OTS 182: Crafting Your Role as an OTP in the School Community

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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 182 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.

In this episode, Jayson sits down with Amy Fehr, MSOT, OTR/L, an experienced school-based OT and current clinical advisor at BlazerWorks, to tackle the pressing challenges and exciting opportunities that all therapists—whether contracted, new, or in-district—face in the ever-evolving landscape of school settings. Discover how to effectively build rapport with staff, advocate for the vital role of occupational therapy, and navigate the complexities of district onboarding and supervision.

Are you ready to elevate your practice and make a meaningful impact in your school community? Whether you're just starting out or looking to enhance your established role, this episode is packed with practical tips and insights to help you thrive and feel truly valued within your school team. 

Tune in now and take the next step in making a lasting impact on your students and school community!

Listen now to learn the following objectives:

• Learners will identify effective strategies for OT practitioners to build rapport with school staff and administrators.
  

• Learners will understand how to leverage IEPs and team meetings to advocate for the OT role.
  

• Learners will recognize ways to support professional identity, confidence, and inclusion in school teams.
  

• Learners will understand how district leadership can foster a more inclusive environment for all OT practitioners.

Guest(s) Bio

Amy Fehr is a pediatric occupational therapist with over 15 years of experience. She earned her Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Amy began her career in clinic-based and early intervention settings before transitioning to school-based practice in Southern California. Amy has served as an OT/PT Coordinator in schools, supporting interdisciplinary teams and program development. In her current role as a Clinical Advisor for BlazerWorks, she supports school-based occupational therapy practitioners across the U.S. and is especially passionate about mentoring and empowering new therapists.

Quotes

"We see the kids so holistically as OT practitioners. And I think that that's something that's very unique to OT when it comes to that IEP team and our role in that IEP team." 

— Amy Fehr

"You're the expert. There is no one else at that table that knows the role and scope of occupational therapy as well as you do." 

— Amy Fehr

"I always tell therapists, anytime you have the student at the center of what you're talking about, you should never feel insecure about what you're talking about." 

— Jayson Davies

"We are a medical field in an educator's world — and so, you kind of have to remember that... It's their classroom. It's their class." 

— Jayson Davies

Resources

👉BlazerWorks

👉Linkedin

👉AOTA Supervision Guidelines

👉Pearson Tutorials

👉WPS tutorials 

👉WPS (Western Psychological Services): Offers free and paid training

videos for assessment tools.

👉Medicaid Billing Resources

👉OT Schoolhouse Collab

Episode Transcript

Expand to view the episode transcript

Jayson Davies   

Hey there, and welcome to episode 182 of the OT school house podcast. I'm your host, Jayson Davies, and today we are diving into a very important topic for all school based ot practitioners out there, especially those of you who might be working as contracted therapist. Joining us today is Amy fair, a passionate pediatric OT and clinical advisor with blazer works, who brings over 12 years of experience in school based practice, early intervention and leadership roles in this episode, Amy and I are going to address the complex nature of being a contracted ot for a school or a district. We'll share the good, the bad, the ugly, and even the best parts of being a contract therapist as an OT or an OT a during our chat, Amy shared a bunch of strategies to help contracted OTPs feel more confident, more included and more connected within their school districts, from building rapport with staff and administrators to advocating for the role of occupational therapy and navigating common challenges like onboarding and professional identity. Amy provides invaluable tools and insights that you can start using this school year. So if you're a contracted OTP, or if you work alongside contracted occupational therapy practitioners and want to better understand maybe their experiences, this episode is for you stick around and learn to strengthen your professional relationships and make a lasting impact on the students and schools that you hope to serve every day. 

Amazing Narrator   

Hello and welcome to the OT school house podcast, your source for school based occupational therapy, tips, interviews and professional development now to get the conversation started, here is your host, Jayson Davies, class is officially in session. 

Jayson Davies   

Amy, welcome to the OT school house podcast. How you doing today?  

Amy Fehr   

I'm well, thank you. Thank you for having me. 

Jayson Davies   

Absolutely it's great. Finally, having you on the show, we have been connecting, oh gosh, over the last two and a half years about I think now you're one of the Yeah, yeah, you were one of the original members of the OT school house collaborative. We've now met at a ot a few times, so it's really been cool getting to know you. Thanks for hopping on the show.  

