Students must log direct contact hours holistically across the Big Nine areas and across the lifespan areas of practice to ensure the depth and breadth of knowledge required by Standards IV and V. ASHA's “Big Nine” communication domains (articulation, fluency, voice/resonance, receptive/expressive language, hearing, swallowing, cognitive aspects of communication, social aspects of communication, communication modalities). 

Direct contact hours are acquired: 

• Under the supervision of a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist who has met the ASHA supervisory requirement.

• Via “face-to-face” or direct care via assessment, treatment, or counseling, completed in the presence of an individual and/or their caregiver(s).

• In addition to traditional assessment or treatment, this may include: 

• Family history interviews.

• Explaining evaluation results and treatment plans

  • Per ASHA, IEP meetings do not fall under this category due to the variability of the level of involvement of each clinician.

• Individualized family training and education (e.g., demonstrating skills, programming AAC devices).

• Counseling might include working with parents on therapy goals, updating on therapy progress, and evaluation results etc. 

Scheduled hours (i.e. daily hours spent at your field placement) requirements include:

• Direct contact hours (as noted above) in addition to other non-direct contact hour tasks.

• These non-direct contact hour tasks may include, but are not limited to: documentation, treatment planning, chart reviews, and team meetings.  In addition, this will include your lunch break.

• Non-direct contact hour tasks do not count towards the direct contact hour requirement but are equally important and are a required part of the scheduled days at your field placement(s).

Unless it falls under the aforementioned, documentation, planning, research, chart review, team meetings, and IEP meetings are not considered direct contact hours and should not be logged in CALIPSO.  Further details regarding direct contact hours are found on the ASHA website.

ASHA and NY State do not require a specific breakdown of hours across pediatric and adult populations, students should make all attempts to earn diagnostic and treatment hours across ASHA's “Big Nine” (articulation, fluency, voice/resonance, receptive/expressive language, hearing, swallowing, cognitive aspects of communication, social aspects of communication, communication modalities).  Students should log their hours holistically based on assessment and treatment procedures and goals targeted across each session.  Students are responsible for individual state licensure requirements, which may have differing hour requirements.

Students are encouraged to log direct contact hours creatively and when applicable account for all areas across the Big Nine during assessment and/or treatment sessions.  Clients are viewed in a holistic manner, and direct contact hours can be logged based on the amount of time spent on assessing and/or treating each area of ASHA’s Big Nine areas of practice, which include:1. Speech sound production, 2. Fluency and fluency disorders, 3. Voice and resonance, 4. Receptive and expressive language, 5. Hearing, 6. Swallowing/feeding, 7. Cognitive aspects of communication, 8. Social aspects of communication, and 9. Augmentative and alternative communication modalities

Students are also able to earn diagnostic hours through the use of both standardized and non-standardized assessment methodologies.  Not all assessments are standardized, formal evaluations. Some assessments are done informally to gauge a patient’s current level of function to drive therapy or monitor progress towards therapy goals.  When logging hours creatively, students are encouraged to provide supervisors with a rationale for all hour submissions.  If you encounter any questions or concerns surrounding your student's direct contact hour submission, please reach out to a member of the Clinical Field Placement Team for further clarification.

New York University’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders (CSD) is a New York State Education Department (NYSED) approved program. Therefore, the department has embedded the requirements for the Initial New York State Certification for Teaching Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD) into their program. The TSSLD is a certificate required for teaching children with speech and language disabilities in public, private, and/or special schools approved by the NYSED. The Department of CSD has all students complete their pediatric field placement in a school setting. This allows for students to meet the necessary NY state requirements including:

• • Exposure to working in a private or public state-registered school setting.

  • 150 direct contact hours (treatment and diagnostic) with students with speech and language disabilities from early childhood to adolescence.

  • Supervision with a speech-language pathologist who has their TSSLD or TSHH.

All students working with children will need to be additionally fingerprinted through the NYSED or the Department of Investigation (DOI).  Fingerprinting through the NYSED or the DOI does not fulfill criminal background check requirements for medical institutions. 

Students placed at the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE) will need to complete an additional background check through their specific system and fingerprinting at the NYC DOE Brooklyn headquarters. 

All students must meet the TSSLD requirements.  However, students seeking teacher certification outside of NY State should refer to the Licensure and Certification in States Other Than NY page in the MS Guide for additional information individual state requirements may differ.

