christy weddington, m.s. ccc-slp tsha co-chair for tot committee
TRANSCRIPT
TSHA Eligibility Guidelines
Where Are We Now?
Christy Weddington, M.S. CCC-SLPTSHA Co-Chair for TOT Committee
The TOT Committee has changed the name of
Templates to “Guidelines”
The eligibility templates were originally developed to be a ‘template’ for districts to use to determine eligibility for communication disorders
As manuals developed and evolved for each template, the term ‘guidelines’ was more appropriate to describe the purpose of the manuals
Templates to Guidelines
To help guide districts to accurately identify
children with communication disorders according to federal and state regulations as well as best practices
To provide consistency across the state, between districts, and within districts
To help districts that are over-identified in Speech by TEA
Purpose of Guidelines
Generic Manual Articulation CLD Articulation Companion Voice Fluency Language Only Language with Learning Disabilities Language with Mental Retardation & Autism
GuidelinesDeveloped
Development of CLD Language Companion
Split MR & AU into two separate companion manuals to language
Update all manuals to align with Generic Manual format
All manuals are going through Professional Editing Generic, Articulation, and Language with LD are
completed
Manuals in Progress
Legal changes with IDEA and State Commissioner’s Rules
Concerns that people would misuse or misinterpret the manuals without proper training
University graduates don’t have the training as they enter the public school workforce
Districts are not willing to pay participants to attend face to face trainings due to budget crisis and current economy
Volunteer’s time
Challenges Faced
Trainings continue to be provided at Region
Service Centers, TSHA Convention, and Individual Districts across Texas However, face to face trainings are rapidly
decreasing and TSHA is looking at alternative ways to provide training
TOT is in process of collaborating with ESC’s to develop online training webinars and access to manuals
Trainings
Too many SLPs are using the standard scores (77) and
percentile ranks (7th) as ‘cut off’ scores for determining a disorder SLPs need to look at the ‘big picture’ when determining
a disorder that includes other sources of information or additional assessment in areas of concern according to the guidelines and federal law!
Confusion among other professionals between the Language Only manual looking at 1 ½ standard deviations as a concern and Language with Learning Disabilities looking at 1 SD
Concerns Reported
Manuals were developed to ‘guide’ districts in
determining eligibility. Districts still have the ‘legal right’ to set their own guidelines.
TEA has not and will not ‘approve’ these guidelines. However, the TSHA/TCASE Joint Committee works closely with TEA to provide information about the manuals and their positive impact on schools
Manual Reminders
The TOT Committee is committed to providing
online trainings and electronic copies of the manuals to SLPs in Texas
As the laws change and best practices improve, the manuals will continue to be updated
New Task Force has been created to help districts over-identified in speech Training in manuals will be provided & data collected
More to come!
The Generic Manual is available on the TSHA
website at www.txsha.org Click on School Issues & Eligibility Guidelines Lead Trainers & Trainers are also listed for each region
and manual
Jan Lougeay – VP for Research and Development [email protected] Christy Weddington – TOT Committee Co-Chair [email protected]
Links & Contacts
Questions/Comments