Fort Worth ISD will spend an additional $2.51 million on contracted speech-language pathologists and other special education service providers — more than three times what it planned in total three months ago.
The Texas-appointed board of managers unanimously approved the increase Sept. 8 as FWISD fills service gaps left from dozens of vacancies. The previously approved $700,000 contract now costs $3,210,532.
“We are not spending extra money here,” Superintendent Peter Licata told managers. “We’re actually moving the money from the vacancies into contract labor.”
FWISD has 58 vacancies in special education-related positions — the majority of which are for speech-language pathologists, according to district documents.
Speech-language pathologist Max Pell supported the increase but asked managers to reflect on the decisions that pushed FWISD to this point.
FWISD cut seven speech therapists and 10 assistant speech therapists in April. They were part of 32 position categories that the board ofmanagers eliminated. The position cuts were meant to build toward a new model of 100 full-time speech-language pathologists.
A delay between the retirement of a longtime coordinator who recruited pathologists and the hiring of a replacement impacted staffing, too, said Pell, who works at the Jo Kelly School, which serves medically fragile students with disabilities ages 3 to 21.
“ The instability that was fostered throughout the spring and summer months and the seven-month coordinator vacancy are, what I believe, major contributing factors to the crisis we now find ourselves in,” Pell said.
An unnamed manager wrote in a September board question document that they felt responsible for the increased contracted services spending and that they should have asked questions about the feasibility of Licata’s plan as well as the financial and legal risks.
In August, manager Tennessee Walker apologized for understaffing speech positions after receiving assurance from Licata that FWISD would begin the year fully staffed.
The need for speech and other special education services is growing even as enrollment falls. FWISD’s enrollment has dropped by almost 24,000 students since 2016.
The number of students receiving speech-language therapy has grown by about 50% since 2018, according to state records. More than 5,900 FWISD students currently receive speech-language therapy.
FWISD assembled an advisory committee on finding solutions for retaining and attracting speech-language pathologists, Licata said. Pell leads the committee, which includes six other pathologists and other district leaders.
The committee is examining possibly switching FWISD’s speech-language pathologist model to one less reliant on the number of students each sees to one focused on the amount of work each person has, Licata said.
Christina Sellers, a FWISD speech-language pathologist, said she appreciates the consideration of switching to a workload-based model.
Direct therapy with students is only half of what a speech-language pathologist does, Sellers said. The rest is work that a caseload doesn’t capture: evaluations, scheduling and running individualized education plan meetings, logging paperwork.
Employing 100 full-time pathologists isn’t enough, Sellers said.
“What I need is you guys to act with urgency to fix the special education staffing crisis we’re in and make things better for your direct-hire (speech-language pathologists) right now,” she said. “We need immediate reductions in caseloads. We need to be trusted and respected as the noble group of community professionals we are.”
FWISD needs to provide better pay and working conditions for pathologists, Licata said.
Although the district has some of the highest starting speech salaries, chief of staff Louis Kushner said FWISD does not offer stipends that are sufficiently competitive. He said area districts pay stipends upward of $10,000. FWISD’s speech-language pathologist stipend is around $3,000.
Increasing the stipend is a priority, but financial reality makes doing so difficult, Kushner said. FWISD has a nearly $50 million shortfall that district leaders anticipate growing because property tax revenue will undershoot budget projections.
“It’s not, at this time, something that we can bring forth until we have adjusted areas in the budget,” he told managers.
The superintendent said he would provide information to managers every two weeks, if they want it. He previously told managers he would provide a speech-language pathologist report by the end of August. He did not publicly do so.
Kushner said 88% of students received speech services and the remaining will be seen before the end of the first six weeks of school.
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, executive director of parental advocacy group Parent Shield, questioned FWISD’s plan for providing the services, ranging from speech to the process for securing specialized student support.
“ These are our most vulnerable children,” Dorsey-Hollins said. “And they should not have to wait for our district to figure out the plan that should have been in place before cuts were made.”
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report’s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
