Do parents advocate for more special education staff?

[niccig]

I work in schools as a SLP. My state has a recommended caseload cap of 55 students, recommended, not compulsory - I'm currently over that and working with supervisors to reassign some students. Some states have a higher caseload cap of 60 or 80, and some states have no maximum limit and I know some SLPs have 100+ students!! Between all the IEP meetings, evaluations, paperwork, and tx sessions, there isn't much if any time to plan and prep for therapy and therapy group sizes get bigger to fit everyone in. With students all with different goals and level of functioning, planning is essential to maximize every second the child is in therapy, as are smaller group sizes. I'm on a facebook group for school SLPs and consensus is that about 40-45 students is a doable caseload. Smaller caseload means more time spent on therapy planning, prepping and smaller groups. School SLPs are trying to negotiate with school districts and at the state level to get more manageable caseloads, but it's an uphill battle.

Just wondering if any parents know the caseload their child's providers have and if they have or know of anyone that advocates for more providers. We all want smaller class numbers knowing there will be more effective teaching if less children in the class and more time for our child. That's the same for special education services - SLP, OT, PT, Resource Room teachers. Parents' voices are louder and listened to more than school staff.

[LBW]

No, I've never known the caseloads of any of DS2's providers. I did send an email once when one of two district behaviorists left and wasn't being replaced. Three years later, the district still has a single behaviorist. I'm in NJ.

[annex]

I'm on my district's PAC for special education, and I agree the answer is generally "no", parents are rarely aware of this issue. Our PAC group encourages parents to get copies of service logs, and then request compensatory service time if the logs show they aren't getting what's in the IEP and/or file state IDEA complaints if the district doesn't respond. That helps build the case for more hiring because usually service time shortages come up in situations where caseloads are too high. Our state though just gives wrist-slaps to district for IDEA violations, and then parents worry about retaliation, so it rarely happens. If I hear from a provider that they are overloaded/overwhelmed, I try to pass that info on to the district when we meet with the gen ed administrators - since they seem to have the ultimate control over whether we can hire more staff. I doubt it really makes a difference though. It can't hurt though I think for SLPs to voice their caseload concerns in front of parents. It may lead a small percentage to pursue it up the chain and/or maybe some day the state will impose harder sanctions that will make districts realize it's better for everyone to keep caseloads manageable.

I do think staff can somewhat make the case for there needing to be more hires. My son's SLP (who started doing more mis-matched groups this year, so I know must be overloaded) came to his annual IEP in May with a new articulation goal - and doubled his service time. I (and I think the rest of the IEP team) know his articulation is not holding him back, but we nodded and agreed to have her add this to his much more critical social communication goal. My other friend's kids on her caseload reported similar increases in IEP service time. (Our principal is beyond clueless about special ed, so she wouldn't have known to speak out.) I think the SLP is hoping if she can document she has all these IEPs requiring more service time than she alone can do even with crazy groupings, they have to hire another SLP?

[wellyes]

I sympathize, but, this is definitely info I am not privy to for the (multiple) people who provide IEP related services to my kid. And honestly, I feel like my job is to advocate for her only. There is a SEPAC to deal with district issues. I believe that stands for Special Education Parent Advisory Committee. I have been invited to SEPAC meetings and presentations but haven't been yet.

[niccig]

I sympathize, but, this is definitely info I am not privy to for the (multiple) people who provide IEP related services to my kid. And honestly, I feel like my job is to advocate for her only. There is a SEPAC to deal with district issues. I believe that stands for Special Education Parent Advisory Committee. I have been invited to SEPAC meetings and presentations but haven't been yet.

But you will be advocating for her if you ask about caseload sizes and if the district adheres to the state cap, if the state has one. Many parents want more service time and ask for that. Service time is not to be decided based on caseload or provider's schedule, but if it is warranted. If more time is agreed at the IEP meeting, and the provider has an overburdened scheduled, your child's extra time may be in a larger group or there's less prep for the provider to prepare for those extra sessions.

A colleague has a saying "It's quantity, not quality of therapy" - yes, child got seen, tick, but how effective was it? Providers are trying to be as effective as possible, but pulling therapy materials out at the last minute or winging it or managing a large group sessions, isn't always most effective therapy, but it's the reality of back to back sessions, IEP meetings, and the mountain of paperwork when you have 50+ students on your caseload.

Just putting it out there that parents do have a voice and if you're unhappy with progress or quality of services, you may want to ask about caseload size in your district for your child's providers.

[niccig]

I'm on my district's PAC for special education, and I agree the answer is generally "no", parents are rarely aware of this issue. Our PAC group encourages parents to get copies of service logs, and then request compensatory service time if the logs show they aren't getting what's in the IEP and/or file state IDEA complaints if the district doesn't respond. That helps build the case for more hiring because usually service time shortages come up in situations where caseloads are too high. Our state though just gives wrist-slaps to district for IDEA violations, and then parents worry about retaliation, so it rarely happens. If I hear from a provider that they are overloaded/overwhelmed, I try to pass that info on to the district when we meet with the gen ed administrators - since they seem to have the ultimate control over whether we can hire more staff. I doubt it really makes a difference though. It can't hurt though I think for SLPs to voice their caseload concerns in front of parents. It may lead a small percentage to pursue it up the chain and/or maybe some day the state will impose harder sanctions that will make districts realize it's better for everyone to keep caseloads manageable.

