NEW YORK, March 11, 2020 – Dallas Independent School District (ISD), the second largest school district in Texas which serves approximately 153,000 students, recently partnered with PresenceLearning, Inc., the leading provider of live online special education-related services to K-12 schools, to provide online speech-language therapy services to its students. Using the company’s award-winning, proprietary platform and network of certified clinicians, the district will provide support services for 515 elementary and secondary students across 30 campuses in the district through teletherapy.
“Due to the nationwide shortage of licensed speech-language pathologists, we needed to find new and innovative ways to ensure our students would receive necessary services and that we, as a district, would meet evaluation timelines,” said Kristin Davis, MS, director of districtwide services at Dallas ISD. “This is why we are turning to teletherapy as a supplemental support to the onsite services we provide. We are very excited to push this initiative forward in partnership with PresenceLearning.”
“Our goal at PresenceLearning is to ease the strain on administrators who are working hard to meet the critical need for special education services in their district, and to provide students with all the services they need. Through our partnership with Dallas ISD, we get to do both. We are proud that because of this collaboration, hundreds of students across the district will now receive the special education services they need,” said PresenceLearning CEO Kate Eberle Walker.
PresenceLearning works collaboratively with schools and districts across the country to increase the type and frequency of special education services so more students can get the support they need. The company helps reduce heavy caseloads, provides access to a greater variety of specialized clinicians, reaches students in hard-to-access areas, and fills service gaps related to acute and chronic shortages of special education and related services personnel. In Dallas ISD, PresenceLearning’s network of certified clinicians will specifically be utilized on campuses that have speech-language pathologist vacancies.
“The communication and partnership with PresenceLearning has been excellent as we’ve been rolling teletherapy out across multiple campuses,” said Davis. “At the onset, the PresenceLearning team was on the ground talking to administrators and principals and helping out as needed to ensure a smooth implementation for all stakeholders.”
PresenceLearning’s clinicians use the company’s proprietary, feature-rich therapy platform, which integrates traditional therapy materials such as assessments, class assignments, games, and more, with a unique video conferencing experience that enables them to work with students in any location. During the therapy sessions, clinicians view the student from multiple angles while working on engaging activities within the platform.
“As our district was looking at teletherapy options, PresenceLearning’s proprietary platform really stood out,” said Davis. “Being able to securely share data is a priority, so having this functionality was a huge asset and selling point for us in choosing PresenceLearning as our sole teletherapy provider.”
Through its online therapy solution offerings, PresenceLearning is increasing access to special education service providers and enabling schools to better utilize the national workforce of clinicians thus, in turn, decreasing the number of students going unserved. The company has shown that the online delivery of related services is practical, convenient, and highly effective.
To learn more about PresenceLearning, visit www.presencelearning.com.
About PresenceLearning
PresenceLearning, Inc. is the leading provider of live online special education-related services to K-12 schools. The company connects speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavioral and mental health professionals with students through its proprietary online platform, and has delivered more than 2.5 million teletherapy sessions at hundreds of K-12 schools and districts across the U.S. through its network of nearly 1,000 certified clinicians. Investors in the company include Catalyst Investors, Catamount Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, New Markets Venture Partners, and Blue Heron Capital. For more information, visit https://presencelearn.wpengine.com.
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Christine Lynch, Public Relations for PresenceLearning
410.975.9638
christine@kehcomm.com