Your caseload number that is. Right now, I'm at 43 with about 6 students waiting in the "wings" of Tier 3 who are ready to be evaluated and placed. On top of that, 6 of my current students are profound and considered for the most part "non-communicators."
ASHA maintains that:
"...in order to provide balance between the amount of time available for appropriate services and the amount of time needed to complete other required responsibilities, it is recommended that the maximum caseload size should not exceed 40 students, regardless of the type or number of service delivery models selected. Special populations and circumstances will dictate even fewer students on the caseload, since certain types of services and students are more time-intensive than others. Intervention provided to preschool students emphasizes family-focused service delivery and multi agency collaboration and coordination. When the caseload consists entirely of preschool students, the size should not exceed 25..."
From ASHA's "Guidelines for Caseload Size and Speech-Language Service Delivery in the Schools"
FYI, Georgia's caseload limit is 55. And after 44 of the Kindergartners at my school failed their recent speech and language screenings, I am getting dangerously close to reaching and exceeding this number (caveat, I realize that probably only 10 really need to be seen in Tier 2, but still!). The thing is though, what can you do when you exceed the limit? Someone has to serve these students, and if you're in the field for the right reason you will not refuse to serve them simply because you are overextended. My goal for this year is to not get burned out, but in a county with limited SLP resources, how could I say no?
No comments:
Post a Comment