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MEMBERS' CORNER

ATTENTION School-Based Speech-Language Pathologists:

Encouraging news regarding salary supplements

 

School-based professionals in WNY will be interested to learn that, in recent months, there have been continued advocacy efforts at the state level by our NYSSLHA colleagues and State Education Advocacy Leader (SEAL), Karen McCrossen.  Given funding from a grant awarded by ASHA, these individuals are educating state officials regarding the rigor of obtaining and maintaining the ASHA Certification of Clinical Competence.  Particularly, they are focusing attention on the gap between incentives for teachers and SLPs in the schools, citing the national certification issue.  By securing a salary incentive for nationally certified school-based SLPs, they are suggesting that schools will attract and retain licensed and certified school-based professionals.  As you may know, recruitment and retention is currently a major issue downstate.  The subsequent effect on Medicaid reimbursements is highlighted in NYSSLHA’s campaign. To further strengthen their advocacy campaign, NYSSLHA intends to meet with organizations such as NYSUT and UFT, as well as school representatives in large school districts including Buffalo Public.  This is incredibly encouraging news to many of our SHAWNY members.  NYSSLHA also plans to continue working with lobbyists to potentially introduce legislation at the state level.  

Thanks again to our WNY school-based members who played a key role in NYSSLHA’s decision to begin to focus specifically on salary supplements by participating in a local school-based survey posted on shawny.org.

 

Please support NYSSLHA when you renew your SHAWNY membership.  Our colleagues are working hard on our behalf to represent the interests of school-based SLPs across the state.  If success is achieved, you may see the result in your paycheck!

 

Join or renew online at www.nysslha.org

 

For more information on this subject, contact Stephanie Verrico at verrico@buffalo.edu