Amy Fehr   

Yeah, of course, I'm happy to be here. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and you are in a very unique role, and I'll let you speak more to that in a bit. But I want to start off with, I don't know, a new favorite question of the podcast, if I can call it that, which is, if you had, you know, magic snap of the fingers, and could change one thing about school based? OT, what would that be? 

Amy Fehr   

Oh, goodness. There's a lot of things you could list. There's a lot of things that I think one of the biggest things is I would love to see some more structured guidelines for ot services and the role of OT in school based practice from state level, administrations, from federal level, administrations, just Some, some more structured guidance would be really helpful. 

Jayson Davies   

I'm glad you kind of said that, both from state and federal, because that was going to be my follow up was, Are you thinking more state level or federal level? And you know, I know you're aware of this, but not every state has guidelines. And I think that would be kind of the first step that I'd really want to see is each state kind of having what school based ot looks like in that state, because, as you know, especially, every state does things a little differently. And so, yeah, in fact, quick follow up, then you said, state and federal. Yeah. What about it at the district level? Are you seeing districts having guidelines in place, or are OTs kind of flying by the pants and creating guidelines, or just special education guidelines. Have you seen that?  

Amy Fehr   

You know, I've I've really seen that. It varies district to district and within states even so, some districts have some really great guidelines that are put in place by their local education agencies. There are some selpas in California, specifically, that have some really great guidelines. North Carolina also has some some stronger guidelines for their practitioners, which is really nice. But then there's others that you talk to people and they just say, Oh, well, this is just how we do it here. Yeah, I 

Jayson Davies   

totally understand, and that's one of the reasons, when I was working up in the high desert here in California, they had never had internal ot practitioners, and so I took it upon myself after it probably took, like until year three that I was there, but I was like, You know what? We're growing. We're going to be hiring another ot practitioner. I want to put systems in place. And so, unfortunately, this was before AI was around, but I started to develop guidelines. And I went, I scoured the internet for different guidelines, and I was like, You know what? I like this piece. I'm kind of reworded and put it in for our district, and I like this from LAUSD, and I like this from North Carolina, and I like this and and I started to build my own internal guidelines, because otherwise, as the team. Grows. People kind of come in and they're used to doing something at their district, and that might not quite be how you want it at your district. And so yeah, that was something that I kind of took upon myself to do. And I think that districts should, you know, kind of have something related to OT in place. So definitely. All right, well, let's move on to our main topic of the day. And you've worked in a variety of settings, including as a lead ot practitioner as well as an OT PT coordinator for a district. And from your experience, how is being a contracted ot different or similar to being a in house as a district higher occupational therapist, or even maybe a county therapist or or SELPA therapist, if we're using California language. And does that vary from area to area? 

Amy Fehr   

Wow, that's that's a great question. It really does vary from what I've seen. You know, from area to area, I've contracted into several districts. I have been a district direct employee in several school districts, the main points of the job are the same, right? I am responsible for my caseload and responsible for evaluations and treatments, that sort of thing. But sometimes with contracted practitioners, they're brought in solely for a specific purpose. They might be brought in to just do evaluations or, you know, just help with compensatory time, that sort of thing. So that can vary for sure. And I think sometimes too you see more of from a district direct standpoint. You see more of the district direct employees maybe partaking in some of the MTSS roles, or the pieces of maybe providing some professional learning opportunities for their colleagues, that sort of thing, more so than contracted employees a lot of times. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah. And I was going to ask you about MTSS a little bit later, because I see that as well being just not impossible from the contractor's perspective, absolutely not. But typically, in house therapists seem to be able to get their foot in the door a little bit easier. There you're now in a very unique role with blazer works, and it's almost like you're back in that ot PT coordinator role a little bit you mentioned professional development and providing professional development being potentially a little bit more simpler for in house therapists, but you are kind of changing that. You and blazer works are changing that a little bit by providing a lot of professional development for contracted therapists. Can you explain a little bit about your role at blazer works, and maybe even tie in that professional development a little 

