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Dallas District Turns to PresenceLearning for Speech Language Therapy

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/07/20

A Texas school district has signed a contract for online speech language therapy. Dallas Independent School District is using services provided by PresenceLearning to support 515 elementary and secondary students from 30 campuses in the district through "teletherapy."

The company has a network of certified clinicians who work with students via video conferencing. The PresenceLearning platform also integrates assessments, class assignments, games and other activities into the student sessions.

"Due to the nationwide shortage of licensed speech-language pathologists, we needed to find new and innovative ways to ensure our students would receive necessary services and that we, as a district, would meet evaluation timelines," said Kristin Davis, director of districtwide services at Dallas ISD, in a statement. "This is why we are turning to teletherapy as a supplement support to the onsite services we provide. We are very excited to push this initiative forward in partnership with PresenceLearning."

"As our district was looking at teletherapy options, PresenceLearning's proprietary platform really stood out," said Davis. "Being able to securely share data is a priority, so having this functionality was a huge asset and selling point for us in choosing PresenceLearning as our sole teletherapy provider."

According to district spokeswoman Nina Lakhiani, while the district has shut its schools and shifted to remote learning during the pandemic, it's also continuing to use PresenceLearning for assessment and therapy services. District speech therapists are continuing to provide their therapy services using Zoom with their current caseload. PresenceLearning has also offered licenses to the internal therapists to allow them to use their interactive platform for service delivery.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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