DeKalb School District 428 making strides to shore up speech language pathologist shortage

DeKALB – Being unable to communicate how you feel or what you want can present its own challenges for children trying to make their way in the world, and even more so in the classroom, where early learning is paramount.

In DeKalb schools, educators are working to ensure students’ needs are met even as staffing shortages for those with a specific skill – speech language pathologists – compound the problem.

Shortages for the special field, sometimes known as speech therapists or SLPs, plague school districts both federally and regionally. Officials said DeKalb schools are seeing some progress at the local level, however.

“Despite a national shortage of SLPs, D-428 has been able to minimize the staffing shortage impact on our students by providing creative solutions, including contracting additional in-person SLPs as well as SLPs who can provide services virtually,” said Kyle Gerdes, the district’s director of student services. “Looking ahead to the ‘24-’25 school year, at this time, we continue to have open positions. With that said, we’ve had success with hiring SLPs who previously worked as an intern in D-428. This pipeline has enabled us to fill a couple of positions, and we will continue to explore all options.”

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The district was staffed with 16 speech language pathologists this past school year, officials said. In the coming school year, the district plans to add one additional position to better meet students’ needs, bringing the total to 17.

District 428 typically employs a combination of contracted services, full-time staff and graduate students to address students’ speech-language needs.

I truly believe that until you are unable to speak the way you want to speak or use the words, the language that you want to use, it is impossible for us to realize how challenging that can make a person’s life.”

—  Kortney Flowers, speech language pathologist at Huntley Middle School

Gerdes said he believes the district is well-positioned in staffing to meet students’ needs come the start of classes in the fall.

“Looking forward, I feel like we’re in a much better position actually right now for next fall in terms of making sure we have our staffing levels as close to fully staffed as possible,” he said. “We recently, over the last couple weeks, were able to interview a couple of speech pathologists for full-time employment for next year. Those interviews went really well. We were able to make an offer, and they accepted. That’s what we’re trying to do. We want to bring in our own as much as possible.”

Kortney Flowers, a speech language pathologist at Huntley Middle School, said that as a professional, she feels supported by the district.

“The district has put in place some measures this year knowing what the shortage has been,” Flowers said. “It’s obviously talked about at school board meetings pretty often. They put in incentives, such as they pay for our national board, national organization certification. That was put in this contract. They are more than willing to support us with [augmented alternative communication] devices.”

Sarah Schneeman, a speech language pathologist at Cortland Elementary School, said there have been “growing pains,” but she feels supported more with every step the district takes to address the shortage in her specialty.

“We’ve had these employment shortages, where we just can’t fill to our quota for SLPs on our team,” Schneeman said. “I think the more that we’re hiring, the more we’re going to see a lift.”

Gerdes said the district generally strives to prioritize the hiring of SLPs rather than contracting out for services.

“Anytime we can hire somebody, as a district, they’re assigned to a building – whether it be one building or two – that provides such a more rich experience for not only that individual, because they become part of that school community,” Gerdes said. “Meaning that they walk in there every day to do a job, but they’re making connections with staff, with students, with families. They’re making connections with our community, whether they grew up here or not. I think those are those things that sometimes are so impactful to a school, climate and culture that when we can hire our own and bring them in, that is the true benefit.”

But Gerdes acknowledged that while there may be some upside to contracting out for speech language services, there also is a downside.

“Contracted services, again, it depends,” Gerdes said. “A teletherapist really doesn’t have the opportunity to walk through a school and feel what a school looks like and build some of those connections organically. But they are able to provide direct services to students. They are able to meet [Individualized Education Plan] minutes and do assessments. They’re still able to help us with parts of the job that are essential. Sometimes what we lose, though, is that connectedness to a unit district, and I think that sometimes doesn’t get talked about enough because it’s pretty powerful.”

Gerdes heaped praise on the district’s more experienced speech language pathologists and their willingness to supervise not only graduate students but first-year pathologists.

“Their willingness to do that, and put in a lot of time and energy, and invest in those graduate students is also a huge recruiting tool for us,” he said. “We’re also really lucky to have, again, [Northern Illinois University] as our neighbor, and we have a really good partnership with them. Students at NIU are able to get great experience in our district while they learn their craft.”

Gerdes said students and their families tend to share nice things about the speech and language services that are offered in DeKalb schools.

“I think, in general ... when we’re fully staffed, we’re able to provide the services,” Gerdes said. “They do a great job. They’re really communicative, really responsive to student need but also, of course, parents and guardians. Our biggest issue this past year has been not having the people to be able to provide those direct services on a consistent basis. I would say that’s been our struggle. But I think the service that we provide for speech and language for our students is well-received and thought very highly of by the clients.”

Schneeman shared that sentiment.

“I try to keep an open line of communication with students and families,” Schneeman said of her own students. “We meet every year to go over the [Individualized Education Plan] for updated goals and progress, and then families get progress reports for us every end of trimester. … That gives an opening, I guess, for the families to ask questions at points in time.”

Flowers said that despite challenges prompted by the speech language pathologist shortage, she remains fulfilled by her profession.

“I truly … enjoy supporting communication,” Flowers said. “I truly believe that until you are unable to speak the way you want to speak or use the words, the language that you want to use, it is impossible for us to realize how challenging that can make a person’s life. I very much enjoy being a part of that and supporting students. I especially like working with secondary [education students]. I do enjoy the relationships with middle and high school students. So I think that that’s been really powerful for me.”