Practical Considerations for School-Based Occupational Therapists

School-based practice offers both tremendous challenges and rewards to occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants. Challenges include the need to continually update discipline skills, stay current with best practice models of service delivery, and understand the application of federal laws and regulations. Rewards include the satisfaction of contributing to children's learning and development and participating on a professional team that effectively supports children's success in school. This book helps occupational therapy professionals meet the challenges and reap the rewards of school-based practice.

This book is essential reading. Chapters are easy to read and well organized, offering resources that help provide efficient, best practice services. Forms and examples help organize data, explain occupational therapy services, document evaluation results for intervention planning, and record a student's progress on educational goals. These resources translate legislative mandates for documentation and reporting into easy-to-use formats and well-explained procedures. This book enables therapists to effectively help students with IEPs learn and function in school and to lead the interdisciplinary teams who plan and provide special education services.

--Adapted from the Foreword by Jane Case-Smith, EdD, OTR/L, FAOTA

Also includes a CD-ROM with 14 sample forms and questionnaires!

Lynne Pape, MEd, OTR/L, received her bachelor's degree in occupational therapy at The Ohio State University and her master's degree in education at Cleveland State University. She has been providing occupational therapy services in pediatric and school settings for 30 years and has taught at the college level. She has training in sensory integration and is SIPT and NDT certified. Lynne is the president of North Coast Therapy Associates, Inc., LLC, a private practice that has provided occupational and physical therapy services to school districts for over 15 years. Lynne has developed approaches, specific referral processes, guidelines, and checklists and questionnaires to deal with a variety of topics related to school-based practice, including evaluation and treatment of handwriting issues, functional activities of daily living, fine motor skill development, and alternate assessments. She shares this information with her staff, teachers, administrators, and fellow practitioners at conferences around the state.

Kelly Ryba, OTR/L, is a graduate of The Ohio State University and has been a pediatric occupational therapist since 1999, working in school-based settings. Kelly is vice president of North Coast Therapy Associates, Inc., LLC, where she manages occupational therapists working in school districts and provides direct service and consultation services to students. She also is involved in program development for handwriting, motor planning, and data collection. Kelly developed the data collection procedure used at North Coast Therapy. Kelly has presented to parent groups, teachers, staff members, and colleagues at the Ohio Occupational Therapy Association state conference and the OT/PT Institute held in Columbus on a variety of topics related to school-based practice, including data collection, academic content standards, evidence-based practice, providing services to children with dyspraxia, and sensory integration.