Amy Fehr   

bit Sure? Yeah. So I currently work as a clinical advisor for blazer works. I'm an Occupational Therapy advisor on our advisory team. I work with 40 other special education professionals of varying backgrounds, special education teachers, former administrators, school psychologists, speech pathologists. Essentially, we have an IEP team behind the scenes, a very large a very large IEP in all walks of life, and spanning the entire country. So we're literally coast to coast. And the great thing about that is we have a lot of different minds, a lot of different minds, a lot of different different experiences to pull from, and we use those experiences. We use our expertise to help support contracted therapists who are placed into school districts with the staffing agencies that that partner with laser works. Gotcha, yeah. Okay, 

Jayson Davies   

that's cool, because in in a lot of I don't know, I remember when I first got hired on as a contracted therapist back in 2012 you know, they, they often town, oh yeah, we have mentorship and oh yeah, we have professional development, and then you kind of get hired. And sometimes that isn't the case. And so it sounds like, with laser works, you're helping those contracting therapist with those pieces that sometimes are promised but aren't delivered. So that's really cool. 

Amy Fehr   

Yeah, absolutely. We provide one on one support. We have group training opportunities. We have an entire portion of our team that is dedicated to developing professional learning opportunities for the school districts that we partner with, and also providing some of that to the contractors that we put out 

Jayson Davies   

there. Awesome. Okay, so then, as we were talking about professional development, sometimes it can be a little bit simpler, in my experience, for someone who's in house to provide that professional development, maybe to other teachers or even just other therapists. How do you in your role as an advisor, either A, provide that professional development yourself, or B support contracted ot practitioners to provide some of that professional 

Amy Fehr   

development. So that really depends on the district and the relationship that we have with the district. So our team will provide professional learning opportunities for any of the districts that we partner with. We have a huge professional learning menu that they can choose from. And then the it's a district wide opportunity in those instances, which is great, because then, you know, hopefully those contracted employees that are also there have options for that, and they have access to that. But then on the other side of it, on kind of that more contractor support side, we also offer some professional development opportunities for engaging in community learning forums. So in regard to the contracted employees may be providing some of that professional development. One of the things that I always like to encourage therapists is I like to empower them to approach the approach the administrators approach their site principles, and, you know, put themselves out there if that's something that they're interested in doing one of my my in my very first contracted role, I was asked to do a district wide presentation on sensory processing in the schools and using sensory strategies, and having being a person who had transitioned over from sensory a sensory based clinic that was actually an area where I felt the most, the most confident in school based practice at that time, so I was able to do that. But I think it's you know, if you have that passion and you have that expertise and you're willing to do it, put yourself out there, 

Jayson Davies   

yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think we should be putting ourselves out there more and not. You know, whether it's for century, whether it's for a simple handwriting training, any other type of training, absolutely, any quick tips for getting across information to teachers? Well, any, any do's or don't do's that you experience while providing training, 

Amy Fehr   

I think the biggest thing is to follow their lead. That's one of the hardest parts, I think, about just school based ot in general, is making sure that you're respecting their classroom and you're respecting their their space, their time, but also then making sure that we're putting ourselves out there without overstepping, without overreaching. Does that make sense? 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I like to say we're, we're a medical field in an educators world. And so, you know, you kind of have to remember that at the end of the day, it's the teachers that are having an impact on way more students than we are. And while we have a very specialty mind. You know, we have an OT brain. We can't just impose our everything ot onto them. We have to be very mindful that it's their classroom, it's their class, and we can't just change everything. We have to, you know, work with them, not be their boss, which is never the case so 

Amy Fehr   

absolutely. And I think knowing that you're not going to be able to change the world overnight, right? Taking those small steps and maybe finding that one teacher to connect with, to make those small changes with, and then building on that, it really does become a snowball effect from there. Yeah, 

Jayson Davies   

yeah. All right, we got off on a little bit of a professional development tangent, and that's totally fine, because it is important. It's really important for us to be able to explain what we do and support others. But going back to contracted therapy, or being a contracted therapist, and kind of how that works, or whatnot, both in your experience as as a contracted therapist, as well as in your current role, where you work with a lot of contracted therapists. What are some of the most common challenges that you've seen contracted therapists face while trying to feel included and integrated within a school team? 

