Hernando workshop reviews plan to buy virtual speech therapy to cover IEP services
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Summary
District staff and Presence Learning representatives described a proposed one-year, IDEA-funded contract for virtual speech-language services to cover students with IEPs and private-school proportionate share; board members pressed for the contract, budget details and the vendor agreement before voting.
Hernando County School District staff on Oct. 7 presented a proposal to contract with Presence Learning to provide virtual speech-language therapy for students with individualized education programs (IEPs), saying the service would help the district meet legal obligations amid local staffing shortages.
The presentation described a year-to-year contract to be paid from IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) grant funds and to include proportionate-share services for eligible private-school students. Presence Learning staff said they would supply certified clinicians, the district would set student access and data-sharing rules, and sessions would be delivered on a proprietary teletherapy platform.
District Director of Exceptional Student Education Anna Jensen said the purchase would “ensure that all students with individual education plans receive the services outlined in their plans, particularly in the area of speech and language therapy.” Jensen and Supervisor Stephanie Duran said the contract is intended to address local shortages of in-person speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and to maintain compliance with federal special-education requirements.
Paige Dershell, school partnership director for Presence Learning, and Sheila Spraggins, a speech-language pathologist with the company, described the vendor’s experience and service model. Presence Learning told the board it has provided teletherapy since 2009, works with thousands of clinicians nationwide and offers a therapy-specific platform that the company says is FERPA- and HIPAA-compliant.
Board members asked detailed questions about how the service would operate in schools and how student privacy and data access would be handled. Presence representatives said students would be assigned a consistent therapist (not a rotating queue) and that student information would not be shared with outside partners; only the clinician assigned to a child would have access. Presence staff also said clinicians assigned to Hernando would be state-licensed and that bilingual clinicians are available for bilingual assessments.
Board members pressed for financial details and contractual documents before final action. Presenters said the contract would be funded from the district’s IDEA grant and that the vendor charges an hourly rate of $73. The packet and presenters gave different totals during the workshop: slides and discussion referenced $445,000 in the packet, while one speaker briefly said $455,000; presenters said Medicaid reimbursements could offset part of the cost. District staff agreed to provide the vendor contract, the piggyback procurement documents and a clearer budget breakdown before the item returns to the board for consideration.
District staff described operational details presented to the board: the initial service allocation would supply roughly 75 therapy hours per week across the affected schools, delivered by three Presence clinicians, with the ability to scale hours up or down. Presenters said roughly 20 hours per week would serve three middle schools and one high school, and about 40 hours per week would cover elementary-level needs; the remainder accounted for planning, paperwork and Medicaid billing activities. Compensatory minutes owed to students would be scheduled and recorded as part of the vendor’s service delivery.
Board members voiced mixed reactions. Some members said they preferred in-person therapy when available but accepted virtual therapy as preferable to providing no services. Others urged caution because the proposed contract would consume a large portion of the district’s IDEA contract-services budget and might leave limited funds for other contracted needs. Board members asked that the district keep SLP job postings open and reduce vendor hours if in-person hires are made.
District staff said the contract does not automatically renew and that the item will be brought back to a future meeting with the requested contract and budget materials so the board can review terms and make a decision.
The workshop did not include a formal vote on the contract; presenters and board members agreed to return the item to the board with contract documents and a clearer budget break down for a future meeting.