Effective Fall 2022, students accepted and enrolled in the department of CSD’s Bilingual Extension Track (BET) are eligible to apply  for the New York State bilingual certification as an extension to the TSSLD teaching certificate, upon successful completion of the MS program requirements. Students are formally admitted and enroll in the BET following deposit per the admissions process individualized to each modality (please see the How to Apply section of the BET website).

Students will complete specific academic coursework embedded in their Plan of Study and participate in one* field placement experience consisting of clinical experiences with children between the ages of 3-21 years old in the NYC area.  Additionally, all BET students will:

• Participate in a  school setting

• Earn a minimum of 50 bilingual direct contact hours with the school-age population under the supervision of a NYS certified bilingual speech-language pathologist (CCC-SLP, TSSLD-BE).

• *Should all 50 bilingual direct contact hours not be met in the one experience, an additional opportunity in the NYC area will be provided to ensure that you meet this requirement

*The Clinical Field Placement Team will make every effort to find sites within the NYC area that will facilitate accrual of the 50 bilingual direct contact hours with a supervisor with the extension in your target language; however, there are no guarantees. 

BET students will be eligible to take the New York State Bilingual Education Assessment (NYS BEA) exam through the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) . 

Telepractice 

The Department of CSD supports the use of telepractice in accordance with ASHA’s 2020 Standards and Implementation Procedures for the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (Refer to Standard V-C):

• Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) allowances for graduate student telepractice while being telesupervised: 

  • Supervisors and students are responsible for researching your state's rules and regulations surrounding telepractice and how/when hours can be earned.  

  • Field placement supervisors may telesupervise more than 1 session delivered via telepractice that is taking place at the same time 

  • Field placement supervisors must be available 100% of the time for each session

    • The student clinician can connect with the field placement supervisor in real-time to troubleshoot

    • The supervisor is available to jump into the session at any given point

• Field placement supervisors must provide no less than 25% direct supervision of the total contact time with each client/patient (similar to in-person supervision requirements)

  • Supervision should begin at 100% of the student clinician’s activities and may gradually be reduced, but never to less than 25% of the time, over the course of the supervisory experience. The level of supervision should be adjusted according to both the student clinician’s skills and the client’s needs, to remain compliant with ASHA requirements.

• All clinical educators and graduate students must ensure that telepractice and telesupervision are completed in accordance with HIPAA, FERPA, and prevailing local, state, and/or federal regulations

  • ASHA State-by-State

• Students must log all hours in CALIPSO according to each modality (e.g., telepractice).  Additionally, they are responsible for monitoring their direct contact hours to ensure hour accrual is in accordance with ASHA's 2022 telepractice guidelines detailed above.

Telepractice Guidelines For Graduate Students Initiating Their Graduate Program On Or Before December 31, 2022:

As per ASHA’s Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CFCC), all students who begin their graduate program at a CAA-accredited or CAA-candidacy program on or before December 31, 2022, may engage in telepractice and telesupervision using the 2022 guidelines below for the entirety of their graduate academic and clinical practicum experience.  Graduate student clinicians may engage in service delivery through telepractice as outlined below:

For purposes of ASHA certification, one of the following must be provided on site and in person:
(a) at least 50% of supervised clinical practicum between January – June 2022
OR
(b) a cumulative 125 hours of supervised clinical practicum across the graduate program

Telepractice Guidelines For Graduate Students Initiating Their Graduate Program On Or After January 1, 2023:

As per ASHA’s Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CFCC) Standard V-C, all students who begin their graduate program at a CAA-accredited or CAA-candidacy program on or after January 1, 2023, may engage in telepractice and telesupervision using the guidelines below for the entirety of their graduate academic and clinical practicum experience.

At the discretion of the graduate program and when permitted by the employer/practicum site and by prevailing regulatory body/bodies—and when deemed appropriate for the client/patient/student and the applicant’s skill level—the applicant may provide services via telepractice. The clinical educator/supervisor, responsible for the client/patient/student and graduate student, should be comfortable, familiar, and skilled in providing and supervising services that are delivered through telepractice.  Graduate student clinicians may engage in service delivery through telepractice as outlined below:

• A minimum of 250 hours of supervised clinical practicum within the graduate program must be acquired through on-site and in-person direct contact hours 

Please review the additional resources, which provide guidance surrounding telepractice:

• ASHA CoronaVirus Updates: telepractice section

• Telepractice: Overview

• Telepractice: Ethical Considerations