Amy Fehr   

You know, when we talk about challenges that contracted OTPs phase, a lot of it really comes down to the basics of onboarding and not feeling like part of the team. So one of the biggest barriers can be maybe not being introduced, literally just not being introduced to the people that they're going to be working with on site. It's not uncommon for a contracted ot to show up one day and without an email address, without access to those IEP systems, no idea where they're supposed to work, and that lack of orientation can set the tone and make it harder to feel grounded from day one. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and I mean, I've had that experience, so I totally understand that. Have you seen that be different, whether or not it's a larger ot PT team versus, you know, maybe a district that only is hiring or contracting with one, maybe two, three therapists? I 

Amy Fehr   

think there are definitely variabilities across districts, and I noticed that personally whenever I went and. To a district as a contractor with a larger team, there was a point person that was ready to receive me, you know, she was the lead for that team, and then and they took me under their wing and got me going. Sometimes, whenever you are going into a smaller district, or maybe there's just a couple of OTs, and you don't really see each other, it can definitely be more difficult to find that time, to do that training and to think of all of the things that need to be done, because especially if it's a special education coordinator or somebody who's juggling a lot of plates at the time, you know it's sometimes hard to just think of all the things that have to go, that that have to be done in order to help that person feel more just more successful, more more welcomed and just ready to go. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it doesn't matter what role you're in as a school based ot practitioner, whether you're a a contract therapist or an in house therapist, or an in house therapist, we just know that people don't fully understand what we do, and so any chance that we have to kind of support people understanding what we do can make our job a little bit easier. It's nice to work with people that understand what you do, and that's why I'm such a huge advocate for getting ot practitioners into administrative roles, because it would be awesome, just for once, to have someone be my boss that knows what I do. On that kind of note, you talked a little bit about, you know, advocating for for ot practitioners to go and, like, meet their administrators and put themselves out there. But what are some other strategies that contracted ot practitioners can use to build rapport with school staff and administrators, even if they're on campus only, you know, one or two days a week. 

Amy Fehr   

Yeah, that's the hard part, right? As OTs, a lot of times we are itinerant and we're moving around. And so this is something that's not unique to contracted professionals, right? It's something that ot practitioners, who are district hired can also relate to and they can also kind of try some of these strategies potentially, if they're having some of these same feelings. But one of the biggest things to remember is that anything that you do, it does not have to be flashy, it doesn't have to be big in order for you to kind of start feeling more connected on site. So those small, intentional actions can really add up. I always tell people to start with simple introductions, you know. And sometimes you're going to have to keep reintroducing yourself. It can sound super basic, but even a quick Hey, I'm the OT, I'm I'll be here on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Let me know if you ever need anything that can make a big difference. And since you are new to campus and you're not there every day, they may not remember your name, and that's okay. Just reintroduce yourself. You may not remember their exactly you're meeting how many new people at every new site you go to. So reintroduce yourself. Be okay with that. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, that was something I was totally terrible with, especially as a newer, younger grad, and I finally started putting people's names into my phone on the notes, like by school I would write principals, name, secretary's name, custodian, name teacher in room 22 name, like it was so many people, it was hard to keep track. 

Amy Fehr   

Yeah, absolutely. And one of the pieces, one of the resources that we equip our contracted therapists with is a kind of a quick cheat sheet. We encourage them to make one for themselves, but we also have one that they can take and they can put down the information of the office manager, the classroom teachers, the principal, the contact information, all of that in one place you go, the more digital route, that's great. But for those who like pencil paper, we have that resource as well. And then we encourage some, some of the therapists that I work with, they've really had great success putting together their own friendly one pager, so something that basically just says who they are, what school based ot looks like how staff can reach you with your contact information. And you know, it's a gentle way to kind of educate everybody, as well as open up those lines of communication, especially for individuals who maybe aren't super sure of what the role of OT involves. 

Jayson Davies   

Okay, so we got introducing yourself. What are some other ways that ot practitioners can go about building rapport? 

