Live Online Speech Therapy Reduces Caseloads for Benton County School District Speech-Language Pathologists
PresenceLearning serving 60 students in grades 3 to 5 in Tennessee district
SAN FRANCISCO, January 29, 2013 – As part of a grant received for Assistive Technology, the Benton County Board of Education in Camden, Tennessee, has partnered with PresenceLearning, the leader in online speech therapy services for K-12 students, in the delivery of online speech and language services. The parameters of the grant call for Benton County to investigate new and innovative programs and then to share their findings with counties throughout Tennessee. Benton County is proud to say that the partnership with PresenceLearning has been very successful.
Benton County was excited to share this online speech and language opportunity with other counties that might be experiencing a lack of services due to budget cuts, a lack of certified speech-language pathologists (SLPs), maternity leaves, homebound children and any other 'hard to reach' place for speech delivery.
“Now our on-site SLPs work with small groups of students while the online SLPs conduct one-on-one sessions,” said Pam Chmelik, Director of Special Needs at Benton County School District. “This partnership has allowed school systems to become more innovative in the delivery of services and allows some counties to provide the extra services needed for their caseloads.”
To date, Benton County Schools has conducted training sessions in the state of TN and plans for several more this school year. This training was designed to inform districts of the options and opportunities to access these much-needed services in creative ways.
PresenceLearning offers innovative online speech therapy by providing access to a nationwide network of highly qualified, fully licensed speech-language pathologists who are available whenever and where ever they are needed. With PresenceLearning, school districts are able to address issues caused by high SLP caseloads, improve student outcomes and save money. PresenceLearning also offers access to technical speech-language specialists, culturally and linguistically diverse speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists.
PresenceLearning will conduct more than 120,000 live sessions during the 2012-2013 school year in public, charter and virtual school districts of all sizes nationwide.
About PresenceLearning
PresenceLearning (presencelearning.com) is the leading provider of live online speech therapy services for K-12 students. The company offers school districts web-based access to a growing, nationwide network of over 300 highly qualified speech language pathologists (SLPs) via live videoconferencing combined with the latest in evidence-based practices. PresenceLearning delivers significant cost savings while improving student outcomes. PresenceLearning is an ASHA-approved continuing education provider for SLPs and a U.S. Department of Education grant-winner, dedicated to bringing the highest clinical standards to online speech therapy.