Solving the Special Education Teacher Shortage

Marisha (00:01.506)

So hello there and welcome to the S.P.E.D. Podcast. I'm really excited to have...

Courtney Gebhart with us here today. She is the founder of Metamorphosis Therapy Group and she specializes in clinic-based services and school contracting. And she has an incredible bio and story, but I'm going to turn it over to Courtney to just let her share a little bit of her story and how she ended up as the founder of the therapy group and a little bit of her experience. So hello, Courtney.

Courtney Gebhart (00:36.994)

Hi, thanks for having me. So as Marisha said, I am the founder of Metamorphosis Therapy Group. We're located in Fresno, California. But my roots really came from the direct hire in the school district. So I initially worked for a small school district, had about 15 SLPs at the time, worked there for about nine years. And then I was just looking for some different opportunities. So I joined a district that was just down the road.

had about 120 therapists when I joined them. And I learned a lot of information from joining that team. I learned that not every district operates the same way and really got to understand and have some different experiences with, you know, what kinds of cases I wanted to serve and then how to appropriately support, you know, my work life balance and how was I able to service my kids appropriately that were on my caseload.

So with those experiences and kind of throughout that process, I became interested in owning a private practice and did a little dabbling on the side, saw some private kids on the side and just was really wowed at how the service looks so different with individual services versus one-on-one services, education code bound services versus, you know, you can kind of write your own rules when you're in private practice and was just really drawn.

to that and I have always been kind of an entrepreneur at heart. So I started the private practice in 2018 and you know real small didn't even see clients at the first.

you know, start of it. And I was starting to see about one day of full clients. So I was working part time in the bigger district at that time. And then eventually COVID hit and upended everything. And I really took that as an opportunity to really just go dive full feet in and go for it. And I ended up leaving my district job in June of 2020 and dove into private practice in full that same year. And

Courtney Gebhart (02:48.664)

grew a caseload over the summer and then I was fully fully booked and and we were we were moving on and it was a it was about two three years later that actually had the opportunity to partner with some local school districts that were experiencing some staffing shortages and They had reached out and asked if we would you know like to partner with them and provide some staffing needs for their speech caseload that they were struggling to fill and so that's where the contracting side of my private practice

really took off and we've grown ever since.

Marisha (03:22.698)

I love that story and kind of the evolution of what that has looked like. So thank you for sharing. And so you mentioned working with school districts who had staffing shortages. And that's what our topic is for today of like strategies that.

School districts can use in midst of shortage and I think this is a very prevalent issue these days. So I'm really excited to dive into this. But so obviously working with a contracting company can be one solution to that. But can you walk us through a little like talk through that a little bit and maybe some other strategies and what that might look like?

Courtney Gebhart (04:10.21)

Yeah, so I think historically we've known that telehealth or teletherapy has been around way before COVID times. And ever since we experienced COVID, I do think that there was a lot of silver linings that came out of COVID from the therapist side of the fence, but also to help support our school districts. know, everybody at that point had to essentially learn how to be a teletherapist. And what we learned by doing teletherapy is that it

effective. It is an effective therapy and that has long been the thought process with administrators or you know in special education even even providers you know telehealth is not as effective as in-person therapy and it is individualized so every child is going to respond differently and there are some kids that are absolutely not appropriate for teletherapy but there are many kids that are.

So now that we've kind of debunked that teletherapy is effective, you know, now we can kind of look and shift at, how are we utilizing our teletherapists? So historically, a lot of districts were using teletherapists in a model where it looked like the teletherapist was still the Jack or Jill of all trades. So they were still doing the therapy.

they were doing assessments, they were holding IEPs, and then they were doing their paperwork. And with, you know, doing all of those things,

You can do all of those things just like a brick and mortar SLP can do, but at some point, you know, you're going to have to transition so much between tasks or certain tasks are going to impede your ability to do other tasks. So for example, if I need to test a student and it's during a time when it's my therapy time, I'm going to have to cancel loads of kids to be able to actually test and

