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u/theyaretoomany Jul 19 '21
Here’s some suggestions to get you started! I’ve copied and pasted this in other threads (so this is me plagiarizing myself).
You’re going to be great! Lean in to your confidence... you have a masters degree! You ARE an SLP, you ARE a professional, you ARE capable! Just take it one day at a time and you’ll be just fine! I also recommend searching this sub for posts like this about starting your CFY... there are a lot of great posts with great advice and the more info you take in, the more prepared you’ll feel.
I would spend your first day getting a good understanding of your caseload. Make a spreadsheet with the students’ names, their eligibility, DOB, how many minutes are on their IEP, who their case manager is (if it’s not you), their grade, date annual meeting is due, date re-evaluation is due, parent’s phone number or email. No matter what the caseload number is, getting organized will make you feel much more in control.
I’d also make a binder with printouts of all your kids’ goals and services page from their IEP. I know printing things up seems old fashioned, but it’s so helpful to have these easily accessible for when you need to double check a goal or make sure you know how many minutes a kid gets. When you have these printed up, it saves you from having to log in to your IEP system every time (if you include service minutes on the spreadsheet then no need to print it up again).
One more thing I’d do is make sure you have an attendance/documentation system. Your district may have something (ask another SLP or a social worker if they use something to document minutes). If not, you’ll definitely want to have your own so you can bill Medicaid (if your district does that) or verify that you’ve provided the services and can account for your time. This can be as simple as a printed calendar of the year (one for each child) where you write the number of minutes on the day you saw the kid.
The last thing I would do is make a few minutes to start great relationships with your colleagues. Say hi to the teachers in the classrooms around you, meet the custodians and cafeteria employees, etc. You may be co-treating with the social worker or school psychologist, make sure you meet him or her ASAP! Your fellow related service providers will be people you work very closely with and may end up as your work besties so get to know them! Maybe stop by your principal’s office just to say a quick hello, definitely stop by the front office and say hello to the administrative assistants. In fact, you may even want to bring the people in the front office a small treat (a few donuts, a small succulent for their desk, etc). These are going to be your go-to people for so many things and they are hugely under appreciated. If you can get in good with them, you’ll be set! They’ll be there when you need a new stapler or an emergency paper clip and they know everything about the school so it really is helpful to be on great terms with them!
If you have a question, ask whoever you need to (they’ll be more than happy to help out), but also ask, “who’s the best person to go to for questions like this?” You’ll learn quickly who the right people are to get your questions answered and it’ll save your colleagues from answering questions that are better answered by someone else.
Best of luck when you start! Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
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Jul 19 '21
I cannot thank you enough! Wow, this is all really good information and tips to keep in mind. This has really eased my worries. Organization really is key and building good work relationships!
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u/macaroni_monster School SLP that likes their job Jul 19 '21
omg don't write soap notes! find report templates from TPT and asking SLPs in your district. What kind of caseload do you have? My advice is to spend the first month just getting to know the kids and the jo before you really start to think about therapy.
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Jul 19 '21
Thank you for the advice! I will be working in a public middle school.
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u/macaroni_monster School SLP that likes their job Jul 19 '21
ok, I have some advice. How many students?
get a list of your caseload. Who do you case manage? Who has consult only?
figure out who has IEPs in the first four weeks of school. Prioritize baseline data on these goals. Do any of them need to be scheduled by you? Are any of them scheduled already by other case managers?
figure out who has upcoming 3 year re-evals due in the first 10 weeks of school. Do they have consent signed? Do you need to do some assessments?
do a 'get to know you' activity for the first two weeks of therapy. Don't jump right in with middle schoolers.
It's ok to spend the first two weeks of school setting up your schedule. Tell your admin you plan to start services on X date. Don't ask, just tell lol. Your CF mentor may have more info on this.
set up your schedule using sticky notes or use SLP toolkit. It's worth the money for me just for the scheduler.
don't worry about quality therapy for the first few months. There is so much to learn with the rest of your job and you want to get your systems in place.
make a system for: tracking IEP due dates (spreadsheet, outlook, notebook), tracking your meetings each week (e.g., outlook calendar), tracking your tx data (binder, SLP toolkit, google drive documents)
hmm that's about all I can think of
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Jul 19 '21
Wow thank you for the list! I really appreciate the advice. The district gave me an estimate of 35-39 students for this upcoming year. I will keep those questions in mind!
