‘Abbott Elementary’ shows how difficult it is to hire a speech-language pathologist in Philly schools

A recent episode of Abbott Elementary (“Gregory’s Garden Goofballs”) featured Jeanine — played by show creator and Philly native Quinta Brunson — attempting to work through layers of maze-like bureaucracy to hire an American Sign Language interpreter for a fictional student, Imani. While the episode skips the finer points of special education law and every school district’s responsibilities to students with disabilities, the depiction of a difficult hiring process rang painfully true.

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 identified with disabilities, the speech-language pathology department has never once been fully staffed. While it is difficult to get exact numbers on vacancies for speech-language pathologists because the budget does not list us as a line item, and the school district does not list the schools with vacant positions, an estimated 25%-30% of assignments are unfilled.

To address the vacancies, several school district speech-language pathologists, including myself, created a grassroots organization devoted to improving access to high-quality speech-language pathology services in the school district, with fully staffing our department as a central goal. For the past four years, we have collected detailed data pertinent to recruitment and retention. We have shared comprehensive reports with administrators, testified at numerous school board meetings, and met with various departments in the central office. We have initiated positive word-of-mouth campaigns, reached out within our professional and alumni networks, and created recruitment materials, all in the service of attracting qualified applicants.

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.

When we do get applicants, they are often people we know from our networks, and they report back to us: Historically, it has taken weeks or months for the talent office to schedule an interview, if it does so at all. Speech-language pathologists are heavily recruited and easily able to find work; most will not wait weeks or months for a callback. Many applicants found other jobs before they heard from the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Talent Support Services.

Action item No. 9 on February’s agenda for the school board meeting included funding to audit the talent department to “identify and assess strengths, opportunities, and priorities related to the Talent Office.” This fills me with cautious optimism. Optimism, because it is an important first step in improving efficiency in the hiring process. Caution, because the school district all too often carries out these initiatives with good intentions but an overly broad approach that fails to consider the specific needs of disabled students.

If this initiative is going to result in meaningful changes, then it will need to take into consideration the staffing required to meet the needs of all students in the district. But, given the well-known shortages, special education staffing should be paid careful attention.

This will mean taking a close look at hiring practices for everyone who supports special education: speech-language pathologists, yes, but also paraprofessionals, special education teachers, school psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, orientation and mobility specialists, teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing, and numerous others. Professionals working for the school district in each of these areas undoubtedly could have written their own version of this op-ed.

What the episode of Abbott Elementary left out is that by failing to provide an ASL interpreter, the civil rights of the fictional student, Imani, may have been violated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. When the School District of Philadelphia does not adequately staff the special education department, it is imperiling the educational and civil rights of thousands of real-life Imanis.

Tamara Sepe is a cofounder of SLPs Initiative for PA Schools, a grassroots organization dedicated to improving access to high-quality speech and language services for students with communication impairments in the School District of Philadelphia. Educational administrators who want to learn more about how to attract and retain speech-language pathologists should explore resources through the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network, including the March 21 event, “A Call to Action: Discussing Innovative Practices to Attract and Retain Speech Language Pathologists.”