it ain't easy being on this side of the fence somedays.

Patti,

But at least you always have the option of private practice.

Janis

Patti — one of the things I learned in my checkered career in education is that when the school administration guilts me into trying to do more work than physically possible, it is the beginning of the end. If I say no I am uncooperative and from then on can do nothing right. If I say yes I kill myself and don’t do the job I want to achieve, and get bad reports because I’m not superhuman. If you see this pattern starting take a serious look at proferring your resignation letter and setting up private practice. Continuing to support a system that underserves the kids and kills the teachers is not doing any good for anyone, even if you do feel for the kids. In one particular case, when I left a remote rural school, a large family also moved away cutting the class size by 25%, and then they hired a married couple to come in and take over — so they had twice the staff covering 75% of the workload I had been trying to do solo… Of course you don’t want to leave, but suggest it to your supervisors.

Patti,
What I found helpful when I worked in the public schools was to set up my caseload realistically and then tell the building principal that I was out of compliance with these particular students because there wasn’t any more room in my caseload. When the principals got on board and heard “out of compliance” they took action and took it to the sped director and the superintendent.
To take on more students than your caseload allows does you, your students and the schools a disservice. Compliance issues are huge motivators for administrators to take action.
Good luck!

I am mad, this is a different district than the last one I worked for and it is going through a tremendous amount of change because of litigation and compliance issues. The special ed staff that has been around forever are resistant to changing the way they do things; but the reality is if they don’t the new people like me who are good at what we do will be gone as soon as our contract is up.

I am on a first name basis with the special ed director and they don’t want me to quit because I am one of the ones who is pushing for change. I have principals on my side too about how the SLP’s were put in a no win situation. But the sad reality is there really is a shortage of qualified SLP’s and even speech assistants and I think in part because we are worked to death in public schools.

Yeah private practice is looking better and better all the time.

Check out private LD schools. My child’s LD school has like 15 SPLs.

what I could get in private practice. I turned down a $60K, 4 day work week with about 20 kids on a caseload as an SLP in private practice because a I would have have to pay for my own health insurance and work 12 months a year.

I wanted to work in the public schools because the money and the benefits were better; but I had no idea how overworked the SLP’s were in the public schools, the people who interview do a really good snow job :roll: It was a RUDE awakening for me. However, I am going to stick it out and hopefully help recruit some new SLP’s to try and keep things moving in a positive direction.

I have seen numerous Autism specialists/SLP’s leave year after year due to burn out and stress. Things need to change before we lose good teachers and other support staff due to stress related issues.

Hey Patti,
hang in there! If it’s any consolation, our SLP here in FL has well over 100 on her caseload now (but only 1 school, at least she’s not wasting time on the road). But you know why you became a SLP— and you are making a difference for kids. When I took this new job everyone told me I’d just need to learn to say, “I’m getting to that” because there simply are not enough hours in the day, no matter how late you stay. The pay may look good until you figure out how many hours you are actually working just to keep your head above water.

I will get to that and the amount of hours I have put in. I am learning to just leave even if I don’t have everything done. I have 4 IEPs this week alone, each week I have 2 or 3. This morning I was dreaming about IEP’s. I need to be at home with my kid who has special needs and I can’t save the world, otherwise I would die trying.

I guess I must be lucky! I am feeling massively stressed and I have a case laod of 13/14 depending on the week, with another 4 preschool EEN students. However, here in Wisconsin, I have 15 yeas of experience and a Master degree, and I make $39K! I do not have an aide, and we do all our own testing. 100 on a caseload? Is that full-inclusion? I have not had the time to re-write a test in years. I’m beginning to wonder why I bother writing anything in the IEP’s because it isn’t going to happen.

Here on the west coast we make more $$ but we have to deal with litigation and huge caseloads. I have a MA, CCC’s, teaching credential and state licensure. My caseload services kids who are fully included, and those in regular ed and SDC’s. I have 6 SDC’s that I cover between 2 of the schools. In 4 of the SDC’s for SH, I have 5 or 6 kids in each class that get speech alone, the age ranges from pre-k to 6th grade. I come in the classroom, and service the entire classroom in a group to give the SDC teachers a much needed break in the afternoon. Each day I service between 30 and 40 kids and over half of them have exceptional needs so your caseload of having 13 or 14 kids sounds heavenly to me. :roll:

Hi, Patty,

I taught special education for 25 years and retired in 2003. The reason I retired when I did was because of exactly what you are saying. State and federal mandates are making it impossible to give the quality of education that we need to be giving.

I am not a rabble-rouser, or even much of an activist, but I strongly feel that until teachers get together and raise a great stink about what is going on, it will continue to get worse. I heard the other day that 1 in 2 new teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years. That’s scary. And when special educators and specialists such as yourself are railroaded into situations similar to yours, it’s the kids who ultimately suffer. I understand the stress that you feel, but you can go into private practice or make a career change. What can kids do to get out of their situations? Nothing.

I think that most teachers are, by nature, care-givers and not interested in the larger politics of education. Their students are their main concerns. But they need to begin to holler loud and clear and say that this stuff that’s going on right now is wrong!

I hope you find what works for you! There’s a saying that when you take care of yourself, everybody else gets taken care of. I believe that, so if you do what is right for you, maybe that will be of more benefit to more people than what you are currently doing! Just a thought!

Sandy
www.ldperspectives.com

Well they reduced my caseload…now I think the rest of the SLP’s think I am a prima donna. One of the SLP’s who was assigned to take over my assignment said…”I thought you had quit.” I am glad to see you are still around.” I told him, “This is not what I signed up for to cover that many kids by myself…I am not a quitter, I just know my limits.

They are still short SLP’s but they spread what I was doing by myself between the two SLP’s who have the lowest caseload numbers. I am still trying to finish some of the assessments at that school before I turn over the reins to the new team so that they aren’t cleaning up behind me.

I learned I big lesson here. I had to STAND up for myself and my family. This job could have eaten me alive if I hadn’t. :roll:

I agree Patti. When I read the earlier post about the SLP in FL having 100 on her caseload, I thought, who are they fooling anyway? Why do the parents allow that? OR the SLP???? There is no way that SLP is doing ANYONE any good with numbers like that. I’d quit in a minute if I were forced into a situation where I couldn’t do what the kids needed.

I’m very glad they reduced your caseload, though. You were very right to speak up.

Janis

What they do in Florida is see all the kids in groups. So they see kids a couple times a week with 4 or 5 (and more) other kids. It wouldn’t be hard to get to 100 kids on your case load.

Beth

The groups can be a good thing, you can service more kids. I go into the SH classrooms and do group speech with the entire class with the teacher and aids helping to facillitate instruction. Most of the kids are on my caseload and those that aren’t get a little boost every week. However, it’s the 100 annuals,20 tri’s and 20 assessments and all the IEP paperwork with tight timelines that burns out special educators.