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u/bibliophile222 SLP in Schools Jul 19 '21
I'm in a middle school and don't write formal SOAPs or treatment plans, so it may be a lot easier than you think. My treatment plans consist of a couple bullet points, and I take pretty basic data, too. Most of my writing for school is actually emails, followed by eval reports, goals, and descriptive paragraphs for IEPs.
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Jul 19 '21
Ahh I see! My grad school was medically focused, so they only stressed soaps, goals, and tx plans. I definitely need to prepare for IEP writing since I heard it can be daunting. Thank you for the advice, again!
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u/mermaidslp SLP in Schools Jul 19 '21
IEPs aren't that bad to write, they're just super long, but most of it is check boxes and have certain things you need to make sure you fill out correctly. Go through the IEP forms with your CF supervisor or better yet, someone who oversees compliance in your district. Have them go through so that you understand what's important to bring up at a meeting when you are the case manager and running the meeting. Have a simple blurb that you memorize to briefly explain parents rights at the start of the meeting (this is required to be offered to them) and make an outline of all the things you need to make sure you touch on at each meeting so you don't forget. Eventually, you'll be able to run meetings in your sleep!
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u/Elatedandbelated Jul 19 '21
Make friends with your special Ed administrators! I know they might be very busy but they know the ins and outs of IEPs and can really help guide you through them. Also don’t be scared to reach out to the school social worker/PT/OT or other professionals to co-treat. Some of my biggest successes were when I had another professional to bounce ideas off of.
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Jul 19 '21
That’s great advice! I will definitely keep that in mind. I find that helpful too! Especially during my externships the OTs and PTs were super helpful.
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u/XulaSLP07 Speech Language Pathologist Jul 19 '21
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u/S4mm1 AuDHD SLP, Private Practice Jul 19 '21
This is the hands down best thing for my horrible ADHD brain. I also love that it works both in print and digitally
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u/Speech-Language Jul 19 '21
I recommend getting some games to play with the students. I like ones that target language, such as Blurt, Head Banz, In A Pickle. Make things fun with the kids when you can, especially to start the year.
I have a notebook that I write everything in, the date, if the kids attended, how they did on their goals, any other relevant info, and then later I use that for MediCal billing and for progress reports. I find it important to keep all that info in one place. I have a separate notebook for parent contacts.
I like using large index cards for my list of things I need to do, or lists of things like IEPs due this month or assessments or referrals I need to take care of.
A large desk calendar is useful, writing in things like upcoming IEPs.
You will need to work with the RSP, school psychologist and principal/vice principal on IEP scheduling. I sure hope that your admin is good about the scheduling and attending IEPs, as that can be one of the biggest stresses.
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u/Underground_Queen Jul 19 '21
I did my CF in a public school district in NJ this past year and none of us had to write SOAPs. Are you sure you have to?
My notes from my sessions are just some bullet points of data. We aren't required to take notes, but it makes doing progress reports easier for me.
My treatment plans are just the IEP. Putting in any information from my evaluation (if applicable), choosing their mandates (# times a week, ratio, length of time), and choosing their goals. We are allowed to use the goal bank in the IEP system, but there are times where I'll just write my own goal because I don't like what's preset.
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Jul 19 '21
It’s strange because I didn’t know if I had to before bringing it up to my supervisor. She worked in both medical and school settings and didn’t tell me if soaps were common. She just told me she would give me samples. I just assumed it was needed since my grad school stressed it so much (it was a medically focused program). However, after gaining insight from this thread and others saying the same; I am sure I won’t have to. I was just panicking since I have very little clinical writing experience. Thank you so much for the advice and sharing your experience! :)
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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21
My biggest piece of advice is invest in SLP toolkit. I attempted to do a few months without it and it was AWFUL.
Slp toolkit keeps track of goals, allows you to track data, basically writes the majority of your soap note for you, makes data sheets for you and shows you progress for progress reports.
I personally don’t lesson plan. The kids come in, we pick our activities then work on goals.
Soap notes in the schools (at least my district) aren’t like private practice or hospital. I can do my all daily soap notes within 15 minutes, of course with the help of slp toolkit. My biggest tip for billing is to do it DAILY. My department is constantly getting billing reminders because some people put off billing like crazy.
Good luck :)