ASHA Calls on Dept. of Ed for More Time to Spend ARP Funding

Today, ASHA sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education (ED) [PDF] Secretary Miguel Cardona encouraging the department to provide local school districts with additional time to spend American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding on construction projects to help ensure that educators, including educational audiologists and school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs), can provide services in safe and healthy workplaces. ASHA strongly supports efforts to ensure appropriate workspaces and environments are conducive to high-quality service delivery and student privacy for educational audiologists and school-based SLPs. In addition to addressing physical infrastructure needs, ASHA continues to encourage ED and state and local education agencies to utilize ARP funds to address personnel shortages through efforts to recruit and retain educators, including educational audiologists and school-based SLPs, as well as to hire temporary/short-term personnel to address immediate administrative needs.

ASHA will continue to work with ED and Congress to promote efforts to ensure access to safe and healthy workspaces and the recruitment and retention of highly qualified educational audiologists and school-based SLPs.

Questions?

Contact Eric Masten, ASHA’s director of federal affairs, education, at emasten@asha.org.