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Does your school require you to squeeze make-up sessions into an already full schedule? Try these suggestions.
In many school districts and for many years, speech-language pathologists have had to make up some or all missed student sessions themselves, without any coverage from a substitute. In some states or districts, policies require that sessions be made up by adding more students to groups, extending sessions by a few minutes or scheduling extra sessions, all of which place full responsibility and extra time on the SLP's already busy schedule.
ASHA staffworked with the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) staffto generate guidance on this topic. In March 2007, OSEP distributed a document on the issue (on.asha.org/ideamissed-sessions) It states:
We encourage public agencies to consider the impact of a provider's absence or a child's absence on the child's progress and performance and to determine how to ensure the continuation provision of Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in order for the child to continue to progress and meeting the annual goals in his or her IEP. Whether an interruption in services constitutes a denial of FAPE is an individual determination that must be made on a case-by-case basis.
Although this information provides some...