In my state, all school based SLPs also hold a CT certification as a speech language pathologist in addition to their department of health license. In this state all school based therapists are on the teacher contract. Some districts do pay an extra for passing the licensing test (because it’s like the national teacher certification exam), but most don’t.
The SLPs progress through the salary schedule the same way as other teaching staff.
Exceptions…I did long term substitute work after I retired and was paid an hourly rate. I was not on the teachers contract.
Some districts are trying to move to hiring SLPs as contract workers, but there has been a lot of push back here about that.
The school based SLPs I know are happy to be on that district contract, and become members of the teachers union…good job protections, liability insurance, health insurance, sick and personal day times, are a couple of things in addition to the regular benefits offered to district teaching staff.
In my district SLPs are in the teacher’s union and have the same contract as teachers. We get a step raise plus a raise that is negotiated (ie $1500 step raise + negotiated raise which is typically about 3.5%). SLPs also get additional pay if they choose to do summer services (about 2-3 weeks in July).
I believe the top step is 19 which means no more step raises, but you still get the negotiated raise along with another sum of money for longevity.
In my district SLPs cannot be contractors because we are case managers.
We have excellent benefits, at least right now.
Many districts are financially strapped due to federal budget cuts, increased costs for health insurance (more than what was budgeted for), lots of new affordable housing which does not always bring in tax dollars, etc.
We do. I was based in California, so our salaries started typically higher, but it is based on the teachers’ contract in the schools and # of units after the bachelors. We all had masters degrees so there was a separate category for us on the salary scale.
After I married, I switched over to my husband‘s insurance, because they were pretty good, but I still got to participate in our state based program (State Teachers Retirement System) which had great financial incentives.
I went to an agency after working for the schools for a while because I could pick and choose my hours and I had young children at that time, with lots of pediatric medical appointments.
The schools out here are desperate for Speech Pathologists, so the hours and the caseloads are/were huge. The schools pay high rates for us from the agencies. The agencies limit the amount of hours we overwork.
Our bosses at the agencies didn’t want to lose us, so they tried to balance out the caseloads. If we had a need for two therapists, at one school because the caseload was out of control, the agency usually placed 2 ½ therapists at that school.
The trick with working at an agency here is that you also need to be medically state licensed. That requires extra schooling and it requires multiple tests, plus experience in, at least, two clinical settings. The reason for that was sometimes the agency would have calls for filling in at the hospitals or clinics.
I like that our agency took care of us really well. My last salary was at about $90 an hour, but it was based on my experience and my foreign language proficiency. I also had my own insurance through my husband.
A number of my coworkers, at the agency, had spouses in the military so they liked the higher salaries because they got their benefits through their spouses’ insurance and good salaries.
The schools do have very good benefits. In California the state teachers retirement system is very strong. Our financial planner even said that he was amazed at the benefits that I got through the state teachers system. I haven’t touched those benefits yet because our financial planner wants me to keep growing interest on the accounts.
My D22 was accepted into eight SLP programs, and now she’s panicking as she tries to choose one, lol. I would welcome any insight anyone would like to share. She’s deciding among:
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
UT Dallas
South Carolina
Delaware
Memphis
UVA
Georgia State (in-state for us)
Of those, UT Dallas offered her in-state tuition plus a small stipend, and South Carolina also offered her in-state tuition plus a stipend for working 10 hours a week in the aphasia lab. Caveat with South Carolina is she’d have to start on May 26 in person (she graduates May 9, and her sister graduates May 23) – plus they want an answer by March 15 (everyone else says April 15). Georgia State would obviously be the cheapest and most convenient, plus it’s a great diverse program with a lot of opportunities for clinical placements in Atlanta.
Vandy and Northwestern are the top ranked programs and seem desirable – but with Northwestern, she’d also have to do summer start (online, though, I think?) for the leveling courses. Still waiting to hear about any funding from either of them, as they’re three or four times the cost of in-state tuition. Vandy said they’d have funding offers out by April 1.
She is leaning away from a medical path and more toward school-based, although she is not totally sure. She did shadow in a NICU with preemies who had swallowing issues – and that was not for her (she’s really interested in language). But she also shadowed in her brother’s SLP session in high school just last year, and then sat in on the rest of the sessions that day, and she enjoyed that a lot.
We’ve been told repeatedly to pick the cheapest ASHA-accredited program possible because student loans on an SLP’s salary are not fun. But she is lucky that she will not need loans no matter what program she picks. (In a stroke of good luck, her younger sister will likely only be using half of her 529 for college, so we could transfer the rest to D22 for grad school.)
In looking at this list of schools, do you think she would have any obvious advantages in getting jobs if she went to the “elite” names like Vandy or Northwestern? Are there other names that jump out at you, or are you familiar with any specifics at these programs? Do you have any other insight or advice about how to choose if cost is not a primary limitation?
(There was a professor she really wanted to work with at South Carolina, but sadly he just left to go to Chapman.)
My opinion…no. I very much wanted to go to Northwestern for my masters degree, but the costs were WAYYYYY above what I could afford. I went to Western Illinois University, and never had any difficulty finding a job (I’m retired and I still get calls to work). I followed the money (WIU paid me to get my masters).
