To become an SLP in Massachusetts, you need a master’s degree from a CAA-accredited program with 400+ clinical hours, pass the Praxis exam (score 162+), complete a 36-week clinical fellowship (1,260 hours), and obtain state licensure. Massachusetts SLPs earn a median salary of $101,790, with 28% job growth projected through 2030.
- Emerson College - Master's in Speech-Language Pathology online - Prepare to become an SLP in as few as 20 months. No GRE required. Scholarships available.
- Grand Canyon University - Online Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology. - This STEM program focuses on training aspiring speech-language pathologists to offer compassionate, effective services to individuals with communication disorders
- Arizona State University - Online - Online Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science - Designed to prepare graduates to work in behavioral health settings or transition to graduate programs in speech-language pathology and audiology.
- NYU Steinhardt - NYU Steinhardt's Master of Science in Communicative Sciences and Disorders online - ASHA-accredited. Bachelor's degree required. Graduate prepared to pursue licensure.
- Pepperdine University - Embark on a transformative professional and personal journey in the online Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program from Pepperdine University. Our program brings together rigorous academics, research-driven faculty teaching, and robust clinical experiences, all wrapped within our Christian mission to serve our communities and improve the lives of others.
Like many other places around the country, you’ll find speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Massachusetts working in diverse settings: K-12 schools, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and private practice. But what really sets the Bay State’s SLP community apart is its relentless dedication to advancing the field.
When you enter this workforce yourself, you’ll get the chance to work with some of the most groundbreaking organizations and individuals in the field today. In Boston, the Voice and Speech Laboratory at Massachusetts Eye and Ear serves everyone from professional vocalists to seniors struggling with dysphagia. When staff aren’t directly serving patients, they’re conducting invaluable research across diverse areas, from the mechanisms of voice control to botulinum toxin treatment to laryngeal cancer, and much more. You may very well find an opportunity to work and train there yourself during your fellowship.
All SLPs in the state can join the Massachusetts Speech-Language Hearing Association (MSHA). As one of the most active state-based organizations of its kind in the country, its calendar is full of seminars, workshops, and legislative advocacy events that ensure SLPs and the people they serve have a voice, figuratively and literally.
Your journey to joining this impressively dynamic community starts with becoming a licensed speech-language pathologist through the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Along the way, you’ll need to follow these steps:
Step 1: Complete an Accredited Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology
One of the best things about becoming an SLP in Massachusetts is that the process is pretty straightforward. The Massachusetts Board of Registration for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology follows all requirements set forth by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the nation’s leading SLP certification agency.
This means that by following this process, you’ll become a licensed speech-language pathologist in Massachusetts and earn ASHA’s Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology (CCC-SLP). Holding this universally recognized certification can help with interstate mobility, allowing you to become licensed in many other states.
Your first step will be to earn a master’s degree in the field, whether a Master of Speech-Language Pathology or a Master of Science in Communicative Sciences and Disorders. The program must hold accreditation from the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA). The CAA is itself a sub-organization of ASHA. You’ll find plenty of CAA-accredited online and on-campus programs around the state.
Graduate Program Admissions and Foundational Course Requirements
To enroll in a CAA-accredited program, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree, a few academic references, and a competitive GPA (around 3.0 or higher). You might also have to take the GRE, but many graduate programs have made this optional.
Before beginning your speech-language pathology coursework, ASHA requires prerequisite courses in four areas designed to serve as a foundation for future SLP studies:
- Biology
- Chemistry or physics
- Social/behavioral sciences
- Statistics
Even if you didn’t study speech-language pathology at the bachelor’s level, you likely took classes in most, if not all, of these areas. If you missed anything, you can take them through the school you’re attending for your graduate program. Many master’s programs in speech-language pathology offer prerequisite courses online. AP classes that appear on your college transcript count, too.
Clinical Practicum and Master’s Core Courses
Whether you enroll in an on-campus or online speech-language pathology program, you will complete a minimum of 36 semester credit hours of coursework and at least 400 clinical practicum hours.
The practicum is a supervised, hands-on experience at a clinic where you’ll learn to assess, diagnose, and treat patients. You can spend 25 hours in guided clinical observation. Still, the remaining 375 hours should be devoted to direct patient contact. 125 of your practicum hours can be earned in telepractice, but ASHA requires the remaining hours to be in person.
