Short of staff, Michigan schools try virtual speech therapy for special ed

Michigan school districts are using virtual speech language pathologists and social workers
District leaders acknowledge in-person is preferable but cite supply and demand forces
It’s unclear just how common this practice is

On any given school day in Eastpointe, a student in special education may be working on speech skills with someone on a screen.

The student is receiving one-on-one support from a virtual speech pathologist. It’s two-on-one support if you count the paraprofessional there to escort the child, supervise them and sometimes help with exercises.

Eastpointe Community Schools Superintendent Christina A. Gibson has four virtual speech pathology providers and two in-person providers to help 149 students with speech services, including 37 pre-K students.

In a perfect world, she would prefer to have all in-person speech professionals. “This is not an ideal situation,” Gibson told Bridge. “I think the best speech services are delivered face-to-face.”

Competition for speech teachers is fierce, and demand is outpacing supply, said Gibson.

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“Because the demand is there all over the country, speech pathologists can work wherever they want to,” Gibson said. “And districts don’t have choices. Our first priority is always to be compliant and to provide services to students.”

Couple that with a growing student need for speech services and you get vacancies. Some of those vacancies get filled by virtual therapists.

As of Friday, Optimise, a statewide special education talent task force, listed 253 job openings for speech pathologists to work in Michigan’s public schools.

‘Temporary’ solution for broader problem

In Ann Arbor, Dicken Elementary is using a virtual speech therapist after an in-person therapist resigned recently.

Andrew Cluley, an Ann Arbor Public Schools spokesperson, said the move is “temporary” and does not change students’ goals in their individualized education programs (IEPs), how often or how much speech service a student receives.

“Our intent is to ensure continuity of services during staffing shortages rather than allowing gaps in support for 27 Dicken students.”

Cluley said all speech languages services, regardless of if they are in-person or virtual, are being provided by Michigan-licensed speech language pathologists.

Ann Arbor Education Association President Fred Klein said the transition to virtual speech is a “Band-Aid, stop gap measure.”

He said he’s hopeful the district will be able to hire an in-person speech therapist but he said compensation remains a challenge in the district.

The union is negotiating a new contract with the district. More broadly, many have argued for an increase in teacher compensation to help attract and retain teachers.

Michigan ranks 44th nationwide in starting salaries, $41,645, while the average teacher pay of $69,067 ranks 19th among states, according to an analysis from the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) at Michigan State University.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear just how common virtual staffing is for special education.

Districts report job vacancy information to the state, but the Michigan Department of Education said it does not know how many special education positions are being filled by virtual contractors or employees.

MDE declined to say whether the department believes speech services should be offered in-person.

“Those types of decisions are made through an IEP developed at the local level based on the specific needs of each student,” said MDE spokesperson Bob Wheaton.

There are 215,449 students with Individualized Education Programs during the current school year, an increase of 1.8% than the previous school year.

“Whenever you’re doing any type of virtual services, you should be communicating with the family,” said Tina Lawson, vice president of the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education.

“They should have a clear understanding of what is taking place. Whether that’s through an (individualized education program) discussion, or a direct phone call or some form of letter communication with the family to make sure that they understand the participation of it.”

Michigan special education teaching positions have a higher vacancy rate than other fields, according to a different analysis from EPIC.

“It’s not just vacancies, it’s also turnover,” said Tara Kilbride, associate director of EPIC, who researches the teacher workforce. “And turnover during the school year, especially, is higher in special education than other areas.”

‘Human relationships’

While virtual workers can help students individually, educators acknowledge there are some aspects that aren’t possible with someone on a screen. For example, they can’t just hop into a classroom to help a teacher out if a specific student is having a behavioral concern or needs some time to cool off.

In Potterville, the middle and high school uses a virtual social worker. Special education teacher Samantha Jean said the social worker is “amazing,” and attends IEP meetings, meets one-on-one with Jean and has helped students meet their goals.

“But then on the flip side of that is, you have those kids that really thrive on those human relationships. So I have had one student(s’) family say ‘until we have in-person, this just doesn’t benefit him. He sits there, refuses to talk.”

In response, Jean said she helps the student with his social skills.

“We have to figure out a way to give those kids the services they need,” Jean said.

Kilbride, the workforce researcher, said it’s important to consider tradeoffs.

“If the alternative is not having anyone at all, that’s obviously worse than having the virtual service provider,” Kilbride said. “If the alternative is having your existing staff spread thin or having higher caseloads, harder workloads among the special education service providers, that can also be a problem.”

Lawson, also the director of special education at Berrien RESA, said her intermediate district “would prefer in-person. It’s definitely much more beneficial for students to have that one-to-one in-person provision of services.”

Last spring, LaKesha Welch started the process of enrolling her son for first grade at Eastpointe. Welch said her son has autism and is nonverbal and hyperactive. Her son had already benefited from applied behavioral analysis therapy, and Welch hoped her son could become more independent in traditional public school. But she learned his speech services would be virtual, which Welch said she couldn’t “see that being a workable solution for my son.”

Ultimately, Welch chose for her son to enroll in L’Anse Creuse Schools, another Macomb County district.

Solutions for special education

Administrators acknowledged state efforts to increase the number of teachers and other roles that support students with disabilities.

Still, they say more should be done.

Jean wants districts and the state to ensure social workers who have never been in an education setting before have training on classroom management, verbal de-escalation skills and mandated reporting.

“Man, if I had that magic wand, it would be putting those people in those positions with the correct training behind it,” Jean said.

Gibson, of Eastpointe, said she continues to work with her local union to see if the district can provide financial incentives for hard-to-staff positions.

She also wants the state to change rules so that paraprofessionals can directly provide speech services with the guidance of speech therapists.

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