Speech Pathologist

Responsibilities

• Affirms students' communication skills in areas such as articulation, fluency, voice, and language.
• Collaborates with various groups including parents, basic education teachers, administration, ESE teachers, district staffing specialists, school nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, school psychologists, social workers, and other district personnel and professionals.
• Coordinates and conducts meetings and processes for eligible students such as speech and language evaluations, Individual Education Plans (IEPs), parent conferences, problem-solving meetings, in-school staffings, ESE staffings, etc.
• Conducts speech and language reevaluations to assess present levels of performance and continued eligibility.
• Designs therapeutic strategies to modify communicative behavior in areas like articulation, fluency, voice, and language.
• Develops treatment plans, interventions, and educational materials to minimize the adverse impact of communication disorders in compliance with school, district, state, and federal regulations.
• Interprets medical reports within the scope of experience and goals to provide information and ensure appropriate treatment and intervention plans.
• Maintains confidentiality to protect students, staff, parents, and school.
• Maintains files and records such as speech and language working folders, ESE program files, IEP Accessibility Log, ESE TERMS reports, etc., to ensure availability of information as required.
• Prepares a wide variety of written materials including weekly therapy logs, parent/teacher/district personnel correspondence, annual IEPs, quarterly progress reports, treatment plans, speech and language evaluation reports, monthly consult logs, data entry forms, required documentation, etc.
• Prepares Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) annually for each student based on individually assessed needs in accordance with district, state, and federal guidelines.
• Schedules therapy using various service delivery models, including classroom intervention, consultation, and pull-out as appropriate to meet student needs in the least restrictive environment.
• Provides speech and language therapy to students to minimize the adverse impact of speech and language disorders on student educational success.
• Researches resources and methods such as intervention and treatment techniques, assessment tools and methods, community resources, etc., to determine the appropriate approach for addressing students' needs.
• Responds to inquiries from parents, teachers, staff, students, district personnel, etc., to provide information and referrals as appropriate.
• Coordinates use of quarterly ESE accommodation forms with basic education teachers to assist with documentation of ESE program accommodations in the basic education classroom.
• Conducts monthly speech and language consultation meetings with basic education teachers for progress monitoring of student goals.
• Organizes, schedules, coordinates, and conducts grade-wide health screenings with school nurse, medical personnel in the community, parent volunteers, and school office staff.
• Screens all ESE and gifted referral candidates for hearing loss.
• Provides speech and/or hearing screening tests for all students referred by the in-school staffing committee.
• Prepares initial and updated data entry forms for data entry personnel to reflect current services, exceptionality, and minutes of service.
• Develops a matrix of services for speech and language students.
• Participates in meetings, workshops, and seminars such as school-based staff development, district ESE training, IEPs, district speech meetings, etc., to convey and gather information.
• Furthers personal education via staff development and continuing education courses to stay current with the latest and best practices, and learn new theories and technologies.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or completion of the academic requirements of a doctoral program with a major emphasis in speech-language pathology (MA-CERT/CCC).
• Current Florida State Speech Language Pathologist license.
• 1 year professional employment experience.