Direct Contact Hour RequirementS

The Clinical Practicum and Field Placement Sequence is designed to give students a broad experience with a variety of client/patient populations, including direct client/patient contact with both children and adults with a range of communicative and swallowing disorders and differences and cultural/linguistic backgrounds. At least 400 direct contact hours (including the 25 guided observation hours earned prior to starting practicum) are required by the Council for Clinical Certification in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CFCC) and for graduation from the Department of CSD. Direct contact hours are “face-to-face” and directly involve the client/patient via assessment, treatment, counseling, etc. under the supervision of a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist. Documentation, treatment planning, chart reviews, and team meetings do not count towards direct contact hours. Further details regarding direct contact hours are found on the ASHA website.

It is important that ASHA and NYS does not require a specific breakdown of hours across pediatric and adult populations. Students should log their hours holistically based on assessment procedures and goals targeted across each session.

To ensure that students have enough opportunities to develop and strengthen their clinical competencies, students must meet the following minimum requirements during each field placement experience:

Field Placement III: To ensure that students have enough opportunities to develop and strengthen their clinical competencies and prepare for advance field placements, students attending Field Placement III earned a suggested minimum target of 75 direct contact hours with at least 5 diagnostic hours prior to completion.
Field Placement IV: Suggested minimum target of 150 direct contact hours
Field Placement V: Suggested minimum target of 150 direct contact hours

Across the Clinical Practicum and Field Placement Sequence, NYU and ASHA require students to earn a minimum of 375 direct contact hours. NYU requires a minimum of 150 direct contact hours with the pediatric population to satisfy NY State’s TSSLD requirement. All students will participate in a school setting during their practicum sequence. Either all or some of those pediatric hours will be completed in a school setting. The Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders (CSD) requires that all students must earn a minimum of 5 diagnostic hours over the Clinical Practicum and Field Placement Sequence (Practicum I-V). These diagnostic hours can be with either the adult or pediatric population. It is always encouraged to take advantage of every diagnostic opportunity. In accordance with New York State regulations, at least 325 of these hours must be direct non-simulated hours earned at the graduate-level. Students are strongly encouraged to surpass the direct contact hour minimum requirements as it is to a student’s advantage to gain additional experience above the minimums.

ASHA does not state a specific amount of hours to be earned at a field placement, they require breadth and depth of clinical learning. Students must spend enough time at a site to demonstrate mastery of clinical and non-clinical competencies. Our department has strongly suggested direct contact hour targets to help you calculate the most efficient and effective way to earn a minimum of 375 direct contact hours (i.e. Practicum III: 75 direct contact hours; Practicum IV/V: 150 direct contact hours). Most students do surpass their direct contact hour requirement by the end of their Practicum Sequence experience, thereby meeting all New York State and ASHA standards. The CSD Department will not count a student’s primary field placement experience if less than 50 direct contact hours are earned. Supervisors need to assess a student’s progress and competencies and anything less is not a viable experience. This does not include secondary placements that may be used for supplemental learning. Should a student be concerned about not meeting the 50 direct contact hour minimum due to unexpected events (e.g. low census, a client may get sick, or your site supervisor may be absent for a given time), the student must alert the CFPT as soon as possible and will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

As soon as students are placed for Practicum IV and V, it is recommended that students discuss with their supervisor(s) the following:

If the supervisor’s schedule allows, start their field placement before the start of the term as long as it does not conflict with the end date of their previous field placement.
Establish a supervisor-approved plan to attend their field placement at a higher cadence (e.g. 4-5 days per week) to maximize clinical opportunities from the start of their placement.
- Prioritizing attendance is important for consistent learning and hour accrual.

Please refer to the Incomplete Direct Contact Hour & Attendance Requirements for ‘Last Semester Graduating Students’ section additional details surrounding why the aforementioned is recommended.

Each semester, it is the student’s responsibility to:

Log all direct contact hours on a daily basis into CALIPSO and monitor their assessment and treatment hour accrual.
Inform the Clinical Field Placement Team (CFPT) of any difficulty earning hours at their site as soon as possible to allow for the necessary time to troubleshoot to maximize all clinical opportunities at their site (e.g., increasing frequency attendance and reviewing the field placement timeline).
- Suggested outcomes are based on a case-by-case basis and the student’s place in the Clinical Practicum and Field Placement Sequence is heavily considered.
Adhere to the Field Placement Absence Policy

ASHA states that it is at the discretion of the graduate program to determine how many direct contact hours obtained at the undergraduate level may be used to satisfy a shortage of direct contact hours. The Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders will review and accept direct contact hours earned during a students’ undergraduate course of study on a case-by-case basis during a student's final semester. Students are responsible for providing the Clinical Field Placement Team with documentation of these hours with supervisor signatures in order to be approved.

Earning Hours Across ASHA's Big 9

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.

Incomplete Direct Contact Hour & Attendance Requirements

Second to last semester students (e.g., Prac IV OR Prac V) who do not meet the minimum of 50 direct contact hour requirements at the end of the semester OR do not attend their field placement for the minimum of 12 weeks will earn a grade of Incomplete for their Practicum Seminar Course until the hours and/or weeks are completed. Specific situations may lead to outcomes that may include stepping out of the Clinical Practicum and Field Placement Sequence and extending their plan of study until outstanding requirements are met, creation of a Practicum Success Plan (PSP), weekly meetings with specific teams, etc.

Last Semester Graduating Students

Effective Spring 2024, New York University has communicated that all graduating students must complete clinical and academic requirements, including all direct contact hours, no later than the last day of final exam week of their graduating term.

Students in their last term who have less than the required 375 direct contact hours by the last day of final exam week will be:

assigned a grade of “Incomplete” and are
required to register for CSCD-GE 2119 Field Placement Practicum VI* the following term regardless of the amount of hours needed.
- Students will be financially responsible for Practicum VI
- A plan of study update is needed due to Practicum VI delaying their graduation/degree conferral to the following term if/when the 375 direct hours are completed.

The Clinical Field Placement Team (CFPT) cannot accommodate student requests for secondary sites or guarantee that all direct contact hours will be earned by the semester end date. In order for the CFPT to provide students with optimal guidance throughout the field placement sequence, it is critical that students log direct contact hours daily. This allows the CFPT to have the best representation of the remaining hours a student may need at any given point in the term (this has also been detailed and reinforced in MS Seminars throughout the program of study). Students who anticipate not being able to meet the required direct contact hours by the end of the term should inform both the CFPT and Academic Advising Team as soon as possible.

*The Practicum IV or V “Incomplete” and Practicum VI grades will be updated to P/F in accordance with the Practicum IV or V syllabus upon completion of attaining the 375 direct contact hours.

What are direct contact hours?

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.

What does logging direct contact hours "creatively" mean?

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.

What are the Teaching Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD) direct contact hour requirements for students?

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.

What are the Bilingual Extension Track (BET) TSSLD direct contact hour requirements for students?

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) .

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