I do think staff can somewhat make the case for there needing to be more hires. My son's SLP (who started doing more mis-matched groups this year, so I know must be overloaded) came to his annual IEP in May with a new articulation goal - and doubled his service time. I (and I think the rest of the IEP team) know his articulation is not holding him back, but we nodded and agreed to have her add this to his much more critical social communication goal. My other friend's kids on her caseload reported similar increases in IEP service time. (Our principal is beyond clueless about special ed, so she wouldn't have known to speak out.) I think the SLP is hoping if she can document she has all these IEPs requiring more service time than she alone can do even with crazy groupings, they have to hire another SLP?

Trust me, we complain very loudly about our caseloads and workloads. In some districts the union will also help. But reality is, parents voice are listened to more than our voices. A friend started at a new school, her speech room is the faculty restroom. She is to tell staff to use another bathroom when she is having a session. So far, school administration isn't listening to her request for appropriate work space. This is pretty common, the speech room is often a utility closet or part janitor storage space. My friend has been told by seasoned SLPs to find out which parent of her students will have most sway with the administration and invite them to a meeting in her "room", she'll get moved to a better space within no time after that meeting.

[JustMe]

This is an interesting question, and one I have thought about. I do not know any of the special education providers caseload numbers, but honestly that information would not be as helpful. Since I am not sure of everything required for their job, etc, the numbers wouldn't mean much to me. Do I know they're too large? Yes, definitely. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case with everything in the school system that I am familiar with these days.

Our district sends out surveys and I have mentioned the inability of special education providers to provide the services kids are entitled to and that, in most cases, I did not think this was due to the providers' fault but rather their time was too limited, etc. However, as a parent, I wouldn't feel comfortable advocating specifically for reduced caseloads. I feel that, at least with our district, there is a lot more than that broken and the administration (special ed specifically) needs to think differently about how things are done, change with the times, etc. I also feel that there must be a way to cut down on administrative costs when direct services are suffering so much, yet I know I am ignorant about those realities (what is really necessary administratively, etc). Also, you may not like this and it may contradict what I just said, but I also don't feel there is enough accountability for providers in our district. One provider kept my daughter out of special ed for some time (years) and now that this experience is behind us and I have connected with other parents it is clear she was doing that to protect her caseload size. I do understand the reality that you can only do so much, but I also know other providers would never do (repeatedly) what she did.

I don't think your example of advocating for a more appropriate room is the same as advocating for reduced class size. The room change can be authorized by someone in the school building, while caseload size is usually not dictated by the principal or anyone else in the building.

I do want to advocate in terms of the bigger picture of things (and just presented to our equity committee about my child and others not getting appropriate services), but I agree that to some degree, I would not feel confident that I know exactly what I should advocate for to improve things. As I said, in our district it is definitely more complicated that only caseload size. On the other hand, I can certainly see how it would have a positive impact --but I am not sure if they would take away from something else that would only create other issues if this was done. Now, I know parents are not hesitant to advocate for reduced class size...so I guess what I said does not make complete sense...

[petesgirl]

Trust me, we complain very loudly about our caseloads and workloads. In some districts the union will also help. But reality is, parents voice are listened to more than our voices. A friend started at a new school, her speech room is the faculty restroom. She is to tell staff to use another bathroom when she is having a session. So far, school administration isn't listening to her request for appropriate work space. This is pretty common, the speech room is often a utility closet or part janitor storage space. My friend has been told by seasoned SLPs to find out which parent of her students will have most sway with the administration and invite them to a meeting in her "room", she'll get moved to a better space within no time after that meeting.

That is just ridiculous. Wow. Could she use the lunch room or at least go outside? Who wants to hang out in a restroom??

[annex]

For the restroom situation, I would probably encourage the parents to file a OCR complaint (or threaten to) - that seems discriminatory to put special education students in a restroom to receive services when general education students get classroom and/or office spaces. Usually districts are more scared of OCR than their state IDEA complaint dept.

[niccig]

Now, I know parents are not hesitant to advocate for reduced class size...so I guess what I said does not make complete sense...

I started this post to bring awareness to the issue of overburdened caseloads. Some states do have a caseload cap and some states do not. Even with a cap, it's not always enforced.

Here's a list by state http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/AS...chool-SLPs.pdf

Note all the states with no caseload cap. If you live in one of those states do not be surprised if you ask your child's provider and they say they see 75-100 students, majority of those get seen weekly, and with 100 students the group size is going to be 5-6 students. 100 students a week for therapy and paperwork for that session. Then it's all the IEP meetings for those 100 students, minimum 1 hour per meeting, so 100+ hours of meetings - and that's not counting the time to prep for the meeting - do assessment probe, write your part in the IEP, write goals. Then there's new students that get evaluated, those meetings and therapy sessions. Oh, and you have to re-evaluate students every 3 years and full evaluations are easily 5-8+ hours of assessment + report writing for every evaluation. Then there's progress reports 2-3 times per year as well. All that paperwork is federally mandated, so it gets precedence over prepping for therapy - the work that actually helps your child.

If you see the benefit in smaller class size for your child, then wouldn't smaller caseload for the SLP, OT, PT, Resource Teacher also benefit them. Some parents are on committees within their school district and can have a voice calling for a more manageable caseload. I know one parent at DS's school who is very vocal to me about how bad the special education department is, and she's very vocal about several issues in the school district. I asked her to put that voice towards asking about caseload size etc. She had no idea the providers saw so many students a week. She is the kind of parent that can advocate successfully for change or put fear of lawsuit into the school district.

Just putting it out there for parents to ask questions and support ALL the school staff for reduced numbers.