Clinical Program Challenges
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association calls speech-language pathologists experts in communication. But that special expertise requires a rigorous education, including an extensive clinical program. Prominent universities like Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Northwestern University in Chicago, and Purdue University in West Lafayette maintain leading speech-language pathology programs. Many other colleges and universities also maintain rigorous speech-language pathology programs, a degree from which they can have a great job and career value. Yet the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association warns of the special challenges, like scheduling the practicum, financial strains, vague standards, and outdated educational models, that students can face within those programs. And those challenges can include misconduct charges relating to incomplete or falsified clinical hours and similar irregularities. Don't face those challenges alone. Instead, get the professional representation you need. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento if you are a speech-language pathology student facing disciplinary charges for falsifying clinical hours or other misconduct.
Falsifying Clinical Hours
When the pressures of a speech-language pathology program mount, one of the first places those pressures can affect are clinical hours. Speech-language pathology clinical work can be demanding. It can also be routine, mundane, and at times when patients are unavailable and other duties complete, even boring and aimless. Clinical sites may also not have clear accountability measures in place, like time clocks or staff members counting attendance hours. If a speech-language pathology student feels forced to cut corners, clinical hours may be one of the first and best opportunities the student perceives for cutting those corners. Speech-language pathology programs know these temptations. Programs like Rush University's Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology maintain student codes and handbooks explicitly prohibiting the falsification of clinical hours. Rush University's student guidebook for its speech-language pathology program specifically warns that "keeping inaccurate records of supervised clinical education hours" is sanctionable academic dishonesty. These explicit warnings show that speech-language pathology programs know of the falsified hours' issue and are prepared to detect and sanction it as misconduct. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you defend and defeat falsified clinical hours charges.
Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Hours Requirements
Speech-language pathology programs have substantial clinical hours requirements. Those requirements are necessary to satisfy accreditors of the rigor of their program. Baylor University's master of science in communication sciences and disorders is an example. Baylor's student handbook for that program requires four-hundred clinical hours. That requirement amounts to a solid ten weeks of forty hours each week solely of clinical rounds under supervision, although the program spreads those hours out over three practicum levels plus the internship. Baylor's student handbook does more than just require hundreds of supervised clinical hours. It also requires that the student accurately document those hours, certifying that they are accurate, and warns that failure to complete the hours may delay program progress: "Students who do not meet the minimum hour requirements may experience a delay in their program due to not meeting ASHA requirements for graduation." Baylor's student handbook further warns that a "hard deadline for completion of the 400 clock hours for all internship students will be set at the beginning of the internship trimester prior to graduation. If the 400 hours are not completed on the designated date by midnight, the student will be given an incomplete [and] not officially graduate or receive a degree ...." Speech-language pathology students know they must complete clinical hours, which simply adds to the pressure to exaggerate, misrepresent, or outright falsify those hours.
Detecting Falsified Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Hours
Speech-language pathology programs put into place documentation requirements to be able to prove that students are completing required clinical hours. Accreditation standards require speech-language pathology programs not only to offer enough clinical hours to ensure graduate competency but also to supply documentation of those hours in accreditation reviews and audits. The Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology maintains an accreditation handbook detailing those documentation requirements. When a clinic supervisor, clinic student, or clinic support staff member suspects that a student is falsifying clinical hours documentation, they are likely to report the suspected misconduct. Duties to report misconduct by others are common among self-policing professions. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Code of Ethics expressly includes duties to report colleague misconduct. Other students may report falsified hours simply out of resentment over the other student's unfair advantage. Indeed, a student's failure to report could also implicate that student in the falsification, giving students other incentives to hold their peers accountable. Falsified hours get detected.
Program Rules Prohibiting Falsified Hours
Speech-language pathology programs maintain student codes of conduct and professionalism that prohibit academic dishonesty, including falsifying clinical hours. Vanderbilt University's Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, for instance, maintains a student handbook that requires students to attend all clinical assignments and sessions and to report and remediate any absences. Vanderbilt's speech-language pathology program student handbook incorporates the university's honor code requiring honesty and integrity in all academic and other school matters. Universities treat honor code violations seriously. Another example is Baylor University's graduate student handbook for its master of science in communication sciences and disorders. The student handbook expressly prohibits dishonesty in any work for academic credit, including falsifying or misrepresenting that work. Both the Vanderbilt University and Baylor University program handbooks incorporate university policies authorizing discipline from reprimand up to suspension or expulsion. Falsifying clinical hours is no light matter, especially if it leaves the student unqualified to perform competently, exposing patients to injury. Programs may not take falsified hours lightly. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you defend disciplinary charges alleging falsification of clinical hours.
