2008 Arizona Speech-Language Pathologists Report

Summary

On May 23, 2008 a meeting was convened to address solutions to the shortage of speech-language pathologists in Arizona’s schools. The meeting was hosted by the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at Arizona State University, in collaboration with the Arizona Department of Education, Division of Exceptional Services, and was held at ASU's innovative, state-of-the-art Decision Theater. All major stakeholders, including special education directors, Arizona certification and licensing agencies, state lawmakers, school district representatives, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, the Arizona Department of Education, the Arizona Speech-Language-Hearing Association, parent representatives and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) were present to review data and to develop a plan to address the problem.

Below are the documents that represent the product of the meeting. Brief descriptions of each document follow the download links.

Documents

• Summary Report of the May 23, 2008 meeting
• ASHA Presentation

Janet Deppe, director of state advocacy with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association compiled this handout with information regarding the shortage of speech-language pathologists, challenges to meeting that shortage and solutions being implemented by a variety of states across the country.

• Arizona Department of Education Certification History for Speech-Language

This document, put together by Laurie Flitner, describes the changes in certification requirements for speech-language pathologists working in the schools over the past 30 years. The challenges that we face now have been around for awhile.

• Arizona Department of Education Certification Highlights pre- and post-January 2007

This chart highlights changes in Arizona Department of Education certification requirements for speech-language pathologists before and after Jan. 1, 2007.

• Speech-Language Pathology Assistants Information

Information gathered by Amy Heck to identify the issues in training, supervision and use of speech-language pathology assistants in Arizona schools.

• Speech-Language Technicians Certificate Recommendations 2005

This document outlines the suggestions for requirements for certification of speech-language technicians recommended by a committee to the Arizona Department of Education in September 2005. The restrictions in scope of practice and requirements for supervision of speech-language technicians were not adopted by the Arizona Department of Education in the end.

• Workforce Update for Speech-Language Pathologists 2006

This report by the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association outlines the national and state-level demand projections for speech-language pathologists.

• ASHA Guidelines Speech-Language Pathology Assistants
• ASHA Supervision Speech-Language Pathology Assistants
• Speech-Language Pathology Assistants KS2002 ASHA

These documents describe the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association's guidelines for training, use and supervision of speech-language pathology assistants.

• Ohio Addresses Shortage

This article appeared in the ASHA Leader (May 2008) and describes the strategies and solutions Ohio has developed to address the shortage of speech-language pathologists in the public schools in Arizona.

• Speech-Language Pathologist Shortage LSHSS 2007

This study addressed the issues regarding recruitment and retention of speech-language pathologists in public school settings.