"Teletherapy" to be used to help students

A lack of available speech-language pathologists in northeastern Kansas will bring “teletherapy” to the Jackson Heights school district via a Greenbush Special Education Cooperative program, Holton Special Education Cooperative director Amy Haussler told the USD 335 Board of Education.

During the board’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, Haussler and Patty Carter of the Greenbush Connects program met with the board to discuss online access to speech-language pathology services that will benefit students needing those services in both the Jackson Heights and Holton school districts, both of which are served by the Holton special education cooperative.

Those two districts, Haussler told the board, are where speech-language pathologist personnel vacancies currently exist and are difficult to fill despite the cooperative’s efforts. Such vacancies have been going unfilled, she said, because pathologists coming out of college and university programs tend to gravitate toward larger cities rather than schools in rural areas.

“Our first choice is always to have someone in person,” Haussler said. “Unfortunately, since we cannot provide that to you for this next school year, we’re going to our plan B.”

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