News & Press
SAN FRANCISCO, January 14, 2014 – To provide school districts across south central Pennsylvania consistent access to high-quality online speech and occupational therapy services, the Capital Area Intermediate Unit (IU) has partnered with PresenceLearning, the leader in live online speech therapy services for K-12 students. The new partnership grants the Capital Area IU’s 24 districts access to PresenceLearning’s award-winning online therapy services to battle the persistent shortages of speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists and bring needed services to students.
The Capital Area IU, a Pennsylvania regional educational service agency, provides a wide variety of services to its districts in Cumberland, Dauphin, Perry, and northern York counties. By pre-vetting and negotiating technology services, like PresenceLearning, Capital Area IU helps districts meet student needs despite staffing shortages. So far, approximately 60 students are receiving online speech therapy services for the 2013-2014 school year.
To implement the services within their districts, the districts’ Special Education administrators must identify students needing services and register them with the Capital Area IU. Districts can register students in groups at the beginning of the school year or individually throughout the year as necessary. In addition to delivering online therapy services, PresenceLearning can provide speech-language pathology assessments (initial, triennial and dismissal) online as well as write Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and manage student cases.
“We keep high-quality and low-cost in mind for the services we offer,” said Mark Hennes, special projects supervisor at the Capital Area IU. “By implementing PresenceLearning’s therapy through our IU, districts will have access to much-needed services that have been vetted for quality and price. We hope that other IUs will see how feasible online therapy is to implement and spread awareness about its value to districts statewide.”
Since 2009, PresenceLearning’s online speech therapy services have provided schools with a practical, affordable new option for service delivery: web-based access to a nationwide network of live, highly qualified, fully licensed speech-language pathologists who are available whenever and wherever they are needed. In 2012, PresenceLearning added online assessments and occupational therapy (OT) to their service offering. By partnering with PresenceLearning, school districts can fill staffing gaps related to acute and chronic speech language pathologists (SLP) and occupational therapist (OT) shortages, reduce high caseloads for onsite personnel, improve student outcomes and become more efficient. PresenceLearning can provide access to technical specialists, as well as culturally and linguistically diverse speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists.
PresenceLearning has delivered 250,000 live online therapy sessions in public, charter and virtual school districts of all sizes nationwide.
About PresenceLearning
PresenceLearning (www.presencelearning.com) is the leading telehealth network of providers of clinical services and assessments to educational organizations. The PresenceLearning care network has provided over one million sessions of live, online speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral interventions and mental health services, diagnostic services and assessments, and early childhood services for children with special needs.
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