4 days ago
Baltimore County school speech pathologists say they are overworked, failing to meet student needs
Last spring's school assignment was a sea change for Gail Vanderbeek, a veteran Baltimore County Public Schools speech-language pathologist. Instead of being responsible for one school's speech difficulties and communication skills, she would now have an additional school to serve.
That meant more paperwork, meetings, and — critically — additional students, some of whom require one-on-one instruction. Vanderbeek worries that, as a result, some of these children are falling through the cracks.
Speech-language pathologists work with students who have a range of communication issues, which can include speech, voice, language and cognition impairments. These students require individualized instruction to meet their academic needs. And, as Baltimore County Public Schools' SLPs feel the squeeze of greater demands, the district risks losing providers and students to the private sector.
'This has been the most challenging year in my 33-year career,' Vanderbeek, a speech-language pathologist at both Gunpowder and Victory Villa elementary schools, told school board members last month. 'The workload that we have been given is not manageable. And the conditions we are working under will not keep or attract skilled speech pathologists to serve our students.'
An American Speech-Language-Hearing Association national survey of SLPs working in schools found that the median caseload was 50 students a month, but but that SLPs generally believed 40 to be manageable.
A separate January survey conducted by the SLP Educators Council and the Teachers Association of Baltimore County found that more than 60% of the surveyed county SLPs have caseloads between 61 to 100 students. Maryland's average caseload is 49, according to ASHA.
Nearly 70% said they are unsatisfied with staffing allocations at their schools. Roughly half said said they had completed some of the key compliance requirements they're responsible for in only zero to 20% of their cases.
Workload, distinct from caseload, refers to everything speech-language pathologists do for students, including planning and ensuring compliance with students' individualized education plans (IEPs). Caseload refers to the number of students receiving services from one provider. The IEPs are legally binding documents for how to meet the needs and educational goals of a child with a disability.
'Our students are missing legally mandated therapy and consultative services, while we are also asked to assess, case manage, attend IEP teams and document our services appropriately,' Vanderbeek told the board.
About a quarter of the providers surveyed by ASHA believed that the single biggest barrier to having a manageable caseload was a shortage of local speech-language pathologists.
'I don't think it's necessarily a shortage of SLPs, period. I think it's … the school districts … at least in Maryland, making [working in schools] unappealing,' said Kathryn Chib, owner of special education advocacy company Beacon Education Solutions. Some of her Baltimore County Public Schools clients are now receiving only partial speech-language pathology services, not fully complying with their IEPs, she said.
'These people that do this service are wonderful, and they do their best to let parents know that it's too much for them,' Chib said. 'And they're being forced to go to more than one or two schools, and so they can't do their best for the child.'
About five of Chib's 10 to 15 Baltimore County Public Schools clients are reporting issues with their speech-language pathology services, such as a very young, nonverbal child being given virtual-only services, which Chib called 'inappropriate.'
Parents have told her that IEPs are not being fully met, with students receiving services only partially fulfilling the plans' requirements, such as not getting the correct number or frequency of sessions.
A BCPS speech-language pathologist reached out through one of Chib's clients at the beginning of the year to ask her if she could advocate district-wide for them because of the caseload problem, she said.
'SLPs are leaving the school-based practices because their caseloads are so big, and they have a lot of success opening private practices,' Chib said.
For many speech-language pathologists, private practice offers smaller caseloads without the time and stress expended to complete required IEP documentation and meetings.
Samara Shalom, owner of Pikesville private speech-language pathology practice Speech Leap and a speech-language pathologist for more than 10 years, said she has many clients who receive services from Baltimore County Public Schools but still seek help from private practitioners.
'It's the IEPs. More than anything else, the write-up process and then also the burden of the caseload,' Shalom said of what mainly drives providers into the private sector. The average caseload for a full-time speech-language pathologist in her practice was about 28, she said.
In private practice, speech-language pathologists can address students' needs more holistically, including those needs not provided for in students' IEPs because they don't affect them in school, she said.
Some parents also seek out private services for their children because they no longer want to deal with the constraints of the school system, according to Shalom.
'Parents are also just sometimes tired of fighting the IEP battle because it's a lot,' Shalom said. 'It's not coming from the therapist, it's coming from outside. But the parents [are] still very challenged trying to advocate for their kid getting the services they need.'
Superintendent Myriam Rogers said last month at a news conference that the district is continuing to hire speech-language pathologists, with no cuts planned for them in the current or upcoming fiscal year.
To respond to their concerns earlier this school year, Rogers said the district assembled a group of speech-language pathologists, their union representatives and special education leadership from the school system. The group, which has met almost monthly, helped decide whether a student gets a virtual or in-person speech-language pathologist, according to the superintendent.
'As a result of this collaborative work, the SLP workload plan for FY26 has a differentiated model for schools with regional programs and schools that do not. This results in increased allocation to buildings which in turn reduces the workload for the assigned providers,' district spokesperson Gboyinde Onijala said in an email Friday.
Students getting virtual services also have a live facilitator with them, Rogers said.
'When we look at compliance due to assessments, we don't see where … assessments from speech and language pathologists are causing us to be unable to move forward with implementing individualized education plans for our students,' Rogers said.
'All of what I'm sharing with you does in no way [negate] the fact that speech and language pathologists are feeling that there is a whole lot of work to do. We certainly recognize that, which is why we stood up this group to collaborate.'
Speech-language pathologists could have follow-up meetings after receiving their assignments for next year to address any concerns, Rogers said. Only about 40 out of over 200 took those meetings, she said.
'BCPS has 122.7 positions for school based SLP services. We continue to supplement BCPS providers with contractual providers as needed and employ both full time and part providers,' Onijala said.
'School-based allocations are calculated based on direct and indirect service needs of students, we also include the need for planning time, assessment, IEP team, and lunch.'
Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@ 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.
