After Years of Using Zoom for Teletherapy |
By: Eric DeGrove, Founder & CEO, Blink Session Sep 29 , 2020 |
At Blink Session our goal is to help your organization treat online, but we also know factors like funding are critical to getting started.
Blink Session is conducting a nationwide survey of school therapist's use of teletherapy in the 2020-21 school year. We are still collecting responses here. To date, the overwhelming response has been that school districts have expected their Special Education Departments to use the same technology for virtual care that they provided for other education.
Having helped school teletherapy programs succeed over the last three years, we have we can confirm that achieving therapy goals online with only typical educational or video conferencing technology will be difficult. If that is true, why are schools only providing a Zoom or Google Meet account to therapists during COVID-19? There are two reasons.
1) SPED departments are unaware that special software for teletherapy exists, particularly for online speech, OT, and behavioral therapy.
2) SPED departments do not have or not aware of funding to purchase technology.
My goal here to make you aware of potential funding sources for teletherapy technology. The Blink Session Teletherapy platform is eligible for federal, state, and local funding sources. Below you will find links to federal and state funding opportunities.
Below are funding opportunities at the federal level that might be available for your school district.
Title I Part A: Provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.
IDEA:Provides assistance to states in providing a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment for children with disabilities ages 3 through 21.
Student Support and Academic Enrichment Program: Provides assistance to help improve student’s academic achievement by increasing the capacity of States, local educational agencies, schools and local communities to: (1) provide all students with access to a well-rounded education; (2) improve school conditions for student learning; and (3) improve the use of technology in order to improve the academic achievement and digital literacy for all students.
If you would like help navigating the list above, sign up for a free consultation
to talk to our team.