UT-Memphis Allied Health Sciences
Letters from Supporting Institutions
A Report from Dr. Ashley Harkrider on the
Governor's Advisory Council for the Education of Students with Disabilities
Meeting, July 21, 2008 in Nashville
Velvet Buehler and I were invited to speak at the advisory council referenced above. There were approximately 25 people in the room including many individuals from the Department of Education, Joseph Fisher the assistant commissioner for Special Education, a number of special education and preschool teachers, and many parents with children with disabilities. There was a long agenda for the meeting, so the Chair, Dr. James Topp, asked us to be brief.
Because of the title of the advisory council we tried to focus on
2 main ways that closing our program will impact education of students
with disabilities: (1) reduced training of professionals to work with
children with disabilities, and (2) reduced provision of services to
children with disabilities. We emphasized that the 2 go hand in hand,
the clinic can’t operate without the department nor the department
without the clinic. We talked about the extremely negative impact our
closure will have on the population of children with disabilities in
the E TN region and across the state including:
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Exacerbating the already acute shortages of professionals in audiology and speech language pathology, particularly those specializing in early childhood and school-aged children.
- Our clients on TENN Care will be unlikely to afford or obtain appropriate services in the private sector. The private sector has stated that they could not absorb the number of clients that are seen here in the variety of specialty areas.
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School systems would be unable to use us as referral or contract resources. The cost of services contracted and referred for would significantly increase if they could be available in the private sector.
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The astronomical costs to the state if our program closes (TENN Care would be at risk for possible bankruptcy if they have to pay increased private sector rates, or are fined for services that could not be accessed).
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School systems may have more costs related to an increased number of “mediation” and ‘due process hearings’. Current IEPs could not be easily provided without our services, and future appropriate services could not be accessed.
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Exacerbating the “loss to follow up” after early identification of hearing loss (TN is already below the national average) because of lack of qualified professionals that are trained to provide intervention and pediatric audiology services. It is ironic that Claire’s Law has recently been passed in TN which requires every baby at birth to have a hearing screen prior to discharge from the hospital. Early identification is now mandated; however, follow-up services will be significantly reduced for children in East TN if our clinics are closed.
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Exacerbating the significant number of children born annually who would likely benefit from cochlear implant surgery/therapy who do not receive a cochlear implant. This population of hearing impaired children is already underserved and this number will increase if our services could not be accessed. Receiving a cochlear implant is a cost savings to TENN Care, private insurances, school systems and to society when appropriate follow-up services are received.
- The goal of early ID and intervention is to mainstream children and to develop age appropriate communication skills. School systems must meet the requirements of the law for appropriate services, inclusion and least restrictive environment. Mainstreamed education is much more successful and much less expensive.
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Children with communication deficits are at risk for reading difficulties which places them at risk to repeat a grade and to struggle academically.
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It is impossible to provide services (clinics) without training (department) because the costs of services will necessarily increase and the current rate of re-imbursement for our patients is low. Currently, we are able to provide these services at lower rates due to our students who pay tuition to receive competencies and training in various clinical areas in order to obtain their degrees.
The Counsel members were very supportive and passed a unanimous motion to write a letter to the Governor expressing their grave concerns over the possibility of our closure. Mary Johnson, one of the members, will draft the letter and send it to us for review.
Here is the handout we distributed to the Advisory Council members at the meeting:
The Department of Audiology & Speech Pathology at UT
Graduates approximately 25 graduate level speech-language pathologists and 10 audiologists per year.
Serves more than 1500 children per year through the university clinics, local schools, Head Start programs, and hospitals.
Trains professionals while providing services to children with autism, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, speech-language delay, childhood apraxia of speech, auditory processing disorders, developmental delay, head trauma, stuttering, voice disorders, phonological disorders, etc.
Is only program in the state (and 1 of 2 nationally) that has a specialty area in aural habilitation. Students with specialty training in this area are employed at the Tennessee School for the Deaf, the Memphis Oral School, and school districts and private practices throughout Tennessee actively recruit these graduates in order to provide services to children with hearing impairment.
Has a model program for children with Autism where children in the community are served and students learn to provide evidence-based practice in order to maximize outcomes for these children.
Termination of the Department of Audiology & Speech Pathology Means:
Personnel shortages in the state will be exacerbated and more children will go unserved or underserved.
Referral opportunities and contract resources for school systems in east Tennessee will be reduced.
Current “loss to follow up” (37.9 %) of early identified children will be exacerbated because qualified professionals cannot be accessed.
Provision of services to children with disabilities will be reduced across the east Tennessee region.
Children identified as a result of Claire’s law will be unable to access appropriate diagnostic and treatment services in the east Tennessee region.
Services to children on TennCare, currently more than 500 are served annually, will be dramatically changed because private practices will not be able to offer comparable diagnostic or treatment oportunities.
For more information about UT ASP, log on to http://web.utk.edu/~aspweb/ or www.saveutasp.org or email Dr. Ashley Harkrider at aharkrid@utk.edu or Velvet Buehler at velvet@utk.edu.