5 Game-Changing Strategies for Hiring AAC/AT Specialists
- Brianna Hughes
- May 5
- 5 min read
School district administrators, this article is for you!
With AAC/AT Specialists in short supply, administrators know how vital it is to attract qualified professionals as efficiently as possible. Let’s empower you to do just that, with these 5 strategies that will set your district apart!
Strategy 1: Start with a Smart Job Description (& Pay Scale)
After reading part 1 of this series, you know that an AAC Specialist and an AT Specialist are separate roles, and that they’re not the same as SLPs, Ed Tech Specialists, or teachers.
But one mistake that many hiring teams make is writing a job description for different positions as if they were the same. It’s a bit like hiring a doctor but writing a job description for a dentist. Any qualified candidate (best case) will be confused about what the job actually is, or (worst case) they might be put off by what they perceive as a lack of administrative understanding, and not apply at all.
Writing an accurate job posting will get you the candidates you want faster. After all, it’d be pretty hard for your HR department to find an AAC Specialist if the job description advertised for an SLP.
If you need some help with creating a job description for AAC Specialists and AT Specialists, I encourage you to start with this sample one, which is free to download.
Now let’s talk pay.
The exact amount that you pay an AAC/AT Specialist will vary depending on your region, but if you want to succeed in a competitive hiring environment, then aim to pay more than your general SLPs and OTs, and if possible, a bit more than other local districts.
Strategy 2: Know What Qualifications to Look For (And Which Ones Don’t Exist)
In an anonymous survey of AAC/AT Specialists, 46% reported that their district posted the wrong qualifications for an AAC/AT role. This is such an understandable mistake to make, because there is no actual required “AAC specialist” certificate, and the quality of “AT certificates” varies widely.
Moreover, for AT, you may be hiring from different professional backgrounds, which are regulated by different agencies. Whereas a teacher typically needs a degree and a state teaching credential, an OT needs a degree and a state license, and an SLP needs at least the degree and license, AND may also have a state credential! With the right additional training and experience, any of these three candidates could be qualified to be an AT specialist.
So, rather than getting lost in the weeds with all these degrees, licenses, credentials, and certificates, grab that sample job description I mentioned!
Strategy 3: Invest In Your Team
There might be an amazing candidate right under your nose. If you have an SLP who wants to become an AAC Specialist, or perhaps an OT or Special Education Teacher who wants to become an AT Specialist, invest in that person!
The upfront cost of training them may feel like a lot in the short term (plan on roughly $5,000 in stipends for courses, conference attendance, and/or coaching from an experienced AAC/AT Specialist), but this is how new AAC and AT Specialists are born. You will gain a loyal employee who already knows how your district works and wants to show you their gratitude with outstanding job performance.
Strategy 4: Be Realistic About Caseload and Workload Size
When it comes to hiring an AAC/AT Specialist, pay isn’t the only important number to consider. Your AAC/AT Specialists need a realistic caseload and workload that accounts for the time they spend on assessments, consultation, program development, inventory management, travel time, and more. But what IS realistic?
Based on the survey data from AAC/AT Specialists across the USA, here are the numbers:
No more than 70 students per full-time AAC Specialist for the capacity-building model.
No more 25 per full-time AAC Specialist for the expert model.
For AT Specialists, I recommend no more than 15 school sites per full-time person, or 150 students. Survey data for this group was limited, but all respondents emphasized the need to look holistically at the number of staff members, number of students, and overall workload required of each AT Specialist.
It’s vital to keep these numbers in mind as you go about your hiring process.
Ready for a horror story?
I met an AAC/AT Specialist with a 300-student caseload, who said she had to ask one staff member at each school to serve as that site’s “technology resource.” Essentially, others were volunteering to pick up her workload, and they weren’t being compensated appropriately for that role. The specialist did her best to train them, but this meant that a student’s AAC/AT support would vary widely by school site, instead of being dictated by their IEP.
The district was leaving itself extremely vulnerable to litigation on three fronts:
Requiring unpaid work from employees that was outside their union contract
Failing to identify students who might benefit from AAC/AT services
Failing to offer sufficient training on the AAC/AT devices to the students’ families and support staff.
It’s true that AAC/AT Specialists should be trying to build capacity at each site, and that likely involves training others. However, a capacity-building model works best when the specialist has sufficient time to build relationships with staff and families through ongoing, regularly scheduled training. No one learns AAC or AT with just a one-time meeting!
Strategy 5: Consider Other Perks To Make Your District More Competitive (At No Cost to Your Budget)
Salary is obviously important. But when money is tight (and isn’t it always, in education?), remember that salary is not the only benefit you can offer to make your district stand out. Here’s one creative idea, and I can’t take credit for it, but I’ll share it with you anyway…
Back in 2022, I moved to a new town and was unsure that I wanted to commute back to my old job. When he heard I’d started looking around, my director did something really smart: he offered me 20% work-from-home privileges if I would stay on.
This cost him nothing in the budget, and it’s completely doable for AAC/AT Specialists because so much of our time is spent on paperwork, device edits (which can be done remotely), IEP meetings and consultation (some of which may be done with virtual meetings, emails, or phone calls). I ended up staying with that district another two years. I’ve never seen an AAC/AT Specialist opening where work from home was advertised, but I’m certain any district that did would get far more applications!
Good luck in your search, and thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about what AAC/AT Specialists do and how to hire and retain them. Your students, families, and staff members will benefit from all the time and care you’ve taken!
For further reading, survey participants recommended:
OSEP Dear Colleagues Letter - for help with getting funding for devices
Plus, stay tuned for some fascinating insights in the Part 3 of this article series: What We Wish Administrators Knew: Results from a Survey of School-Based AAC/AT Specialists.
Comments