Missed Speech-Language Sessions in Schools
Background
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working in school settings continue to experience concerns about blanket policies for making up missed services. In response, ASHA lobbied the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) for additional assistance in reaffirming the 2007 letter on how to handle missed sessions [PDF] when speech-language pathology services are missed due to the child's absence from school, cancellation for a class or school activity (e.g., field trip, assembly), or absence of the SLP due to illness or family emergency. The guidance was reaffirmed in December 2015 that state and local agencies are required to provide free appropriate public education (FAPE) to all children with disabilities. The determination regarding denial of FAPE is an individual, case by case decision.
Additional OSERS Response Letters
April 2018
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services provided a guidance letter [PDF] to clarify the obligation of LEAs to provide compensatory or "make up" sessions when students with disabilities participate in required, scheduled state testing or when a parent withholds a child from participating in testing and keeps the child home.
December 2013
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services provided a guidance letter [PDF] to address the responsibility of an LEA to "make up" special education and related services when schools were closed due to a strike.
Resources
- IDEA Part B Issue Brief: Missed Sessions
- Missed Session: What's Really Missing? by Deborah Dixon, MA, CCC-SLP, "School Matters" column, The ASHA Leader, April 2016, Vol. 21, pp. 30–31.
- OSEP Reaffirms Guidance on Missed Services in Schools, The ASHA Leader, March 2016, Vol. 21, pp. 8.
- Providing Students with Disabilities Free Appropriate Public Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Addressing the Need for Compensatory Services Under Section 504 [PDF]
