Presence Honors 2025-2026 “Partner of the Year” Schools Expanding Access to Special Education Services

NEW YORK, N.Y. (April 7, 2026) – Presence, a leading provider of PreK-12 special education technology and teletherapy services, today announced the winners of its 2025-2026 Partner of the Year awards. The annual awards recognize school partners across public, private, and virtual schools serving diverse communities, including urban, suburban, and rural areas, who are ensuring students receive critical support through innovative, flexible service delivery models. 

“Across the country, school leaders are rethinking how they deliver special education services so that shortages never stand in the way of student support,” said Kate Eberle Walker, CEO of Presence. “Our Partner of the Year schools exemplify what’s possible when districts embrace new models to ensure students receive consistent, high-quality care. By integrating teletherapy into their teams, these leaders are expanding access and helping more students reach their full potential.”

Representing a wide range of school communities, service models, and student needs, the 2025-2026 Partner of the Year recipients were selected through a comprehensive evaluation process grounded in one shared measure: demonstrated commitment to student outcomes.

The honorees include:

Cotulla Independent School District (Texas)

Cotulla ISD partnered with Presence to stand up an independent special education department as the district moved away from its regional co-op model. In doing so, Presence helped bridge critical staffing gaps and lay the groundwork for a smooth teletherapy launch, from service preparation and team onboarding to space setup. So far this school year, the district has delivered nearly 9,600 minutes of speech-language pathology services.

Gateway Unified School District (California)

With support from Presence, Gateway Unified turned limited local access to speech-language clinicians into an opportunity to build a more sustainable, accessible support model for students. Since 2016, this partnership has expanded from a small pilot into a fully embedded extension of the district’s student support system, while Presence’s Kanga platform has supported the delivery and management of IEP services. This school year, that work has resulted in 2,100 therapy sessions, with staffing gaps no longer standing in the way of student progress.

Lebanon Community School District (Oregon)

For the Lebanon Community School District, serving a rural community amid widespread speech-language pathologist shortages created a pressing challenge: how to maintain consistent support for students without disruption. The partnership helped address those staffing gaps through a coordinated service model that has delivered therapy to over 110 students this school year. 

“Parents in our district are enthusiastic about the positive outcomes their students are achieving through Presence. Students are making meaningful progress while receiving top-notch, individualized speech and language services tailored to their unique needs,” said Rachel Hampton, Special Education Director at Lebanon Community School District.

Lincoln Intermedia Unit 12 (Pennsylvania)

With responsibility for serving students across school districts, charter schools, private schools, and preschool settings, Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12 (LIU12) requires an adaptable approach to support a wide range of learner needs. The partnership has grown to support work across multiple service areas, including mental health, speech-language therapy, early intervention, behavioral health, and specialized assessments. In 2025-2026, LIU12 has delivered more than 175 sessions to preschool and non-public school students.

“What I value most about Presence is the customization of services to meet our needs. We work together to come up with new ideas. Because we serve a unique student population, we appreciate the flexibility to support our preschool and non-public school students while still maintaining fidelity,” said Jennifer B. Leese, ED.D, Director of Student Services and District Engagement at Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12.

North Country Supervisory Union (Vermont)

Over nearly a decade, North Country Supervisory Union has expanded its partnership with Presence from foundational speech services to a broader, multidisciplinary model serving students across all 11 schools. Today, that work includes occupational therapy and complex psychoeducational assessments, helping the district provide more comprehensive support. The partnership has resulted in more than 3,700 sessions and services this year.

Polk County Public Schools (Florida)

Serving one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing student populations requires service models that can keep pace with continued enrollment growth. The district’s partnership with Presence has helped do exactly that, evolving from evaluation support into a robust speech-language program. So far this school year, that work has supported more than 1,200 students.

K12 (National)

With one of the nation’s largest and most geographically distributed virtual school networks, K12 needed a service model built for consistency, coordination, and scale. Today, Presence’s providers support 37 K12-powered online schools with speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, and school psychology services, while also partnering with K12’s crisis intervention program to respond to urgent mental health alerts across its virtual community spaces. By extending support beyond school hours, including holidays and breaks, the program helps students access care when it is needed most.

Learn more about the 2025-2026 Partner of the Year winners here.

It’s estimated that 7.5 million youth in the U.S. require special education services, yet 72% of schools with open roles report difficulty filling positions with fully certified professionals. Special education remains one of the most challenging areas for recruitment and retention, placing significant strain on teams on the ground, particularly in rural and under-resourced areas.

In response, Presence has partnered with more than 10,000 schools across 47 states, including public school districts, charter networks, private schools, and virtual programs, and delivered more than 8 million remote evaluations and teletherapy sessions, including over 1 million in the last year alone.

With more than 2,000 licensed clinicians nationwide, Presence provides a full spectrum of Individualized Education Program (IEP)-related services including  psychological evaluations, speech-language and occupational therapy, and mental and behavioral health counseling.

Presence delivers technology that empowers educators while reducing administrative burden. The Presence tools expand access to high-quality special education services and provide greater visibility into student supports, enabling teams to track services, monitor progress, and maintain compliance. By streamlining processes and improving coordination, Presence helps professionals spend less time on paperwork and more time directly supporting students.

As student needs continue to grow, the 2025-2026 Partner of the Year schools demonstrate what forward-thinking leadership can achieve, ensuring students receive timely, high-quality support wherever they learn.

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About Presence

Inspired to drive solutions for the national shortage of school clinicians, Presence is unlocking the potential of schools and clinicians by removing traditional barriers to success through an elevated approach to teletherapy. As a trusted leader since 2009, Presence is innovating how schools assess and address student special education-related and mental health needs. By equipping a nationwide network of teletherapy providers with award-winning technology and end-to-end clinical support, Presence is helping to meet the needs of schools, students, and clinicians today—wherever they are. Presence is teletherapy, elevated.