Hi Debra,
I am so sorry to hear that. I know that it is a very sad reality in our profession these days. Caseloads are soaring to numbers which make doing effective therapy as well as case managing very difficult. Have you looked at approaching your teacher’s union with your concerns? I read a very helpful article about an SLP who was able to gain the support of the teacher’s union at her school in order to help her approach her district regarding her extremely high caseload. I’ll try to find that! I know ASHA recommends a caseload of 40 students and in some cases 25 students!
If anyone out there has some information on how to appeal to school districts, special education directors, teacher’s unions, etc. in order to bring reform to excessively high caseloads in the schools, please comment below and share what you have done or links to helpful articles. We need to advocate for our profession and do our best to maintain and provide high quality speech and language intervention to our students.
Thanks for being real with us, Debra.
Heather
Here is a great article from ASHA regarding “caseload” and “workload” for SLPs.
In the decade since ASHA recommended that school SLP caseloads not exceed 40 under any circumstances—with special populations and circumstances dictating a maximum caseload of 25 or less—(ASHA, 1984; 1993a), the average number of students on caseloads has remained significantly higher than these recommended caseload standards. Recent surveys indicate an average caseload size of 53; some members report caseloads as large as 110 (ASHA, 2000c).
In addition, recent data suggest that large caseloads have limited SLPs’ available service delivery options to providing almost exclusively direct intervention services to students (ASHA, 1991, 1995, 2000c, Chiang & Rylance, 2000). When the vast majority of the school day or week is filled with direct face-to-face services to students, many SLPs report that not enough time is left to adequately perform the many other activities and responsibilities required to meet the needs of students, implement best practices in school speech-language services, and be in compliance with federal, state, and local special education mandates. The impact of caseload size on student outcomes is one of the most important issues facing school-based SLPs, as administrators and decision makers attempt to balance the need for efficient use of staff resources with the desire to maximize student outcomes (ASHA, 2000b).
To read more go here http://www.asha.org/policy/GL2002-00066.htm