As far as your courses go, ASHA doesn’t require you to take any specific classes. However, they do say your studies should be focused entirely on their Scope of Practice in Speech-Language Pathology standards:
- Domains of Speech-Language Pathology Service Delivery
- Collaboration
- Counseling
- Prevention and Wellness
- Screening
- Assessment
- Treatment
- Modalities, Technology, and Instrumentation
- Populations and Systems
- Speech-Language Pathology Service Delivery Areas
- Fluency
- Speech Production
- Spoken and Written Language
- Cognition
- Voice
- Resonance
- Feeding and Swallowing
- Auditory Habilitation and Rehabilitation
- Etiologies of Communication of Swallowing Disorders (oral anomalies, developmental disabilities, etc.)
- Elective Services (dialect modification, preventative vocal hygiene, etc.)
- Domains of Professional Practice
- Advocacy and Outreach
- Supervision
- Education
- Research
- Administration and Leadership
You’ll, of course, learn the basics of these topics, but beyond that, the curriculum will depend on what program you choose and whether you choose a specialty. For example, if you choose to specialize in serving patients with autism, you’ll learn about the unique communication problems associated with ASD. If you specialize in aphasia, you’ll learn more about Response Elaboration Training and other techniques that can help people who’ve suffered strokes and traumatic brain injuries.
Step 2: Log Required Professional Experience Hours Through a Clinical Fellowship
After completing your graduate program and your practicum hours, you’ll enter into a clinical fellowship. The clinical fellowship is designed to help you transition smoothly from your studies to a career as an SLP. Like the practicum, you’ll complete supervised activities and have a chance to work with a diverse array of patients.
You may choose either a full-time (36 weeks of 35 hours per week) or part-time option, but the clinical fellowship must be at least 1,260 hours and a minimum of 36 weeks. Up to a quarter of your hours can be completed remotely in telepractice sessions.
You’ll be mentored by a licensed SLP in Massachusetts during your clinical fellowship. 80% of the clinical fellowship must involve:
- Assessment
- Diagnosis
- Evaluation
- Screening
- Treatment
- Family and client consultation
- Counseling of patients
The other 20% of the time is often spent in administrative duties. At the end, you’ll need to complete a Clinical Fellowship Skills Inventory form, get it signed by your supervisor, and submit it through ASHA’s application webpage.
Step 3: Pass the Praxis Examination and Apply for CCC-SLP Certification
Now that you’ve completed your clinical fellowship, it’s time to prepare for the National Praxis Examination in Speech-Language Pathology, hosted through the ETS testing services.
You can easily register online, but you’ll also need to send an official graduate transcript and proof of completion of a clinical fellowship to Praxis before you’ll be eligible to test.
You can take the exam at home with a live remote proctor or in one of these Massachusetts cities:
- Boston
- Bridgewater
- Brockton
- Burlington
- Lowell
- North Andover
- Springfield
- West Springfield
- Worcester
The exam covers topics you’ll have covered in your core coursework during your master’s program, such as speech and production, voice and resonance, receptive and expressive language, and social and cognitive aspects of communication. Questions are split into three broad categories:
- Foundation and professional practice
- Screen, assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis
- Planning, implementation, and evaluation
You must score at least a 162 on the exam to be eligible for CCC-SLP certification. If you need some extra time to prepare, feel free to check out the resources linked on ASHA’s exam preparation page.
It usually takes several weeks to hear back from Praxis about the examination results. Once you’ve received your score, you’ll need to apply for the CCC-SLP credential through ASHA. You’ll be asked to submit:
- The application, proving you have completed a graduate program and a practicum
- A certification fee of $490 ($446 for ASHA members)
- Exam scores
- The Clinical Fellowship Skills Inventory form, signed by your supervisor
The certification is generally awarded after six weeks.
Step 4: Begin Your Career as a Speech-Language Pathologist
With CCC-SLP certification in hand, you’re now eligible to apply for licensing through the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. You can do this by signing up on the Massachusetts Health Professions Licensing Portal and submitting:
- A $68 fee
- Verification of your CCC-SLP credential
- Evidence of a minimum of 400 clock hours earned during a practicum
- A master’s degree transcript
- Official Praxis score
There are several ways to begin practicing as an SLP once you’ve earned your license:
Join the Clinic that Provided RPE
You might want to consider pursuing a full-time opportunity at the clinic where you completed your clinical fellowship hours. Building on the relationships you started with patients, families, and staff members during training is a great way to start your career. As a bonus, your former supervisor may serve as a reference for you.
Start an Independent Practice or Partnership
In Massachusetts, licensed SLPs can open independent practices or band together to offer a full range of speech-language pathology services. If you take this route, you’ll be able to set your own hours. More importantly, you’ll be able to work with the populations you’re most passionate about serving and bring speech-language pathology to communities that need it most.