Courtney Gebhart (06:12.674)

get what I need accomplished, or if I'm in an IEP that's running longer. So I think we see the same struggles with our telehealth therapists when we have a model like that. And I really view that model as being very outdated. Another portion of that model of the traditional teletherapists that does the assessments, does the therapy, does all the reports, is that they often are paired with a paraprofessional. It's so important that our

districts understand the differences between the different licensure. So a paraprofessional cannot work.

unsupervised. They have to be 100 % line of sight. It's just like an aide in a classroom with a teacher that's working with them line of sight. So they're just an extension. So the paraprofessional often will add on a cost to the district and they're really not doing a whole lot. And what I really observed when we were doing contracts, we were paired in districts that also had this model, I'm to call it the outdated model, and I would walk by and the paraprofessional is literally

just sitting there with groups of three kids and these kids look very disengaged. They're in a library. There's a lot of things happening. So, you know, when we go back to is teletherapy effective? It is if you have the right environment. I don't view...

most of the environments that we're setting our teletherapists up as, as being as effective. You're going to treat your paraprofessional who's just plugging kids into a computer a little bit differently than you would an actual therapist that's like coming in to see your students live and in person. They're going to be allocated a room.

Courtney Gebhart (07:55.79)

they're going to be allocated materials and space. And I think our kids these days are just so overdigitalized that, you know, they're just they're just kind of wiped out by doing all of this digital stuff. And we need to have those in-person interactions and those opportunities. So that's our old model of teletherapy. But what I really like to shift to is, you know, being being thoughtful and kind of thinking outside the box. So using school contractors is a really beneficial thing for districts because the

school contractors can kind of come and go. So you can kind of use them on the short term. You can use them on a longer term. Sometimes maternity leaves, you know, go longer than what we're expecting them to. And usually that's an easy way to just extend those types of contracts. You also don't have to deal as a district with any human resource issues. So if a therapist is

not showing up to work timely or they're having some issues with getting the reports done or you know parents are having some complaints or whatever the case may be so just those general issues that you know naturally we're going to come across. As a district you don't have to you know

abide by the rules and structure of maybe your union and holding that. So the employees as a district are very protected. But as a contractor, you can really easily tell your contracting company, hey, this situation isn't ideal because of X, Y, and Z. Can we get a switch? And oftentimes, that switch would be much more difficult if it was a direct hire.

I've been in situations where maybe the fit wasn't ideal or we needed to kind of move around some staffing and we were really easily able to do it because as a contractor, you know, I listen to what the districts want and it's kind of like what, you know, you have these services, you have paid for these services, they should be absolutely utmost the best services that you are getting. So it's really important that our districts are also mindful of who they're choosing and how they are going.

Courtney Gebhart (10:06.21)

through that process? How's the contractor choosing those staff members to staff and see their kids? Because at the end of the day, you want that contractor to understand that district and you want them to understand, you know, what are the...

What are the main concerns that maybe families have in this district? What are they walking into? Are there kids that maybe have not been serviced? Are there students who are high litigious cases that they need to be made aware of and worked with? That's gonna be a lot different if you're putting a CFY in a situation like that versus maybe a 10-year veteran.

So I think that that's definitely something for our school districts to consider. Another thing that they should consider is how to maximize their time. So districts have that opportunity to do that and districts that are partnering with school contracting companies, that should help them not create more work for them. So some of the things that can be helpful is kind of siphoning off some of those tasks that maybe their direct hires don't really enjoy doing.

And every district is a little bit different. So maybe your school SLPs are like, I just need somebody to see my caseload so I can get caught up on my reports. Great. So then you can have a contractor come in, work with your students, and then that school SLP can do those reports. Or maybe you have a contractor where they...

are asked to do only IEPs or only reports or only assessments. So as a district that's hiring, you can really dictate what works best, but I really think that it comes with communication between the team. So what does the team want and what is it that their pain points are? So if you add some things to help support those pain points, you're as a district going to really help with your overall retention of your therapist.

Marisha (12:07.212)

Yeah. And I love that point of communicating with the team to see what they want. Because if you put in a contractor who is doing all of the paperwork, but that's like SLP's favorite part or vice versa, then it won't be as effective. So I love that you position that as a retention strategy and also as a way to remediate maybe a higher workload for SLP's. So awesome. I love that.

