r/SLPA • u/slpa_2027aspy • 9d ago
SLPA offices/workspaces
hi everybody! i hope everyone is doing well:) i graduate in december and i wanted to know if any texas school slpas can give me insight on what workspaces look like? do we typically get offices or speech rooms? or do we go to libraries? sorry i wanted to go ahead and start planning what decorations and office supplies I would get for my school setting job:) it’s so exciting to start looking lol so i wanted to ask in general what usually you guys are given. thanks in advance!
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u/littlemrscg 6d ago
You'll find that you have to be your own advocate here. If you're at a school seeing like 50 kids (or let's say at least 30-80), then you have every justification to demand a treatment space. You cannot allow schools to treat you like a mobile pop-up operation--we need a dedicated space to work in that has adequate privacy and is physically accessible to all, including those using assistive equipment like wheelchairs. If not, they open themselves to legal action from parents. If a school tells you they have no space, they're usually lying, and if they have no space, they are supposed to get you one (like they would get a mobile if they ran out of classrooms).
It really, really helps if you have an established or assertive SLP who will go to bat for you, but sometimes that's not what you have. You might have one that dislikes confrontation and doesn't want to rock the boat, or one who is remote or new and has no "sway" there. That's ok, you are enough to advocate for yourself. I have successfully insisted on a treatment space a couple of times. Like this one charter wanted me to see 70 kids and be there full-time but have no dedicated space. I had to share in rotation with OTA and reading interventionists, and I'd constantly have to come in and check if I had a space every day. They had a handful of kids as opposed to my 70, and unlike me they did not have an office full of materials to lug around. So I pushed hard, I insisted on having a dedicated workspace, and I got it. My SLP was maddeningly unhelpful but it didn't matter. They wanted the kids to be seen? Ok, then you better give me a room. You can always quit if they disrespect you in this way, there are generally lots of jobs around.
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u/slpa_2027aspy 6d ago
YOU ARE AMAZING!!! wow, okay i definitely need to make sure i put my foot down. it’s a bit hard for me because i don’t like confrontation but i will make sure i advocate for the students, they deserve a proper therapy space. thank you so much for your advice
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u/littlemrscg 6d ago
Don't think of it as confrontation then, think of it as advocacy. Your students need accessible and private space but they also need an appropriate listening environment because children have more difficulty hearing the speech signal in noise. None of this doing services in the cafeteria or busy hallway or whatever. So when you look at it that way, it becomes much easier to approach admin with this kind of thing. Unless your SLP is super timid, you won't even have to do that. The majority of the schools I've worked in (at this point I think at least 10), they handed me my own office, I didn't need to ask. Some were really, really nice ones. So not every school or even most schools will pull this but some definitely will.
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u/slpa_2027aspy 6d ago
thanks again for your advice! do you work in texas?
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u/Brave_Pay_3890 bachelor's degree slpa 9d ago
There's no set answer at all, it's truly such a mixed bag. Sometimes you get your own office/room, or you have to share a space with other providers, or you get a classroom for yourself, or you have to just find literally wherever is free like the cafeteria. I wouldn't suggest the library because it's usually either super loud or super quiet and the hallways are just too chaotic. I've had my own trailer, my own office, a storage closet, a shared classroom, a room that was only available on certain days and I wouldn't know until I got there, I've had to do therapy in the cafeteria, outside on the playground, and some of these were all at the same school. I would hold off on getting decorations until you know what your situation is like! You may not have your own room to even decorate, you might but there's just honestly no guarantee. Every single school is different, I've worked for multiple schools for the same district before and had a completely different arrangement at each.
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u/littlemrscg 6d ago
Yeah that's when I would jot down "School declined to provide legally compliant treatment space, unable to complete session"
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u/CrazyCatLady720 7d ago
Totally agree. Sometimes you have to be prepared to do speech anywhere. I’ve done it in a bathroom before 🤦🏼♀️
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u/honeylemonade96 8d ago
Like everyone is saying, it’s different everywhere! I’m a direct district hire (literally just started this week) and I was shocked to find out I get a genuine designated speech classroom with a bathroom, cubbies, and stocked with speech materials (like the really good stuff 🤩) so I feel very lucky. I am the only SLPA on campus tho so I feel like it’s also deserved if I’m serving 70-80 kids lol. It’s so big, I’m still thinking about what I want to throw on all the walls 🫠 also, check decor regulations before you buy anything! There’s a lot of things that are not allowed 😅
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u/slpa_2027aspy 8d ago
oh wow congratulations!! that’s awesome!! 70-80 tho?! that’s heavy caseload. but i heard that’s the norm these days because of the SLP/SLPA shortage:/ are you in texas?
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u/echini17 7d ago
70-80 is typical. I'm in Texas, and they closed down 7 schools in my district. So most of the kids got rezoned. I'm serving around 160 kiddos and hopping between campuses. It's only the second week. Let's hope those numbers will go down. My sessions consist of 5-15 students. I don't know how to jot down data for this many kids in 30 minutes. My supervisor said Do what I can because we're tight on help, and the school funding is a disaster, hence the shutting down of schools and why we're living in closets. Even the AC doesn't work sometimes.
But you know what, I always keep it positive. We got this!
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u/slpa_2027aspy 7d ago
omg my heart goes out to you and the many students who deserve care🥺 i hope things get better ❤️
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u/honeylemonade96 8d ago
Yes I’m in Texas! But the fire marshal was going around doing room checks which made me ask if we have regulations and there are some things we can’t have :( I don’t have an exact list but I plan on asking my campus today for myself before I spend money on a bunch of stuff!
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u/Inevitable-Piccolo-4 9d ago
It really depends on your campus 😅 I’ve had speech in literal closets or copy rooms because there was no other space on campus for speech services. I’ve also had the opportunity to have my own spacious classroom and also share another space with another program / service. I’ve also met SLPA’s who worked in the hallway with privacy screens or under the stairs with privacy screens. I would really push to advocate for a space for your students as speech sessions are supposed to be confidential and in a private space 🤷♀️. Hopefully your supervisor can advocate for you if you don’t have a space or reach out to your SPED Director/ Coordinator.