Pursue Job Openings
There are many, many other options in Massachusetts for licensed SLPs to pursue employment. Just a few of them include:
- Melmark
- Easter Seals Massachusetts
- Saint Francis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center
- Massachusetts General Hospital
- Spaulding Hospital
- Health South
- University of Massachusetts Medical Schools
- Chelsea Jewish Foundation
- Barrett Family Wellness Center
- Life Care Centers
- Thom Child and Family Services
These are only some of the most prominent players, but you can find a home wherever there’s a therapy center, school district, or other type of social or healthcare service provider.
Step 5: Maintain Licensure with Continuing Education
You’ll need to renew your SLP license every two years through the Massachusetts Health Professions Licensing Portal. In that time, you’ll need to complete 20 continuing education hours. According to state regulations, 10 of those hours need to be within your area of licensure.
However, you must keep track of your hours, including:
- The title of the program
- The number of hours spent in the program
- The name of the organization that sponsored the program
- The date you completed the program
You can also earn hours by contributing to academic publications and teaching continuing education classes yourself. The Board will randomly audit SLP licensees every two years and require you to produce documentation of your continuing education credits.
The Board doesn’t maintain a list of approved providers. Still, you can find continuing education courses through ASHA, the Massachusetts Speech-Language-Hearing Association, colleges and universities, and a wide range of online providers.
Step 6: Speech-Language Pathology Salary in Massachusetts
When it comes to speech-language pathology, Massachusetts stands out for many reasons, and salary is one of them. Massachusetts offers one of the highest average SLP salaries in the nation at $99,570 annually or $47.87 hourly.
SLPs at the higher end of the salary spectrum earn a salary that starts at an impressive $128,610 annually, or $61.83 per hour.
Massachusetts SLP Salary by Region
You can compare regions across the state below, ranked by median salary, from highest to lowest. Salary details cover the entry-level (10th percentile), median (50th percentile), and experienced (90th percentile):
| Region | Entry-Level | Median | Experienced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $65,640 | $101,790 | $128,610 |
| Massachusetts Statewide | $65,640 | $101,790 | $128,610 |
A Growing Field With Opportunities in Multiple Industries
The number of jobs for speech-language pathologists is exceptionally high in metro Boston, which has one of the highest concentrations of SLP positions in the country.
Massachusetts currently employs 5,000 SLPs. More than 40% of the state’s speech-language pathologists practice in educational services, with the remainder working in other industries:
| Industry | Percentage of SLPs |
|---|---|
| Educational Services | 40%+ |
| Hospitals | 16% |
| Ambulatory Health Care Services (Clinics) | 13% |
| Social Assistance | 10% |
| Nursing and Residential Care Facilities | 8% |
The number of these specialists is growing, too. By 2030, the number of SLP jobs in Massachusetts is projected to increase by 28%, well above the national average of 19%. During that time frame, this averages out to 400 SLP job openings per year.
Massachusetts is home to several ambulatory care centers that focus on speech pathology:
- Andover: The Speech and Language Corner
- Burlington: Children’s Speech and Hearing Specialists
- Foxborough: Sharon D. Frank, MA
- Foxborough: Speech and Voice Therapy Center, LLC
- Framingham: Bright Side Speech Therapy, LLC
- Hingham: Hingham Speech & Language Therapy
- Ipswich: The School Speech Therapist
- Leominster: Lisa Phillips, MS
- Lexington: Adriana DiGrande
- Lexington: Chatterboxes Speech Language & Feeding
- Mansfield: Blue Dragonfly Children’s Therapy
- Medfield: Speech-Language and Hearing Associates of Greater Boston, PC
- Needham Heights: Children’s Speech and Feeding Therapy, Inc.
- Newton Center: Chatterboxes
- Norwell: Speech Language Pathology Center
- Peabody: North Shore Children’s Therapies
- Plainville: Speech-Language & Hearing Associates of Greater Boston
- Plymouth: Golden Speech Therapy
- Shrewsbury: Speech & Language Specialties
- South Easton: Let’s Talk Speech & Language Therapy Services, LLC
- Tewksbury: akspeech, LLC
- Waltham, Massachusetts Speech Language
- Wayland: Burnett Speech Therapy
- Wellesley: Wellesley Pediatric Speech Therapy
- Weymouth: South Shore Therapies, Inc.
- Woburn: Speech Therapy | Baldwin Park I
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I become an SLP in Massachusetts with an online degree?
Yes, you can become an SLP in Massachusetts with an online master’s degree, provided the program is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA). ASHA accepts online graduate programs for CCC-SLP certification, and Massachusetts honors this credential. However, you’ll still need to complete 400+ hours of in-person clinical practicum and a 36-week clinical fellowship in Massachusetts or another state.
How long does it take to become a licensed SLP in Massachusetts?
