Local Advocacy

Many of us have experienced the satisfaction that comes with standing up for what we believe in or fighting for a cause. You can too! ASHA has developed the tools to guide you.

Thinking about making a local visit to your Senators' or Representative's office? Check out ASHA's Take Action Elected Officials site to learn more about you representatives and then review Local Office Visits: 10 Steps to Effective Meetings with Legislators.

Advocacy In School Settings

• Advocacy Resource Guide for the Salary Supplement Initiative
  The purpose of this resource is to help you become a knowledgeable and empowered advocate for yourself, the professions, and the children and families that we serve.
• Advocating for Higher Salaries and Extra Benefits from Your Local School District
  More and more speech-language pathologists and audiologists in the public schools are getting higher salaries and other compensation from their local school districts.
• Advocacy in Action: A State Model for Change
  This resource was developed to assist state speech-language-hearing associations interested in engaging in statelevel advocacy efforts to create an effective state advocacy program.
• Caseload/Workload
  This page contains ASHA policy documents, articles, examples and worksheets for implementing the workload analysis model for caseload management. 
• School Funding Advocacy
  The School Funding Advocacy section was developed by ASHA's School Finance Committee in an effort to help ASHA members better identify and understand the complex and multiple funding processes involved in public school-based services from federal, state, and local perspectives.
• Schools Related Resources for Legislation and Regulation
  View resources for getting salary supplements in your district.
• Frequently Asked Questions: New Loan Forgiveness for Service in Areas of National Need Program

Advocacy In Health Care

• Learn how to how to develop an effective state advocacy program for increasing coverage of and reimbursement for speech-language pathology andaudiology services by Medicaid. Read Advocacy in Action: Negotiating for Increased Medicaid Rates and Coverage [PDF]
• Want to fight the Medicare Therapy Caps? Learn how to at ASHA's Therapy Cap Advocacy Center! Medicare intermediary or carrier giving you trouble? Get in touch with ASHA's State Medicare Administrative Contractor (SMAC) Network!