How One School Beat the Odds with PresenceLearning, Response to Intervention

PresenceLearning allows for flexible scheduling, and is in many ways a cost effective alternative to hiring an in-school speech therapist. The program is browser based, so there is no software purchase necessary. The only equipment schools need to invest in is a web camera and headphones for each student.

Many K-12 schools do not have room in their budgets to hire more than one or two in-school speech pathologists, making it difficult for them to spend enough time with each student to focus on their individual needs and progression. PresenceLearning provides a speech pathologist for both individual and small group work at LPUSD, allowing for flexibility in scheduling and personalized instruction. With three computers running at one time in the speech room, multiple students can participate in therapy sessions simultaneously.

“Students always work with the same therapist and that’s really important. The key part of the success the kids at Lone Pine have been experiencing is their ongoing relationship with their therapists who know their IEP, who understand their goals and who understand what motivates them to help them learn. It’s really a relationship they build and we are fortunate to have a lot of flexibility,” says Whitehead.

Along with the benefit of enabling personalized instruction for students, the cost of implementing and using PresenceLearning is about half the price of what Lone Pine would pay to have someone on staff and physically in the school.

“You don’t have to pay retirement or workers’ comp. It’s a big bang for your buck and more effective. If a kid misses a session, it’s always made up, and you can have three kids going at once without interfering with each other,” says Cianfarano.

With nearly 70% of its students socioeconomically disadvantaged, PresenceLearning has helped LPUSD students overcome their speech and literacy challenges and prevented students from falling behind their fellow classmates. Coupled with response to intervention, PresenceLearning has helped increase student achievement in LPUSD, and has paved the way for continued student success.

“For me, anything we purchase has to increase student achievement. The only reason people mop the floors, teach in classes, serve food, drive buses and have a job here is to increase overall student achievement. By using PresenceLearning, coupled with response to intervention and early literacy efforts, we are beating the odds by design. PresenceLearning adds value to Lone Pine Unified School District’s mission to equip every student with academic, personal, and social achievement tools needed for success, and that is the competitive advantage,” says Dr. Cianfarano.

Watch the video below to learn how PresenceLearning helped Dr. Cianfarano’s son achieve more in school through online speech therapy.