The complete process typically takes 6-7 years from start to finish. This includes 4 years for a bachelor’s degree, 2-3 years for a master’s degree with a clinical practicum, and 9 months for a clinical fellowship. After completing your fellowship and passing the Praxis exam (score 162+), the Massachusetts licensing application typically processes within 4-6 weeks.
What’s the difference between Massachusetts state licensure and ASHA certification?
Massachusetts state licensure is legally required to practice as an SLP in the state, while ASHA’s CCC-SLP certification is a national professional credential. The good news is that Massachusetts follows ASHA’s requirements precisely, so completing the CCC-SLP certification process automatically meets Massachusetts licensure requirements. Both require the same education, clinical hours, Praxis score, and clinical fellowship. State licensure costs $68 and renews every 2 years, while CCC-SLP costs $490 initially and requires annual ASHA membership.
Do I need continuing education to maintain my Massachusetts SLP license?
Yes, Massachusetts requires 20 continuing education hours every two years to renew your SLP license. At least 10 of those hours must be directly related to speech-language pathology practice. You can earn hours through ASHA courses, the Massachusetts Speech-Language Hearing Association (MSHA), university programs, and approved online providers. The Board randomly audits licensees, so you must maintain detailed records including course titles, hours, sponsoring organizations, and completion dates.
Can I work in Massachusetts schools with just my SLP license?
Yes, but with an important distinction. Your Massachusetts SLP license and CCC-SLP certification allow you to work in schools. Still, many school districts prefer or require a Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities license issued by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). This educator license requires the same SLP credentials plus passing the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL). Some districts hire SLPs as related service providers without an educator license, so check the district’s specific requirements.
How much does the Massachusetts SLP licensing process cost?
Total costs for Massachusetts SLP licensure typically range from $650 to $800. This includes the Praxis exam fee ($165), ASHA CCC-SLP application ($490 or $446 for ASHA members), and Massachusetts state license application ($68). Additional costs may include transcript fees ($10-25), background checks, and ASHA membership dues if you choose to join. Master’s degree tuition and clinical fellowship compensation vary widely and aren’t included in these licensing costs.
What happens during the clinical fellowship in Massachusetts?
The clinical fellowship is a 36-week supervised experience (minimum of 1,260 hours) that helps you transition from student to professional SLP. You’ll work under a licensed SLP supervisor who will observe and mentor your clinical work. At least 80% of your time must be devoted to direct patient care, including assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and counseling. The remaining 20% can include administrative duties, documentation, and meetings. Your supervisor evaluates your skills throughout the fellowship and completes a final Clinical Fellowship Skills Inventory form that you’ll submit to ASHA for CCC-SLP certification.
Key Takeaways
- Massachusetts requires a master’s degree from a CAA-accredited program with a minimum of 400 clinical practicum hours before you can begin your clinical fellowship.
- You must pass the Praxis exam with a score of 162 or higher to qualify for both CCC-SLP certification and Massachusetts state licensure.e
- The clinical fellowship requires 1,260 hours over at least 36 weeks under the supervision of a licensed SLP, with 80% devoted to direct patient care.
- Massachusetts SLPs earn a median salary of $101,790, with the Boston metro area offering some of the highest compensation in the state.e
- The field is experiencing strong growth with a projected 28% increase in jobs through 2030, creating approximately 400 new SLP positions annually in Massachusetts.
- License renewal occurs every two years and requires 20 continuing education hours, with at least 10 hours in speech-language pathology.y
- Emerson College - Master's in Speech-Language Pathology online - Prepare to become an SLP in as few as 20 months. No GRE required. Scholarships available.
- Grand Canyon University - Online Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology. - This STEM program focuses on training aspiring speech-language pathologists to offer compassionate, effective services to individuals with communication disorders
- Arizona State University - Online - Online Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science - Designed to prepare graduates to work in behavioral health settings or transition to graduate programs in speech-language pathology and audiology.
- NYU Steinhardt - NYU Steinhardt's Master of Science in Communicative Sciences and Disorders online - ASHA-accredited. Bachelor's degree required. Graduate prepared to pursue licensure.
- Pepperdine University - Embark on a transformative professional and personal journey in the online Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program from Pepperdine University. Our program brings together rigorous academics, research-driven faculty teaching, and robust clinical experiences, all wrapped within our Christian mission to serve our communities and improve the lives of others.
Ready to Start Your SLP Career in Massachusetts?
Explore CAA-accredited graduate programs in Massachusetts and take the first step toward becoming a licensed speech-language pathologist in one of the nation’s top states for SLP careers.
2024 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary and job market figures for Speech-Language Pathologists reflect state and national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed November 2025.