Everyday Ethics: State Licensing and Practicing Speech-Language Pathology in Schools

I am a school-based SLP and I’ve practiced for more than 20 years in my district. Yesterday I received an email from the central office telling me that my SLP license expired 12 years ago. No one—not my supervisor, not the principal, not the central office—ever told me my SLP license had expired. I never once received a renewal notice about it, either! What should I do? Unfortunately, ASHA’s ethics department hears about school-based speech-language pathologists letting state licenses expire—often inadvertently—quite frequently, as the maze of credentialing requirements becomes more and more challenging to navigate. Almost every state now requires SLPs to be licensed to practice. While some states require school-based SLPs to obtain and maintain their state occupational license, other states exempt them. Where no state occupational license is required, school-based SLPs must obtain a teaching certificate or educational license from the state department of education. At least six states require school-based SLPs to hold an occupational license plus some type of teacher certificate. One more wrinkle: Twenty-one states allow/require current ASHA certification for SLPs to practice in schools (State Teacher Requirements Licensing Trends-SLP (2018)). Your first step should be to look up your state licensure requirements to see whether they apply to you as a school-based SLP. You may also want to confer with your state speech-language hearing association about their und...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Schools Slider Speech-Language Pathology Professional Development Source Type: blogs