Amber Rodgers-Snyder Spring ISD

Educational Relevance Recap IDEA - all children are entitled to FAPE. Kids must be alert, awake, nourished, without distress so they can : access their education benefit fully from academic instruction, and socialize with their peers. Medically Fragile children are surviving and showing up in school at an early age and are eating Day 1.

Dysphagia Team in Public Education Security in designing a Dysphagia Program for your district lies in consistency and documentation. “The keys to minimizing liability exposure are planning, procedures, training, and the proper execution of those procedures.” Robert L. Hammonds, School Board Attorney. Once a procedure is developed to address swallowing difficulties in school, be sure everyone knows their role. Procedures will protect your district.

Key Players The Dysphagia Team is truly a group effort from a variety of professionals. This can be at the District Level or the Campus Level. Speech Language Pathologist**Physical Therapist Nurse*General Education Teacher Occupational Therapist*Special Education Teacher DiagnosticianParent AdministratorParaprofessional Social WorkerPhysician Dietician and Cafeteria WorkerHospital Based SLP

Types of Dysphagia Team Models Campus Based Dysphagia Team District Level Dysphagia Team Combination Dysphagia Team Other Options All Teams need a Lead Contact Person – preferably the SLP, or a related professional with a working knowledge of swallowing and feeding.

School Based Team The campus SLP acts as the Dysphagia Team Lead and coordinates assessment, safety protocols, and therapy with various team members. Pros – The campus SLP is most familiar with the student, is conveniently located on site, is available for consultation, monitoring of the student, and provides regular therapy. Cons – The Campus SLP often does not have the training and time constraints on the campus SLP when carrying a full caseload.

Personal Experience…

District Level Team A separate team of professionals (SLP, Nurse, OT, and/or Dietician) travel to various school sites to assess, treat, train, and establish safety programs. Pros – Works well in smaller districts with few trained SLPs, District Level Team allows for more experience and knowledge of working with Dysphagia. Easier to train a smaller number of district level SLPs than all campus level SLPs. Cons – Responsibility relies primarily on a small group of individuals rather than empowering the campuses to address the student’s needs, Scheduling of the district team is challenging, time constraints of working in a larger district.

Personal Experience…

Combination Team A District Dysphagia Team Lead SLP collects student data, establishes procedures, collaborates with district level professionals, campus level professionals, and medical professionals to ensure the student is evaluated and treated at the campus level. The Campus Dysphagia Contact SLP ensures the day to day services for the student are followed through and is a point of contact for various campus team members.

Personal Experience…

Other Options per St. Tammany Parish Schools Contract services with a private consultant. Referral source – campus SLP, who has experience with dysphagia, receives assessment results of a student having dysphagia and develops a procedure for the student with the campus administrator. District may provide an outreach center or contract with a hospital clinic to provide dysphagia services: assessment, devise feeding plan, and train school personnel.

Other Options – Not recommended

Where to begin…Collect Data Determine number of children who may have dysphagia in your district. Establish which professionals have experience with dysphagia in your district and have an interest in becoming part of his team. Refer to districts that have successful Dysphagia programs for support.

Establish Roles and Responsibilities All Dysphagia Team members will need to understand their role and responsibility in regards to the children and the team. Referral Source, Case Managers, monitoring student feeding and eating progress, responsibility in keeping the child safe at school, monitoring the health of the child, preparation of foods, etc.

READY… SET… GO!!!

Thank you! Amber Rodgers-Snyder, M.A., CCC/SLP Speech Language Pathologist Spring ISD