Courtney Gebhart (12:32.694)

Yeah, absolutely. If you're not switching between tasks so much, then you can get so much more done. The amount of cases that we see as contractors, they don't have to abide by Ed code. And sometimes that's kind of a sticking point with our school-based districts. Our school-based SLPs in districts is, we have a caseload cap. But as a contractor,

We don't have to abide by that cap, especially if we are looking at how we can maximize caseload, because if I'm just doing IEPs and assessments, I can easily have a caseload of a hundred students. But if I'm having to do the therapy and do all of those things, can't, I cannot effectively service that many students, like maybe half. So you can really utilize contractors and leverage that to change your workload of

your current therapist to.

Marisha (13:31.17)

Yeah, I love that as a creative strategy. And I know you have way more strategies up your sleeve. So is there another one that you want to share?

Courtney Gebhart (13:40.718)

Ooh, more strategies. I also really enjoy working with districts that allow the contractor to help them strategize what works best for them because a lot of times our...

people that are making the big decisions, they're usually not SLPs. And SLPs definitely have like a certain way of how they like to manage things. And we've all often talked about, you know, how we are kind of a neglected therapist group. You know, we'll see the teachers going out to lunch and we don't get invited to go. And sometimes that's okay. And some therapists really like that. But, you know, teaching those, the districts, you know, what it is that our therapists are really looking for can be

another you know really huge way to maximize your skills. Sometimes when we'll do analysis with districts we're looking at pairing a virtual SLP with an in-person SLPA. So that's a great way to really again expand on the services. So the SLPA is an individual and not every state allows SLPAs but in California we do.

And a SLPA is licensed and they have certain parameters that they're able to do. But in California, for sure, they're able to see students without direct supervision. So they are a great extension of a contract to be able to, you know, basically see the caseload. And then that therapist is able to do all of that back end work if they're a teletherapist. So that is a great way to stretch a budget, because oftentimes SLPAs are

less expensive than SLPs for the dollar amount that you're getting. And again, as a contractor, they don't have to abide by a caseload cap. districts, there's sometimes some issues with state laws and you can't use an assistant to increase your caseload cap. That's definitely the talk of the town right now in California. But...

Courtney Gebhart (15:49.998)

If you're contractor, you use a workload approach. And we really need to be kind of pushing towards this model anyways and encouraging, you know, being a little bit more strategic because at the end of the day, those are all of our students and we need to help support them. We got in the business to help and support students. So we need to figure out how to do that the most efficient way as possible and effective.

Marisha (16:12.972)

Yeah, I love that. I, because you were discussing how paraeducators might not be the best fit. And so the SLPA, I'm glad you mentioned that because that can be a nice alternative to, like you said, stretch your budget and make it work for you. Awesome. And then...

So I believe I've heard you discuss like training SLPs as a strategy as well and or like leveraging resources. Like what would you say to district administrators about those types of strategies?

Courtney Gebhart (16:42.463)

Mm-hmm.

.

Courtney Gebhart (16:52.056)

to administrators to develop some leadership within their SLP group. So often...

the people that are making the decisions about staffing and about how to utilize your coverage. Sometimes we don't always involve the SLPs. And I think it's really important to use a more analytical approach because numbers don't lie and feelings, I feel overwhelmed or I feel like I have too much. And as a business owner, I navigate those conversations sometimes too.

But as an SLP, I feel like I know what is potential and what's possible and everybody does have their limit.

If we can make that more of an analytical approach, like with administrators utilizing like a workload approach and a workload analysis, that applies some actual numbers to the caseloads and to the students. And it really helps with that fairness piece. So, you know, that way it's not just, you know, analyzing like, she has a really easy site this year or, you know, it's just preschool or, we're mixing this side and that side. And, and it really just makes it

much easier to divide caseloads for our administrator team because they don't get to see that student every day. You know, they don't get to see that site every day or you know every site kind of works differently. you know using that workload approach is going to really help with dividing up a caseload and helping district officials make good decisions.

Courtney Gebhart (18:34.548)

Another really good thing that our districts can do to help support their team is developing those leadership skills. So I kind of mentioned that a little bit earlier, but.

