Expanding Access: Enhancing School-Based Clinical Staffing with Teletherapy Solutions
Challenges to Implementation In its survey, AMN Healthcare found that schools have various reasons for not implementing teletherapy. Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed indicated they have not implemented teletherapy due to a shortage of support staff, 25% due to reluctance among administrators, 23% due to technology limitations, and 22% due to parent/guardian concerns. Only 11% indicated they have not implemented teletherapy due to a lack of need for these services. Perhaps the primary challenge to the successful implementation of teleassessment and teletherapy services that AMN Healthcare has observed is schools’ and parents’ resistance to remote service provision, based either on prior poor experiences with teletherapy services implemented outside of best practices or based on lack of education around the effectiveness of teletherapy. The lack of onsite support personnel dedicated to the implementation of teletherapy services also has been a key limiting factor.
Understanding Teletherapy Capabilities An initial step required to meet these and other challenges to school-based teletherapy implementation is understanding its capabilities, its features and what it is intended to do.
Teletherapy technology should have essential features like HIPAA confidentially and FERPA compliance, as well as interactive tools like virtual whiteboards, screen sharing, co-browsing, and integrated digital assessments.
Appropriate teletherapy technology allows credentialed and experienced clinicians to provide quality services to students virtually by giving them the necessary tools to transition their evaluation and intervention skills to the
remote environment. Teletherapy should be able to provide the same level of service provided by in-person clinicians, with individualized services and continuity of care over time. If a clinician has access to best-in-class teletherapy technology, and students have access to all necessary equipment, internet, and appropriate space, the primary limit to what services can be delivered is the required level of onsite support for students during evaluation and therapy sessions.
The level of support by on-site staff ranges from line- of-sight supervision for highly independent students to 1:1 support through each therapy or evaluation session. The level of support required for teletherapy generally reflects the level of support each student needs to access technology and online learning throughout their school day.
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