The ASHA accreditation is what is important. She has wonderful options. I think this boils down to a…where does she want to live.
If she wants to do school based SLP work, she will most likely need state board of education certification in addition to her license (check that where you are…that’s the case in the region where I live). It’s easiest to fulfill the state board of ed requirements in the state where you plan to work.
Congratulations to her. She has terrific options…and it sounds to me like the one that works best for her would be the choice.
Getting a job depends on networking, where you are planning to live, recommendations, externship experiences (are they hiring, do they know who is hiring, etc), interview skills etc.
(I get calls/ emails every single day. I keep telling these managers that I’m retired.)
She needs to go to a state where she plans to work because she’ll be getting her credentials and licenses from that state.
FYI: California has extremely strict credential and licensing demands of interstate transfers.
So if she wants to ever work here, her paperwork is going to be tough.
I was working with an agency, and my placement was at a rural county school, where a colleague had begged me, to help her colleague out.
I worked there for 6 months and was returning in early August, with my supplies, and was told by the secretary that I was no longer contracted to them.
I immediately called my agency and they were shocked because that district had signed my paperwork two weeks earlier! My agency had already placed the school personnel for the year, and were going to send me to a hospital placement.
They knew I needed a school schedule for my children’s schedules, so I began emailing colleagues. I got a call within 5 minutes.
An agency friend had a full placement available the next day. I faxed my résumé. Sent him copies of my state medical license numbers, my ASHA number and CCC.
He called me an hour later and asked me about my situation. Asked quickly about what I wanted, and met me at the new school two hours later. He hired me and told me that he would help me unload my supply crates. I started the next morning.
I contacted my previous agency and told them that I was hired by a school. They apologized for not knowing that the other district had “shafted” me.
My boss recognized that I had been placed in a situation that was not of my own doing. She said that she would be sending me a “compensatory” check since they were going to demand compensation from the school district for breach of contract. She said I was an exceptional employee and that I was welcome back anytime.
Long story short, I was employed within a day of losing a job.
FWIW: the people in this profession are largely a sisterhood (brotherhood/pronoun correct too!).
When I attended conferences alone, I always had people to eat with and share conference notes, rides to airports, and commiserate about difficult cases. Everyone makes friends easily and helps each other whenever there is a need.
Well a final wrap up. First I want to thank everyone that has helped me during my daughter’s journey. I especially want to thank @thumper1 for her knowledge and lending an ear and friendship over these year’s.
So my daughter graduates mid June. She passed her boards etc with flying colors. She has a 1-year Clinical Fellowship position in a multispecialty outpatient Pediatric clinic. They will allow her to bring some special training she has to the clinic since the others there don’t perform it (don’t ask what it is lol). She’s presenting case studies from an ongoing research project next week at a conference. She’s on a panel discussion.
So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. She did an internship where she got her job so the on boarding should be quick. She’s excited to get started.
Congratulations to your daughter! It must be so gratifying to see her do so well and move forward into such a fulfilling career.
Mine will be starting this fall in Vandy’s SLP program! She is an out-of-field applicant, so she’ll be going six straight semesters (fall, spring, summer, fall, spring, summer). I hope to come back here end of summer 2028 and report equally happy news.
Congratulations to you as well. I think we discussed but my daughter had to do a Post Bac first then her SLP schooling. It’s a ride but looking back goes quick. It’s very exciting to see she’s presenting at an Asphasiology conference. We both lecture (different fields) and it’s very rewarding. Her school, Portland State University, is very well represented in the 3 day conference. It seems to be all research based. She just found out she’s meeting the mentor that started the theory of what they are presenting. (don’t ask since I can’t explain it )…… We go up in two week’s for graduation .
My own dealings with Speech Pathologists involve children with chew and swallow difficulties and someone doing modified barium swallow studies to assess aspiration risk. I know it’s an overlap between SP and OT, but at least places I’m at, SP does them all.
My daughter shadowed an SLP in the hospital (NICU? PICU?) who was working with preemies with swallowing/feeding issues. She found it fascinating but acknowledged it wasn’t something she wanted to pursue.
I imagine she’ll learn about it in school, though – I think ASHA requires SLP students learn about every area in order to pass their certification exams?
Sort of. She will learn about many different communication and related disorders. This does not mean that she will be able to actually do some of these types of therapy without significant additional training.
For feeding and swallowing, this takes very specific expertise, and experience. While I did some of this work, I also had some advanced work with a very experienced SLP in this area, and I always worked in concert with the OT at my school who also had extensive training in this area.
Swallowing disorders is one area (of many) that SLPs can work with, often along with other medical specialists. Dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) is not typically learned about in class, although it is very possible that it is embedded within another course. Just to be sure, I looked back at my own graduate program.
Training is necessary in all areas of speech and language, but swallowing is an area that can be dangerous to the patient if somebody is not properly trained. Therapists in a school clinic do not do swallowing therapy, and touching on it in a course is not sufficient. This is really something that one learns at their job or externship, and needs to learn very well…often along with other specialists.
Beyond the basics (ie anatomy and physiology, ethical issues etc) I cannot imagine that it would be on a certification exam. I have not heard of certification exams in recent years with swallow studies to analyze, make recommendations for, etc. That is really something that is learned at a job.
)…… We go up in two week’s for graduation 
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