When you involve and invite an SLP or a lead SLP to the conversation, they may still, of course, have their site unless you're a larger district. And then maybe they're the, you know, the putting out fire kind of SLP where they're just going around where coverage is needed. But that helps the team have a voice and it also makes them feel like they are involved and they do have a seat at the table. And that's a really big thing for culture and retention.

Some of the best districts that involve these types of situations, they don't pay the best, but they're able to recruit and retain good quality therapists because their therapists know that they have a voice. They know that they're being represented. And I've seen similar districts of similar sizes. Those districts did not have a voice and their therapists, they left. So that is that is going to be a really big thing when it

comes to recruiting and retention. We're all fighting as owners, as districts for the same professionals, and there's a shortage everywhere. So in order to really help stand out amongst the crowd, you need to have...

therapists that enjoy working for you and that they're going to spread the word and that they're going to you know put your name in the ears of their graduate students or you know have those kinds of conversations to be able to you know help promote and draw in. When I started at my first district I went because of it was a word of mouth. When I went to my second district it was a word of mouth thing too. So they talk and we want them to say good things.

Marisha (20:28.518)

SLPs are definitely talkers. And all of the strategies that you've been sharing are things that administrators can do to sway SLPs opinions and have that be the positive talk like you've been saying and yeah, bringing in more SLPs, whether it's leveraging SLPAs to make the workload more manageable or contracting out certain aspects of the role or offering training leaderships leadership

opportunities. Yeah, so so many great things. Is there anything else that you want to add Courtney?

Courtney Gebhart (21:05.078)

Yeah, I just wanted to kind of go back to that training and you know mentorship piece. So that is a really good retention factor in all jobs and it's not just in school districts, but people want to be built into they want to be trained and it's so important that we know what the current workforce is looking for. So right now there's three working generations

in the workforce and our newest generation, that's their love language. They want a place that they value the culture that they want to grow in. These are your 20 year olds. So.

If you know that as a district, then you can help set yourself out and set yourself apart as being that place that's going to build into your professionals. I still remember being sent to a training in my last district. It was a four-day training on navigating difficult IEPs. And I remember feeling like slightly guilty because I knew I had like one foot out the door. But that was an honor for me to be able to participate

participate in and had I you know been Somebody that was going to stay in the district and been you know that that would have really that's something that can really build into your culture You know, it's not just offering a CEU stipend. It's it goes beyond that it goes to you know We're offering this training. I want you to go I'd like to send you

kind of on that same line is partnering with your local universities. Local universities are looking for places to send their students. There are so many more online platforms now for students to go to and get connected with needing their placements done.

Courtney Gebhart (23:04.969)

And sometimes I'll see some red tape that's involved. you know, we're a district. need, know, you need to have an agreement with the university. And is it a pain? Yeah, it's kind of a pain, but it is so worth it. So that is definitely how I have.

basically been able to like do a working interview of individuals like as they're working and doing their hours and then if I think they're a great fit for my company, I'll offer them a position. So those are some things that our school districts can do to really help them just be more well known in the community as a place to go. know therapists, they always are going to remember their placement. They're always going to remember, you know, their first mentors. And so if you can set yourself out

as a district and be a part of that crowd and be a part of that you know we want brand new therapists we will train you we will nurture you we will put you with an amazing supervisor then that's going to really help them you know with their recruitment and it's free recruitment you don't have to you know pay for anything with our students that are being accepted to different placements

It's really important that you know that the people that are actually supervising them so the SLPs that are supervising them Sometimes some of the best SLPs they don't take on a student and they don't take on a student because They feel like their workload is insane So having some incentives for those more experienced therapists to take on a student is going to really help again get good students in your door and you know have them sign on I love

this person so I went and decided I wanted to work for the district or I loved my supporting therapist. So you really want to make sure that you're really leaning into those more experienced therapists because they are a huge asset for you.

