How to Manage a Busy Caseload
July 4, 2021 - Written by Cara Richardson, MS, CCC-SLP
I am currently a school-based contract Speech-Language Pathologist with five years of experience across various public and private school systems. One of the most important tools I have learned over the years is how to manage a busy caseload and create a work-life balance, which I think is imperative to insure I am providing the highest quality of services to my students. SLP caseloads in the school system can be overwhelming and reach high numbers. You may think, how is it possible to provide services to 40-60 students every week?! I am going to provide you with four important tools that have helped me over the years and can hopefully help you as well to manage a busy caseload.
1. Organization
I think it comes as no surprise that most SLPs are already organized in nature and this might seem obvious; however, it is imperative to first and foremost organize yourself when managing a new caseload and set yourself up for success.
How do I personally stay organized? I start by first reviewing all student records and familiarizing myself with their names, history, evaluation reports, goals, service minutes, etc. Trust me, you won’t be able to memorize or remember everything the first week, but this is a good place to start.
Next, I create a document with the following information for quick and easy access: student’s name, grade, teacher, parent email, service minutes, IEP (Individualized Education Plan) goals, and due dates for IEP’s and evaluations. I have learned having this easily accessible document comes in handy and will save you so much time in the future.
After this document is created, I make each student a file folder with his or her name on it. This is where I can store attendance logs, data from sessions, materials to use in sessions, and work completed during sessions.
2. Scheduling
Everyone’s worst nightmare – scheduling. It’s my least favorite thing (besides billing), but it must be done each and every year. Here are my tips:
It’s first beneficial to gather a school list of teachers by grade level, room numbers, and other staff members. Additionally, I request a copy of school bell schedules, classroom schedules, and enrichment class schedules. This helps to see when students are and are not available for sessions. Before I consult with teachers about scheduling, I print out a calendar with dates Monday-Friday and time slots.
Make sure to include in your weekly schedule time for daily prep for sessions (i.e., lesson planning), lunch, consultation with teachers and team members, progress note writing/billing, conducting evaluations, report writing, IEP writing, and meetings. There is more to a day in the life of a SLP than just providing the therapy sessions; therefore, it is important to make room in your schedule for other tasks.
For me personally, I use one day throughout the week, specifically for meetings, conducting evaluations, report writing, IEP writing, and to make-up any missed sessions. On this day, I do not typically schedule speech sessions. I have found this method to be successful thus far for staying on top of paperwork.
Next, I meet with teachers and special education teachers to find a time that will work best to schedule sessions. With 35-60 students on a caseload, it is nearly impossible to see each student individually; however, there will be some students that require 1:1 services to meet their needs. In general, grouping of students based on classroom, grade, delivery model (push-in or pull-out services), and/or similar goals are all strategies to use when scheduling sessions. I would not group more than 4 students at a time for a session, as it makes it challenging to provide individualized support.
Further, try not to schedule sessions back-to-back, as this doesn’t allow for any wiggle room and can cause a domino effect if one session is running late. I schedule sessions anywhere from 5-15 minutes apart from the next. This allows for flexibility, check-ins with a teacher, bathroom breaks, drinking water, taking a breather, and setting up for your next session.
3. Lesson Planning
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Remember those days in graduate school when you would spend hours making the most creative therapy materials for each session? In the real work world, unfortunately, time is of the essence and honestly, you will quickly learn, that some of the best therapy sessions are with the simplest materials. There are endless online resources and therapy materials that target every aspect of speech and language that have already been created for you to easily access and use for sessions. Start creating folders and/or boxes based on themes (e.g., back to school, weather, autumn, winter, spring, summer) and specific speech and language targets. Slowly over time, you will build your own library of therapy resources and materials, which will make lesson planning that much easier. When we as SLPs have the tools we need, we can serve students better and more efficiently. Here are 10 websites that I have found success with finding resources and using in therapy sessions:
Youtube is one of my most utilized resources. I love that it is free and allows me to cover a lot of different goals. Here are some of my favorite YouTube channels:
Teachers Pay Teachers – my go-to resource to find educational resources created by SLPs and Teachers.
Speech Therapy Resource Libraries on Blogs – There are a TON of SLP bloggers that have FREE resource libraries for their newsletter communities. All you have to do is join their weekly or monthly newsletter and get access to speech therapy goodies.
Boom Cards – online website with interactive activities that can be assigned to students individually or used during sessions to target speech and language goals.
Mystery Doug – free weekly video series where students ask questions about a science topic and the topic is investigated.
Kahoot and Baamboozle – quick and easy tool for playing and creating speech and language games.
Mommy Speech Therapy – free to download articulation worksheets.
Home Speech Home – articulation and vocabulary word lists.
Read Works and Epic – free online websites providing fiction and non-fiction reading passages by grade level.
Super Teacher Worksheets and Live Worksheets – printable non-prep free worksheets that target various speech and language targets.
4. Time Management
Each morning, I start with a “to do list” and write out my schedule for the day, including sessions (I write students initials and lesson plan for that session), any meetings scheduled for the day, and time for progress note writing/billing at the end of the day. This allows me to focus on what I need to accomplish that day and not worry about what is due in two weeks. Additionally, this has allowed me to complete my work during “work hours.” If I could give one piece of advice, it would be to not get in the habit of taking work home and thinking “oh, I will just work on that IEP over the weekend.” This will lead to an early burnout. Schedule wisely, leaving time for the “not so fun” paperwork. You will thank me later for creating this habit from the beginning.
Once you start your journey of a school-based SLP, you will learn and find what works best for you over time. Don’t be discouraged if you start to feel overwhelmed, remember, you have the tools that will set you up for success to manage a busy caseload.
