running the show...

[Marcie Selvaggio]

Hi Carla!

I work for a very large school district in the Chicago, Illinois area.  We currently employ 3
full-time music therapists who service pre-school  through high school students (special needs).
I've been in the district for seven years and my predecessor for 10 years before me.  One thing we
did early on in our program development was tell supervisors and parents that individuals CANNOT be
IEP'd for music therapy services (we allow "music therapist will be available on a consultation
basis as requested by certified staff.").  This allows us to spend 100% of our time providing direct
service rather than sitting in meetings.  I know that this is not ideal but when working for a
public school where new staff hires are always about 2 years behind what the need is it is a
necessity and has helped us to maintain an effective program.

Currently I work about 40 hours a week and see  400(+) students.  I have 34 sections that I see 1
time per week for 25-30 minutes.    I would suggest prioritizing your classes and setting them to
receive service at different levels rather than generalizing all of them to twice/week service.  We
recently had to re-prioritize due to lack of additional staff and now some of our pre-school (speech
and language) classes only receive service every-other week.  It is difficult to say that certain
children "don't need service",  after all who couldn't use a little music therapy from time to time!

The classes we service currently are TMH, MHPH, Cross Categorical Kindergarten, Self-contained
pre-school and blended (8 at-risk, 4 special-ed and up to 4 typical 3-5 year olds per class).  We
also offer support to our Music Ed staff for integration/maintreamed students.


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