Courtney Gebhart (25:05.321)

But also it's not just pairing them up with a therapist that's good. You want to make sure that that therapist is also showing that graduate student how do they do all of the things. So it's not just plugging them in front of kids and saying, okay, do the therapy. I'm going to hang out in the back and write my notes and never show you IEPs. So really as a profession that that is something that, you know, really tugs on my heartstrings because I had amazing mentors.

and I have mentored a lot of therapists and I really enjoy it, but not all mentorship experiences are the same. So, you know, if you can set up your therapists in your district that are more experienced to encourage them to take a student, either by providing them with some CEUs to get trained, picking out some good leadership opportunities,

even inviting them to more of the admin type trainings, it's going to really help build that desire to want to take on a student because they feel like they're part of a team.

Marisha (26:11.382)

Yeah. I am loving all of these strategies. And I love that you're touching on a lot of things that a district administrator could try and look into because that's sometimes the biggest hurdle. feel like, like there's this issue and it's like, what do we do? we're, I love that there's a lot of different avenues that we can explore. is there anything else that you want to share in terms of strategies?

Courtney Gebhart (26:36.366)

I feel like I could talk about this like all day, but, you know, I think that we know that the landscape of kids have really changed in the last couple of years and it's difficult to pinpoint what it is. it, it our COVID babies that are coming out? know, parents are a lot more disengaged. And our job in education is just a lot harder. It's a lot harder and it's harder for everybody. It's harder for our teachers. It's harder for our parents. It's hard for our students. And it's really difficult for our SPED team.

providers as well. So the best thing is just being in good communication. So staying in good communication with your team, checking in on them.

you know, oftentimes our sped teams, our sped providers, they're like an island and, you know, nobody really knows how they're surviving day to day with that kiddo that's tricky or that parent that calls a meeting every month. You know, so just making sure that they're feeling supported. If they ask for, you know, a $50 item for...

their therapy room or they start off their assignment and there's nothing in the therapy closet. Those things are really easy fixes. $100 can go a long way on Teachers Pay Teachers or on Amazon or having a starter kit for your therapist.

even like PTA funds, like, you know, getting your PTA involved. A lot of our PTA, you know, individuals that are on the Parent Teacher Association, you know, lot of their kids have had speech therapy, too. So just, you know, kind of looking at, you know, what else can we use other resources for and funds to help support those those staff members and, you know, definitely our SLPs. So we want them to feel supported because then they're going to hang with you and they're going to become part of your culture.

Marisha (28:33.72)

Yeah, and the cost of, and I'm sure all administrators are very aware of this, but the cost of having to rehire and then having like a shortage of SLPs and then the repercussions of that and not serving students. so, yeah, I think these are all really, I mean, it can feel really challenging when you've got, because SPED administrators have very full plates too, but there's little things that I feel like can give us a

of Bing for our buck.

Courtney Gebhart (29:05.261)

Yeah.

Absolutely and kind of like thinking along those lines of like well, how do you stretch your budget as a sped director? You know, you want to make sure that you hire the right fit and those big box companies that you know Bang on your door and blow up your email box Oftentimes they are not the best options for many reasons So they are owned by private equity companies, which means that they are privately

held. They are not owned by SLPs. So they do not have an idea of what it looks like for SPED. So they're essentially headhunters. They're going to plug in anybody with a license that fits the bill. Oftentimes too, another dirty little secret is that they often do not actually have a person to put in that position. So they are sometimes securing contracts and they don't even have a body to fill them.

which sometimes, yeah, which will sometimes leave districts in a big lurch. And that's how I've been able to secure some contracts is because districts have said, hey, we had a contract with this company. They had it staffed and then the person left and then the other the plan B pulled out too. And now we have no service provider and it's September.

Yeah, that's a problem because now your kiddos aren't getting serviced and your teachers are upset because their kids aren't getting the services that they need. So that can be a big problem because, you know, that's exactly how they are. They're acting as headhunters. Our smaller companies that are more privately owned, locally owned companies, even a private practice sometimes, you kind of like how I fell into contracting can be a better fit, even if it may cost a little bit more.

Courtney Gebhart (30:55.52)

So remember at the end of the day, you don't have to pay for benefits. You don't have to pay for pension for your contractors. So they are going to cost a little bit more. But at the end of the day, if something's not working out with your contractor, you know, of course, read your contracts, but you can easily ask for a change in therapist or you can end your contract and go with a different provider. So it's really important that, you know, you're choosing the right contractor. And again, those big box companies aren't necessarily the right ones.

