Online Speech Therapy Fills Needs for Fowler Unified School District

California district uses online speech therapy to provide services to 80 students

SAN FRANCISCO, September 4, 2012 – After having no applicants to fill their speech language pathologist (SLP) openings for an entire school year and lacking the funds to pay what other districts in the area were paying for SLPs, Fowler Unified School District (USD) turned to PresenceLearning, the leading provider of online speech therapy services to K-12 students. The district is using PresenceLearning to provide services to 80 students located at the six schools within the district.

The district delivers speech on each school’s "speech day" and utilizes a speech aid who assists with the program. “Students have expressed a lot of enjoyment with the online sessions and our parents are very impressed. We have some parents who log in live and see how excited their students are, which makes them excited! Since we began using PresenceLearning to provide speech therapy services to our students, we have seen a lot of interest from other districts, and the feedback from our students, parents and teachers has been great,” said Dustine Borges, Chief Psychologist and Director of Special Education for Fowler USD.

Fowler USD’s six schools serve more than 2,350 students in Fowler and Malaga, California. The rural district prides itself on providing staff and students with up-to-date technology in the classroom and features interactive boards for instruction, as well as high speed Internet access at all school locations.

“I was intrigued when I first heard about PresenceLearning a year ago,” said Eric Cederquist, Superintendent at Fowler USD. “I encouraged Dustine Borges, our Chief Psychologist and Director of Special Education, to see if they would be a good solution to solve our SLP shortage issues. PresenceLearning has turned out to be a great resource for our district.”

PresenceLearning is currently delivering more than 5,000 successful online speech therapy sessions a month. In the face of chronic speech language pathologist shortages, districts are capitalizing on the flexibility and benefits that PresenceLearning provides, while also seeing improved student outcomes.

"Students need communication skills to succeed in school and life. High caseloads have been shown to impede student progress in developing these foundational skills. PresenceLearning is helping districts in 25 states engage kids and balance SLP caseloads so kids make faster progress achieving their speech-language goals," said Clay Whitehead, PresenceLearning Co-CEO.

To learn more about PresenceLearning, visit www.presencelearning.com.

About PresenceLearning

PresenceLearning (www.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 nearly 200 highly qualified speech language pathologists (SLPs) via live videoconferencing using the latest in evidence-based practice. PresenceLearning delivers large 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.