School-Based Practice
FERPA, HIPAA and AI: Using Student Data Safely
Therapists are using ChatGPT, Gemini and other tools for reports and goals, while districts pilot AI documentation platforms. Pasting student information into a general AI tool can expose protected records. ✨ Available on: All plans ? How ...
COTA and PTA Supervision and Co-Signing
Supervision frequency and what assistants may document vary by state practice act and by payer. Therapists in many states say they can't find written guidance. Check your licensing board's rules and your payers' policies. ✨ Available on: Teams ? In ...
New to School-Based Practice: Your First 30 Days
New school therapists often say they have no mentor, no framework and no system for tracking anything. This plan gets the basics running in a month. ✨ Available on: All plans Week 1: caseload. Import students from a CSV, then set up recurring ...
Managing Workload, Not Just Caseload
In a OT FB group that I follow, therapists describe 40 students in two days, 92 students with no support, and burnout one month into the school year. A caseload count hides evaluations, meetings, consults and paperwork. Joint workload resources from ...
Defensible Eligibility, Consult and Dismissal Decisions
Eligibility questions come from every direction: a doctor's note requesting an evaluation, an advocate pushing for services, a parent who disagrees with a decrease, or a district that wants a standardized-score cutoff. Under IDEA these are team ...
Parent-Friendly, Translated Progress Reports
Parents increasingly ask for notes after every session, and therapists worry about setting a precedent they can't keep up with. A regular, plain-language progress report usually answers the need. ✨ Available on: All plans ? From the clinician ...
Reports Teachers Actually Use
In an OT FB group that I follow, nine percent of concern posts are about team friction and role confusion: teachers who don't use strategies, "is this OT?" referrals, and therapists explaining the role again each year. ✨ Available on: All plans ? In ...
Tracking Service Minutes, Absences and Make-Up Sessions
Make-up rules are one of the most repeated questions in school groups. One therapist returned from leave to almost 10,000 compensatory minutes. Others keep handwritten "missed sessions" logs. Some states are adding parent notice rules for missed ...
Faster Session Notes for Large Caseloads
In a FB group I follow, a 25-year school OT called daily notes her "greatest struggle" in a post that drew 34 replies. Others describe 10 minutes per note in a blank box, or 12 schools and no device to write on. Most fixes in those threads are ...
Progress Data That Holds Up in an IEP Meeting
Therapists describe districts moving from monthly to weekly or every-two-weeks data, and teachers questioning progress in IEP meetings. Data collection should not replace therapy, so collect it inside the activity the goal measures. ✨ Available on: ...
Writing Functional, Measurable IEP Goals With the Goal Bank
One in five concern posts in a large FB OT group asks some version of "what should I work on?" Many are about goals: impairment goals that loop forever, goals inherited from another district, or sensory and executive function goals that are hard to ...
Choosing School-Based Assessments When Standardized Tests Don't Fit
Therapists often ask what to use when a standardized test won't work: a 17-year-old who will score zero on the BOT-3 because of the directions, students in 6:1:1 classrooms, or high schoolers in life skills programs. A raw zero tells the team nothing ...
School Medicaid Readiness: Prescriptions, Consents and Provider Orders
Districts starting Medicaid billing often ask the same questions: do we need a prescription, which consent forms, and whose NPI goes on the claim? Answers depend on your state, so confirm each item with your state Medicaid agency and billing agent. ✨ ...
Medicaid in Schools: Writing a Medical Plan of Care Alongside the IEP
More districts are hearing that Medicaid will not accept the IEP alone as the treatment plan for school-based therapy. They are being asked for a medical plan of care that shows medical necessity. Rules vary by state: some still accept the IEP, ...