Scheduling Tips for the Beginning of School

At the beginning of every school year there is a dreaded task that speech language pathologists must face - scheduling. In the schools, an SLP must consider a lot of other people's schedules when they make their schedule. We must take into account RTI (Response to Intervention) schedules, special areas (PE, art, music, library), recess, lunch, academic instruction, special education inclusion and resource time and so much more that changes from grade to grade.

Here's what I have found to work over the years. I ask the office for a master list of all the students and search for my students. Then I send a letter to each teacher who has my students in their classroom. In this letter, I introduce myself to them, give them my email address, and then ask them for 2 blocks of time in the morning and 2 blocks of time in the afternoon that I could pull a student from their classroom. I ask for them to make the block of time the amount of time my session is (ex: 20 min). I ask for this letter to be returned to me by the end of the first week. It's pretty hectic in the classroom those first few days so I don't want to add to the stress by asking for something to be turned in the next day. I have also found that having the teachers have some say in when a student gets pulled from their classroom makes them more willing to work with therapists.

After this, I make a spreadsheet with each grade level's schedule (lunch, recess, specials times, RTI times, etc.) so I know not to pull from those times. I list the teacher's name and the students' names underneath them along with the times that the teacher gives me that I can pull those students. This cheat-sheet makes it easy to see at a glance the times that kids are and aren't available so you can quickly rearrange if needed. This spreadsheet is also useful if a student ever needs to move times or you need to get them earlier as you can quickly glance at your spreadsheet and see who you can pull during that time period.

I usually start with the older kids (4th grade and up) as I know they have a lot of important academic content to cover, and I don't like for them to miss too much academic instruction. So I plug their times into a tentative schedule first. Then I will go grade by grade. I usually plug in the kids who have higher numbers of visits that I must meet before those with a lower number of visits. I put their visits at the beginning of the week so I can still have time to do a make-up visit if they are absent or something unforeseen should happen by the end of the week.

Lastly, as much as I wish I could tell you that when you make a schedule it will never change....it will. It will change throughout the year as you get new students, as students get dismissed or move. Sometimes changes also happen in the master schedule, too. However, with all the things you have set up at the beginning of the year, you will be ready to tackle any changes that come your way. Best of luck!

Katelynn Gibson, M.S., CCC-SLP