Casey Oliver, M.S., CCC-SLP

Community Speech Pathology Services in the Sacramento Area

Catholic school students and their families have several options for speech pathology services in the Sacramento area.  For your convenience, some of these options are listed below.

• Public school districts offer assessment services at no cost for private school students suspected of having speech/language disabilities to determine eligibility for special education services.  Speech therapy services are free of charge for students that meet eligibility requirements.  Assessment and therapy services are also available for preschoolers.  Families can contact the local school district special education office or the speech therapist at the public school the child would normally attend, according to his or her home address, for more information.

• Parents may also choose to obtain services from community speech-language pathology practices or clinics.  Depending upon a student’s insurance coverage, all or part of the expenses for services may be covered.  If using medical insurance benefits for services, families should check with their insurance companies and make sure that they are requesting services from a preferred provider.  Families can also check the business listings in the phone book under "speech pathology/therapy" or complete an internet search for "Sacramento California speech pathology services" to get a list of private practices and clinics in the area.  The American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) also has an online directory of speech pathology and audiology programs called ProSearch that can accessed by following this link: http://www.asha.org/findpro/.

• The Sacramento Scottish Rite Masonic Center Childhood Language Disorders Clinic offers free speech-language pathology services for families who meet certain qualifications.  For more information, call (916) 731-4357 or visit their website: http://www.srsac-cldc.org/Language Center.htm.

• The Maryjane Rees Language, Speech and Hearing Center at California State University, Sacramento offers reduced-cost speech pathology assessment and therapy services to the community.  For more information, call (916) 278-6601 or visit their website: http://www.hhs.csus.edu/spa/clinic.html.

• Catholic school families may also benefit from services provided by the Alta California Regional Center (ACRC).  Early intervention services are available for infants and toddlers under the age of 3 with speech and language delays.  Please call the Early Intervention Intake Coordinators at (916) 978-6249 for more information or visit their website: http://www.altaregional.org.  In addition to early intervention services, ACRC also provides comprehensive services for people with developmental disabilities in our community.

I am continually looking for additional community resources for Catholic school families.  If you have information about community resources not on this list, please send an email to OSLPVA on the Contact OSLPVA page.  Thank you!