Language Expert Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Founded in 2001, LEARN is a network of high-performing college preparatory, tuition-free public elementary and middle schools with the mission of providing children with the academic foundation and ambition to earn a college degree. There are 11 LEARN Schools serving 4,100 students in grades PK-8 across Chicago, Waukegan, North Chicago, and Washington, D.C. 

It is our goal to create an environment, on every campus, in which our staff members feel supported, respected, and appreciated. Our staff work together at each school and across the network to share ideas, problem solve, and innovate to move our schools and students beyond the expected. LEARN and our amazing educators, have received numerous recognitions for making an impact in public education, including the 2018 Chicago Magazine's Top Elementary Charter Schools and the 2018 Illinois Network of Charter Schools Principal of the Year Award. 

LEARN's mission remains crystal clear: to provide children with the academic foundation and ambition to earn a college degree. LEARN is currently looking for hard-working and passionate professionals that are dedicated to transforming public education.

What You’ll Do:

The Speech and Language Pathologist will be an integral member of the Network and school-based Diverse Learning teams to meet the needs of the whole child. In this role you’ll be providing assistance, prevention, assessment, and direct services for students who exhibit difficulties in the areas of language, speech, voice, and fluency. These services are designed to help children meet their educational goals. The Speech and Language Pathologist will collaborate with school counselors/social workers, teachers, and school leaders in identifying and meeting the holistic needs of our scholars including their social, emotional, and academic needs of students. In this role you will oversee three of our Lake County campuses- 2 in North Chicago and 1 in Waukegan. 

An ideal candidate is bilingual (Spanish) and someone who has a proven record of success and is committed to maintaining high expectations for students. Through our implementation of a Multi-Tier System of Support (MTSS) at all of our campuses, LEARN embraces the idea that all scholars are capable of becoming expert learners. Teachers and administrators are constantly evaluating how to best support and celebrate our diversity to benefit ALL scholars’ academic and social-emotional needs and create learning environments that tear down barriers.

Key Responsibilities include but not limited to:
Essential Job Functions

• Work to prevent, assess, identify, and treat speech, language, social communication, and cognitive-communication disorders in children to support access to the school environment

• Participate as an active/valued member of the Network and school based teams (SPED, 504, MTSS) to ensure scholars with speech/language related needs are screened, identified, and  evaluated appropriately to determine and implement individual plans to meet their needs. 

• With support from the Network/School Case manager, serve as the primary case manager for speech only IEP//MTSS plans and oversee scheduling and facilitating required meetings within timelines. Serve as a team member for all other individual plans for which the SLP is a RSP.

• Prepare and present documents/reports within given compliance timelines, and participate in school based problem solving/504/IEP meetings including but not limited to eligibility, annuals, and check in meetings. Request specific information from non-school agencies (e.g. clinics, hospitals, physicians, health departments, day care centers, etc) with signed release of information. Ensure 90-100% compliance related to special education and/or MTSS requirements (i.e timelines, services) and guidelines.

• Maintain and document records of direct services, collaboration logs, and progress monitoring data as required by the Network and local authorizers. Maintain confidentiality as required by the Network and legislation.

• Ensure annual goals and benchmarks are based on data and research based practices, specific to individual student needs.

• Keep abreast of research based best practices and evaluation tools to ensure scholars are identified appropriately and receive high quality services; provide PDs and/or share information with SLP teams and other stakeholders as necessary.

• Consistently and actively participate in school and Network meetings (i.e. SLP meetings, professional development, team meetings, staff meetings). Serve as a liaison between the SLP team and other teams, and the expert as it relates to speech/language theories and therapies.

• Demonstrates knowledge and follows all Network, federal, state and local rules, regulations and laws.

This job is a great fit if you: 

• Have a Master’s degree or higher in Speech Language Pathology 
• License with Speech Language Pathologist endorsement issued by Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) - PEL 
• You are bilingual (Spanish) 
• Possess 1+ year of school-based experience
• Have a persistent and intentional mindset towards the overall success of each child

Compensation:
Starting Salary: $65,000 to $79,000 (first year certified) for Lake County residents. 

Benefits Summary:

We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package for all full time employees, including:
 

• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Wellness Benefits: Online Mental Health Support, free on site COVID testing
• Paid vacation, personal days, paid holidays, including 5 days off every 23 days in a school year
• Short and long term disability
• Paid life insurance
• 403B Contribution + 4.5% matching as eligible
• Chicago Teachers' Pension fund or Teacher Retirement Fund
• Ongoing professional development opportunities:
• Paid online CEU membership
• Weekly PDs

This job description is not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties or skills required for the job and is subject to review and change at any time, with or without notice, in accordance with the needs of LEARN Charter School Network. Since no job description can detail all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time in the performance of a job, duties and responsibilities that may be inherent in a job, reasonably required for its performance, or required due to the changing nature of the job shall also be considered part of the jobholder's responsibility.