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Therapy partnership is a triple win in Catholic school system
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July 10, 2025By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
With a long waiting list of clients and an overcrowded clinic space, Abbie Gacke started brainstorming how to provide children and families with the speech and language therapy they need while retaining her current office building.
Gacke, owner of Childworks Therapy Clinic in Sioux City, said she opened the business in 2021 and has outgrown two locations since then and is currently at maximum capacity. She contacted Dr. John Flanery, president of Sioux City Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools with an idea.
“I reached out to John to see if they would be interested in us partnering with them – essentially to be able to be a place where we could provide more therapy to kids and support more families,” she explained.
Therapists would meet with students on-site at the Bishop Heelan Schools for speech and language therapy services. Gacke said Childworks has a similar, but smaller-scale partnership with a therapist spending half a day per week at an area day care center.
The proposal is for the Heelan system to provide the therapy space at no additional cost to either entity in order to benefit families. The president discussed the concept with his school administrators.
“We brought her into two principal meetings,” Dr. Flanery said. “All the building principals were in on it and they are very excited about the opportunity to partner with her and her team on this. Everybody’s on board.”
The focus and need for services is at the elementary school sites. Most of Childworks’ clients are infants through age 10, the owner said.
A number of Childworks’ current clients are students who attend the six Bishop Heelan elementary sites.
“(Gacke) knew several of our families that were already on her list that are receiving services in their office space now,” the president said. “If they were to receive services in our building, it would alleviate that space in her office and help our families. Moms and dads wouldn’t have to taxi their kids to and from their therapy. They can take care of it right here in our buildings.”
Gacke and her staff are excited to be able to provide therapy for families in a convenient fashion at the school sites – both current and new families.
Abbie Gacke“Anyone on our waiting list that goes to the Heelan schools, that’s an option for them,” she said, noting the waiting list is currently “hefty.”Tentative plans are to have therapists working with school faculty and staff to schedule optimum times to pull the students out for therapy during the school day.
“We will try our best not to (use) academic time and during times that would interrupt learning,” Gacke stressed, noting Childworks is open to scheduling sessions after school on the school site.
Once the two entities agreed they wanted to partner in this venture, they began to reach out to parents including on social media to gauge interest. The posts announced the partnership and clarified that the services are provided by licensed professionals and would be billed through the family’s insurance.
Parents that were interested were asked to call or email Childworks. Gacke said the initial response has been positive. As more families reach out, the clinic can determine staffing for the elementary schools.
She said some parents were concerned that the services might conflict with their child’s IEP or individualized education program.
“We want to make clear that this is separate. If (the student) is on an IEP or if they are in the process of trying to get on an IEP, that is still within the school system and they would receive those services,” Gacke said.
Need is great
Some of the common issues that speech and language therapists address with children in their sessions include:- Articulation disorders
- Kids with developmental delays
- Stuttering
- Receptive and expressive language delays
- Language-based learning disorders
- Auditory processing disorders
- Delays due to hearing loss
- Others
“We do not have a lot of clear answers,” she said. “COVID has played a role in some of the speech delays and language delays that we’re seeing. A lot of those kids that were born in 2020 are going into Kindergarten now.”
A second issue that may be a factor for the high requests for speech and language therapists could be the availability of services and qualified staff in the Sioux City area.
“I started my career in the Chicago area where there was a plethora of clinics, therapists and resources,” she said, noting they moved to northwest Iowa in 2018. “It’s not as common or there’s not as many facilities providing these services. So, it’s a combination of things.”
Both Gacke and Dr. Flanery are optimistic about their partnership to provide quality and
This fall students at Bishop Heelan elementary schools will have access to speech therapy at the schools. convenient speech and language therapy services to families at their child’s school site.“I’m excited to hopefully provide more support to families,” Gacke said.
The Heelan president said the partnership aligns with the school’s vision of implementing inclusive education in the Catholic school system and working with the FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa. He pointed out that a group of educators visited a school in Kansas City where similar therapists work on site, all funded through the family’s insurance.
“Anytime we can provide services for families within our buildings where it’s a benefit for them, it’s a benefit for us,” he said. “It’s really a win-win-win. It helps Abbie’s business; it helps the Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools and helps our families.”
For more information or to sign up for these services to be offered at the Sioux City Catholic schools, call Childworks at (712) 224-2150 or email [email protected].
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