Expanding Access to Critical Services for Students

Portfolio Link Arrow presencelearning.com
  • STATUS

    Active

  • YEAR

    2019

  • LOCATION

    New York, New York

  • IMPACT METRICS
    Company data as of Dec 31, 2021
    Districts served by Title 11 eligibility
    62%
    Rural districts
    64%
    Urban districts
    17%
    Suburban districts
    17%
     

    1Schools in which children from low-income families make up at least 40 percent of enrollment are eligible to use Title I funds to operate schoolwide programs that serve all children in the school in order to raise the achievement of the lowest-achieving students

  • B IMPACT SCORE
    72
    2020
MISSION STATEMENT

Through an elevated approach to teletherapy, expand access to special education and mental health services in PreK-12 schools, and engage students in new ways with Presence’s award-winning technology and network of expert clinicians.

Opportunity

Schools across the U.S. are in a moment of crisis as they work to serve the rising numbers of students with special education and mental health needs, all while they experience record-high provider shortages. Presence has curated a network of over 2,000 highly-qualified clinicians to expand access to the critical services students need in schools. By offering remote work options for providers and enabling schools to access the skilled clinical professionals they need–via teletherapy–Presence is driving meaningful impact for both schools and providers in a critical time.

Solution

Presence is unlocking the unlimited potential of students, educators and clinicians by removing traditional barriers to care through an elevated approach to teletherapy and innovating how schools assess and address student special education and mental health needs. Presence is committed to equipping the largest network of teletherapy providers with continuing education, innovative technology, and end-to-end clinical support to meet the needs of students today—wherever they are.

Examples in Action

The number of students receiving IDEA services in the United States increased by nearly a million students in the last decade, making up 15% of all public school enrollments according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a 19% growth in demand for speech language pathologists and 12% growth in demand for occupational therapists over the next decade. Likewise, more than two-thirds of public schools have reported large increases in students seeking mental health services in the last several years.

Since Presence was founded in 2009, nearly 10,000 schools in 47 states have partnered with Presence to expand their clinical capacity and serve more students. By using Presence’s network of clinicians to provide secure, efficient, and engaging online therapy solutions, schools have been able to reduce heavy caseloads and help more students reach their Individualized Education Program (IEP) and mental health goals

Empowering Working Parents

The option of flexible work is critical for ensuring workforce participation among women. As a teletherapy company, Presence has always taken the stance that flexible work is both important and effective. Its clinicians are able to manage their own schedules, and 80% of them are working parents.

“In a year when over 5 million women across the U.S. left the workforce due to COVID-related childcare pressures, Presence expanded income opportunities for women by adding more than 1,300 women to our clinician network in 2020.” – Kate Eberle Walker, CEO

Enabling Access

Presence, a premier solution for PreK–12 remote evaluation and teletherapy services, has delivered more than 6 million teletherapy sessions to students across the nation in the last decade. The Presence therapy platform is designed by clinicians, for clinicians, with the goal of enhancing human connection between a therapist and their student in every session. Some of the clinicians in the Presence network, who have been with Presence for over a decade, have individually delivered over 10,000 teletherapy sessions to students with diverse needs. Now, more than 2,000 clinicians across multiple disciplines, including speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, school psychologists and mental health professionals, utilize Presence’s online platform to support the full spectrum of their work–from case management to planning to therapy delivery to documentation. The platform has thousands of digital learning resources, games and activities, including materials from well-known therapy content publishers and a breadth of curated assessments from marquee test publishers

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