Disciplinary Procedures for Falsified Clinical Hours
Fortunately, speech-language pathology programs won't generally dismiss or otherwise severely sanction a student for falsified hours without giving the student a chance to contest and defeat the charges. Constitutional due process, contractual commitments, and basic fairness may all warrant fair notice and a reasonable opportunity for hearing on the charges. Baylor University's graduate student handbook for its master of science in communication sciences and disorders, for example, promises investigation and referral to its Honor Council for a hearing on the matter. Rush University's student manual for its speech-language pathology program, for another example, promises accused students that they will meet with the department chair over any such charges and that the department chair will also confer with the program director before making any finding or imposing any sanction. The department chair's decision must be in writing, and the university promises to afford the student an appeal to the Department Advisory Committee. If your speech-language pathology program has accused you of falsifying clinical hours, retain premier school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to strategically deploy your program's disciplinary procedures. Those procedures can make a difference in avoiding disciplinary sanctions.
Consequences for Falsifying Clinical Hours
The consequences of falsifying clinical hours in a speech-language pathology program can be severe, up to expulsion from the program. Baylor University's graduate student handbook for its master of science in communication sciences and disorders, for example, permits the instructor to require the student to repeat the work or perform extra work. The instructor may also lower the student's grade or enter a failing grade. The university's Honor Council may impose more serious penalties, including suspension or expulsion in appropriate cases. Rush University's student manual for its speech-language pathology program, for another example, incorporates the university's catalog providing for misconduct sanctions from a warning, probation, loss of privileges, and educational referrals, up to suspension or expulsion. Your speech-language pathology program will authorize similar sanctions. The collateral consequences of a finding that you falsified clinical hours may be just as severe or more severe. You may lose mentor references and recommendations, employment opportunities, and even university housing, medical care, and transportation in the case of suspension or expulsion. You may also find that your friends and even family members treat you differently. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you avoid or minimize these consequences. Skilled representation can make the difference between losing or preserving your speech-language pathology education.
Misconduct Appeals
Misconduct appeals can correct harsh, inaccurate, unsupported, or unnecessary findings and sanctions in falsified hours cases. Speech-language pathology programs and their supporting graduate schools and universities frequently offer some form of appeal review. An appeal takes the decision out of the hands of the investigator and initial decision maker in favor of an independent official or panel. Appeals give the matter a fresh look. For example, Purdue University's speech-language pathology program graduate handbook assures the accused student of an appeal to the Graduate Committee when disciplinary officials do not resolve the charges to the student's satisfaction in the first decision. Baylor University's graduate student handbook, for another example, incorporates the university's appeal policy and procedure, giving the accused student a first appeal to the department chair and subsequent appeals to the school's dean and then the university provost and academic appeals committee. Appeals, though, generally require that you show an error or irregularity in the initial decision. That showing can require a close review of the hearing record, legal research and analysis, and a compelling appeal brief and presentation with supporting documentation. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento for your appeal of program sanctions.
Alternative Special Relief from Falsified Hours Sanctions
You may, on your own, have already pursued the above hearing and appeals procedures but still face severe sanctions that prevent you from pursuing your speech-language pathology education and career. Don't give up if so. You may have alternative special relief through your program's oversight officials. Universities and their schools and programs keep oversight functions in place to ensure that the discipline or other treatment of students doesn't create undue risks of liability, litigation, and regulatory review. A speech-language pathology program that mistreats a student with harsh, unnecessary, or unsupported sanctions, or violates the student's other rights, undermines the university's educational goals. Universities maintain general counsel offices, outside retained counsel, and other oversight offices to review discipline and other program actions. School discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento has the national reputation and relationships to successfully negotiate with those oversight officials for relief outside of the usual channels. Attorney advisor Lento has done so in many cases. Trust your matter to attorney advisor Lento even if you feel that you've exhausted all avenues.
Premier Attorney Advisor Available
You know the value of your speech-language pathology education. You doubtless anticipate a rewarding job and career. You also know the substantial investment you have made in your speech-language pathology education. Don't ignore or underestimate those rewards or that investment. Instead, devote the time, effort, and resources toward successfully defending and defeating your falsified clinical hours' charges. Defending a speech-language pathology program's charge of falsified clinical hours requires special advocacy skills that local criminal defense attorneys generally do not have. Properly handling an academic administrative proceeding involving misconduct charges requires knowledge of academic rules and procedures and sensitivity to academic customs, norms, and expectations. Those customs and procedures are entirely different from criminal court procedures. For your best outcome, you should instead retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento. Attorney advisor Lento has the special knowledge, skills, and experience you need in your unique academic, administrative matter. Don't make your matter worse by retaining unqualified counsel. Attorney advisor Lento has successfully represented hundreds of students nationwide in defending and defeating misconduct charges of all kinds in academic administrative proceedings. Trust attorney Lento to handle your speech-language pathology misconduct charges. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain attorney advisor Lento.
