Speech pathologists that are not practicing in public institutions are required by most States to take speech pathology continuing education.

Speech pathology continuing education options are extremely flexible and diverse. Speech pathologists can essentially choose to focus on topics that they feel are most appropriate for their professional aspirations. In speech pathology continuing education, you will learn just about any subject related to diagnosing, preventing and treating communication disorders of a speech, fluency or cognitive nature.

The actual format of the speech pathology continuing education can be of wide range, from lessons attended at a given accredited college; coursework completed at home or online, participation in professional conferences, to teaching acceptable courses in the field of speech pathology.

Speech pathology continuing education courses are mostly directed towards working professionals who can complete their course work without leaving their jobs in the pursuit of studies. The continuing education is basically a combination of online coursework with practical clinical experiences at the workplace which makes the course ideal for medical practitioners to acquire speech pathology skills. Although not impossible, it may be difficult for those not in the medical field to join the continuing education in speech pathology as the practical clinical duty may be hard to complete.

Laboratory technicians working in hospitals with AS certification or CLT/MLT can take up a Bachelor of Science program under distant learning, for the development of their intellectual and manipulative competencies and attainment of professional values and characteristics. The technicians will be able to take all the didactic courses online and those who don't work in hospitals can complete their clinical duties at clinics in their geographical area. The Distance Learning Speech Language Pathology program can be undertaken at any level. One can take it from the Assistant Certificate Program, Bachelors or Masters in Communication disorders or even a PhD in the subject, provided that the student enrolling for the program satisfies the necessary eligibility criteria of the university.

However, to become a speech-language pathologist, one must typically earn a two-year master's degree in speech-language pathology, complete an appropriate supervised clinical fellowship and pass the national Praxis Series examination on speech-language pathology offered by the Educational Testing Service.

Even meeting this stringent requirement is not the end of the professional preparation process, especially for those who choose not to work in public schools or health institutions. To maintain a career in speech pathology, 47 states in the United States of America require licenses that are frequently obtainable only after proof is provided of relevant continuing education.