I've heard rumors too that they are paid to do assessments and do initial assessments. So they're looking to expand your caseload, which is not good because they're over inflating because they get paid to stay. They get paid based off of how many kids they can serve. Where more ethical companies that are owned by SLPs, they're looking to actually staff your contracts just like a district employee would. They want to get kids off of caseload that do not need it or...

are not appropriate or not over identifying students. So those are some other little things to be mindful of when our directors are picking out their contract providers.

Marisha (32:07.694)

Yeah, those are some really great insights. I wish we could, like you could do like a whole day seminar on all the things. Amazing. So is there anything else that you want to share before we wrap? Okay.

Courtney Gebhart (32:24.215)

I can't think of anything else. mean, like I said, I could, I'm like an open book. I could probably talk for days about this stuff.

Marisha (32:29.324)

Yeah, no, there's so many great insights here. And then in the show notes, I'll add a link to your website. And just in case people want to reach out to you, like you do service in like the Fresno area.

Courtney Gebhart (32:46.86)

Yes, I service, so we're based in California. So we staff districts that are located in Fresno, primarily, but we also, you know, we're in and operating in California and we're in the Central Valley. So it's a pretty big reach. It's kind of like from San Francisco to LA. So that whole area, a lot of our rural districts are kind of our districts that we really enjoy servicing because I feel like they can benefit most from our help.

I do consultation as well with districts, even if they're not taking on our services and our service providers. So even if it's an out of state district, if you're having some difficulties, you can reach me through the Metamorphosis email or website. And then on another side of my practice is I do my mentormorphosis and that is geared for SLPs and teaching them how to be mentors towards students and to

and that's a really huge important thing as I mentioned to help with retention and to really build into your practitioners because if we as our more experienced therapists are getting more overwhelmed and overworked and they're not taking on students our field is going to you know continue to constrict and we're going to have an increase in caseloads more and more and I think we're kind of at that bursting point with

our caseload. So we definitely need to, you know, work on our mentorship skills, make sure our new therapists are supported so they don't try to leave the field after three to five years.

Marisha (34:27.414)

And that is like a dual benefit and probably more than dual benefit, but it helps us.

Like by investing in our SLPs and helping them build that mentorship skillset, like they'll be, they'll feel invested in and stay in the district longer term. But then that'll also having those great mentors helps you bring in those new people and help them stay too. So it's just like this continual thing. So I think that's a really great strategy for, okay, how am I investing in my SLPs? Like, yeah, I can teach them strategies on

and like, I don't know, whatever professional development opportunities in developing their clinical skillset, but the mentorship skillset is really strategic move. I love that.

Courtney Gebhart (35:15.214)

Absolutely. Yeah, especially because, you know, just the way that things are kind of moving, if we're having to use more contractors that are doing more of the IEPs, the paperwork, they're going to have to support a SLPA or a PARA in how to do therapy. you know, PARAs don't have a lot of education. Oftentimes they're in a bachelor's program, if that. And our SLPAs, usually, the most that they can get is like a bachelor's degree. So and the amount of hours

is like a third of what your SLP students are getting. So we have to learn how to teach. We have to learn how to teach other professionals. So we're working with those adults to be able to ensure that they're able to carry out our strategies towards our students. And so our students can continue to progress. But if you have a therapist who's just handed another professional and they don't know how to teach them or how they want them to work their case,

you're going to have a problem with your kids making their progress on their goals.

Marisha (36:25.048)

love that. Well, not that, just that this is a good solution for that.

Courtney Gebhart (36:30.604)

Yeah, it's another solution. Yeah, you want to train your people, make them magnets. Make them magnets to get those other good people in your districts.

Marisha (36:37.602)

Yeah, that's amazing. I love it.

Well, thank you so much for being so generous with your time and expertise, Courtney. This was such a treat. And like I said, in the show notes, I'll add the links to your website and your Instagram. That's focused more on the mentorship side of things. And yeah, I'll share any resources that we mentioned in the show notes as well. But yeah, thank you to the administrators for listening in and thanks again to Courtney and yeah, I hope you'll

all have a great week.

Courtney Gebhart (37:12.61)

Thank you.