Action | Practice by assistant speech-language pathologists |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 1/29/2016 |
On the plus side, this proposal includes a good restriction in that an SLP may only supervise two Assistants at a time - this is crucial so that employers do not water down professional services by spreading fully licensed SLPs over many assistants. However, Virginia should require Assistants to be licensed. This proposal leaves too much unsaid about the qualifications required. It states that the Assistant must have an Associate's or Bachelor's Degree without specifying the discipline in which the degree is earned. Virginia qualifications should follow other states with successful SLP Assistant Programs already in place (e.g. North Carolina) and specifically state the degree requirements. For example, in North Carolina the Assistant must be licensed by the same state Board that licenses full SLPs, and the degree requirement is an Associate's Degree from a Speech Language Pathology Assistant program, or a Bachelor's degree with specific course requirements in speech pathology. Maybe Virginia should do require the same.