|
In Fresno Unified School District, we just completed training for the new California preschool assessment. We are now required twice a year to do an evaluation for 3- to 5-year-olds with IEPs on our caseload. As the SLPs left the building, it was not a pretty picture. The general consensus was "Great-one more thing to do."
I've been getting a sense lately that there is an "elephant in the living room" that no one is talking about. I hear comments, I see sarcastic letters to The ASHA Leader, I see job openings everywhere, yet no one is saying the obvious: Our school profession is in serious trouble! Here is what I see:
- Caseloads remain unmanageably high with continuously more difficult students being enrolled. We see other professions, like resource specialists, who limit the number of students that they see. We take everyone, even if it means we have so many students we are ineffective.
- Other professions with the same level of education, like PTs, OTs, and psychologists, are being paid like specialists and we are not.
- The scope of our practice is expanded continuously. We are now expected to be a literacy specialist while at the same time we are fourth in line in terms of expertise (behind teachers, reading specialists, and resource specialists). Meanwhile, we are not being supported to do what only we have the skills to do—treat articulation, voice, and fluency
disorders.
I'm curious if others see the elephant, too.
Stephen Sacks
Fresno, California
steve@satpac.com
|