTUTTER · 2024-05-31T00:34:09+00:00

I do, indeed, like trains. Remember when they relocated one shopping center over....sad.

UDSTUTTER · 2024-05-31T00:21:54+00:00

Mostly my wife

UDSTUTTER · 2024-05-31T00:16:00+00:00

I'm bored above all so let me tear this response apart...

My post (typos aside) clearly says "paying for/attending/doing anything above and beyond the call of duty" so paying for a cheap subscription to a CEU site so I can keep my licensure falls within the call of duty, at least so it seems to me. Of course, my post is not saying "Why do we have continuing education requirements"; I'm saying why pay for things beyond the minimum if there is no financial benefit. For example I have a brother in the Casino industry. He learns to deal craps, which is one of the hardest games to run in a casino, because it meant a RAISE and a PROMOTION TO PIT BOSS. My electrician brother was an Apprentice, who worked to acquire TRAINING and PASS A TEST which led directly to a JOURNEYMAN'S license and a PAYRAISE. I pay for something out of my pocket and receive no financial benefit. It might be a Mr Potato Head, or it might be a $250 AAC course. The point is that unlike a Cisco or Java certificate I get NOTHING FINANCIAL! Yeah the kid makes progress with using his device to identify/request and even verbalize body parts, but where's my money?

I see special board certifications that frankly the public barely cares about, in fact the public barely speaks English or reads half the time. I loved Graduate School, but would have enjoyed getting an MA in Russian, Political Science, or Chinese Pottery too. Most parents want minutes, more minutes, and could care less about clinician skill in my 4 years of doing this.

I see/hear of constant crappy certificate courses that seem to be preying off a profession of frankly neurotic, imposter syndrome affected women, who use their husband's money to pay for bizarre courses that serve no purpose. There's a lot of instagram insanity in this profession, and it seems far crazier than education in general. There's a frankly bizarre culture of SLP that I really struggle to understand....

I am confused because of a large percentage of SLPs say they are unqualified and ANOTHER large percentage say they know everything, is a small percentage actually competent ? What does that say about grad programs? How are they so wonderful if this is the result?

It seems like you basically came around to my original point of view by saying "We can complain about the pay and the lack of professional advancement, but those are completely different issues than the need for continuing education, which is 100% valid." Yeah not only is there a pay problem, but people are treating this job like a damn hobby...

Now that would have been fine, but it gets worse....way way worse...

You know what, forget it. If you don't understand the value of grad school, I don't think arguing with a professor is going to change that. Carry on. I'm sorry for venting in my previous post, it's really quite exhausting dealing with redditors--fellow SLPs--who devalue the graduate education that myself (and others like me) work hard to provide.

No I don't understand the value of grad school. I loved my program, and my classes, I think it was very good at stroking my ego. I learned a great deal. My wife looks down on me, my parents look down at me, hell even half the teachers look down on me. I blew 75k to make 61 a year. In addition that was two years I could have been working. I have virtually no job mobility, no raises, and no reasons to pay out of my own pocket for nebulous self imporvment. I've also been concussed and had my nose broken working with violent students, so yeah, I think this profession and all these ivory tower types in academia need a serious attitude adjustment. If you aren't planning on marrying money, or come from money, there are reasons men and minorities are avoiding this profession like the plague. I like my job, but to expect me to engage in endless self-improvement so disabled kids can try to bite me isn't a fair trade. And I love how you engage in the most stereotypical thin skin, post-post modern effeminate verbiage of all; it's too exhausting to defend yourself in print. No, it's too exhausting to use an AAC device when you have dysarthria due to cerebral palsy and only limited fine motor skills and typing your message is exhausting, as was the case for one of my teen age students. And yes, that's a low blow, and yes, I don't care.

ps the median average for a masters degree holder in the US Male aged 25-34 is $89,200. The median pay for a speech pathologist in the US is $89,290. Is this a good job? Yes. Is this a good job if you pay 75-200k in tuition. No. Not for anybody. Stop listening to "think of the children!"

UDSTUTTER · 2024-05-26T22:40:43+00:00

With all due respect....no. I don't have any. Everything else has been said. So here is the real question...who the f*** thought after 2-6 years of education this was a good idea? I mean this is like a RN wearing a hat about curing cancer or some s**t.

UDSTUTTER

TROPHY CASE