A Guide to Your First Day as a School Speech Therapist

Updated: Jul 16

Embarking on your first day as a speech therapist in a school can be both exhilarating and nerve-wracking.

Whether you’re fresh out of grad school, transitioning from a different setting, or moving to a new school, I've got essential tips and strategies to help you navigate your first day with confidence.

Let's kickstart your school year with ease and confidence!

Start Here

🔴 Locate your office or speech room

🔴 Get keys needed to access all staff locations on campus (e.g. school building, staff bathroom, speech room, etc.)

🔴 Get a map of the campus

Meet the Staff

🟠 Meet the principal, assistant principal, office staff, SPED staff, SPED director, etc.

🟠 Create a staff contact information log including phone extensions & email - or ask office staff if there is a school-wide/district-wide staff log

🟠 If it's a small school, you may want to walk around and casually intorduce yourself to teachers - if you're in a larger school, you may want to introduce yourself to the teachers in self-contained classrooms that you'll be working with (they will likely be case managers for the students you share so it's a good idea to have a good working relationship with them)

Technology

🟡 Get your email & office phone number

🟡 Get logins for your computer, Medicaid billing, IEP web program, etc.

🟡 Access your caseload

Email Teachers

🟢 Introduce yourself (check out this editable Meet the SLP resource)

🟢 Let them know how they can get in touch with you

🟢 Notify them that first draft of therapy schedule will be emailed by the end

of the week and that it is *subject to change

🟢 Communicate the speech evaluation referral process (e.g. Google Form, RTI/MTSS) - if you're not sure yet, or you still need to set this up, then create a draft of your email so it's ready to send later in the week once you've figured out the referral process