‘Abbott Elementary’ shows how difficult it is to hire a speech-language pathologist in Philly schools
I have been a speech-language pathologist for over 20 years, and I am currently in my seventh year working for the School District of Philadelphia. In that time, despite the fact that approximately 15% of the school district’s students are, the speech-language pathology department has never once been fully staffed.
Despite grassroots efforts, our biggest obstacle remains a convoluted hiring process, weak recruitment efforts, and communication breakdowns. The application for speech-language pathologists to apply to the school district can be difficult to find and often has a nonfunctioning link. When the school district hosts job fairs, it doesn’t include speech-language pathologists in the advertisements, and talent representatives are not always informed about the specific details of hiring for our role.