Amy Fehr   

Another big thing is being visible when you can so popping into the staff lounge at lunch, say hi in the hallways. I know we have a tendency as OTs to kind of want to duck and cover when we see teachers coming, because we think another referral is coming our way. But say hi. Take that minute when you're going, when you're taking a kiddo back to class, to just greet the teacher. You know, if they're not in the middle of the lesson, obviously, but plant those little seeds of connection as you go, and people will start to associate your face as a friendly face of support, and they'll remember those tiny interactions of. Over time? 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, absolutely so introducing yourself, big one, making yourself visible. Any other ones that you want to cover really quickly, I 

Amy Fehr   

think following through and keeping people in the loop with what you're doing, that's a really big one, because when a teacher asks for help, even a quick letting them know I looked into that, and here's what I'm thinking, goes a long way, especially when you're not at that site every day. So keeping people in the loop of what you're working on and making like, making sure that they know that you heard them you're actively working on the things that you've talked about, that builds reliability and credibility with the staff, 

Jayson Davies   

yeah, to a degree like that over communication. A, it kind of helps people to going back to your previous ones. It helps with people remember who you are. B, you're kind of making yourself a friendly face by staying in contact with them. And C, you're showing them that you're trying to support them, even if it takes a few weeks to get them an answer, at least you're letting them know you're working on it. So absolutely great ideas. Yeah, I also like to add into that just quick wins. Yes, like giving a teacher a quick, easy win, if you can find something that's you know, it only has to take you five minutes, but it saves the teacher tons of time or tons of energy with a student, that goes a long way as well. It does All right, so, so that's a few great things to kind of first start doing. I kind of want to get into this, because I don't know if you have thought about this, but I have, and I want to get your thoughts on this. How can contracted therapist and or in house therapist, in a way, use IEPs to their advantage, to help build rapport and help build understanding of occupational therapy. 

Amy Fehr   

I think one of the biggest things when we're going into an IEP meeting is coming in from that collaborative team approach more than anything, and when teachers and other staff members feel supported by you, you're more likely to get that trust and support back. So making sure that when we're going in, we're not coming in confrontational. We're not even if there is a disagreement, there's going to be disagreements, whether that's with you know, family members, or if that's with school district members, we all have our own roles to play. We all have our own perspectives that we're taking, but maintaining that professionalism coming to a collaborative conclusion that hopefully benefits mostly that student. That's what it all comes back to, right? Is helping the kiddo, keeping that focus there, but letting the teachers know that you're there to make their job easier. That's kind of our goal, right? Whenever we're helping with finding some universal designs for learning or putting in some different accommodations, helping kiddos find some different things that are going to help them access what the teacher is trying to do for them so or what the teacher is trying to give them in regards to their curriculum that day. So we're on the same team, and just making sure that we're coming back to the table and we we keep that at the forefront is, I think, really big, 

Jayson Davies   

absolutely, I think IPS as being a very useful tool for ot practitioners. It's a it's a space where you can share your knowledge. It's a space where you can share your genuine concern for both the student, I said both, but there's, it's more than two. For the students, for the teachers, for the parents, for the administrators, you can really show your concern and and show how you want to support them. So yeah, absolutely. 

Amy Fehr   

Yeah. And I think when it comes down to it, we look at the kiddos so holistically as ot practitioners, and I think that that's something that's very unique to OT when it comes to the IEP team, and our role in that IEP team. And you know, what you have to say is important. So, yeah, 

Jayson Davies   

yeah, it's, I love that you say that because, like, I I've said this almost started as a joke when I was at one of my districts and we used to say that when Jayson and when Angel, who was a school psychologist, were on the IEP team, a parent should never need an advocate, or a student should never need an advocate, like we would talk about that because, like, we genuinely cared so much, like about the student, that you could never Find an advocate that would care as much about that student and about supporting that student and that parent and and I've kind of transitioned it now to like, whenever an OT is on an IEP team, like there should never be a need for an advocate. And that's partially because what you're just talking about, we we see things from such a holistic lens that we have. Yeah, of course, we can't support in every possible way, but we are very good at seeing where the student needs support from, and we're very good at, you know, identifying, yeah, that is definitely if a speech therapist isn't involved, let's get a speech therapist involved, because we're seeing this if an ape teacher or if a PT is not involved, I feel like we're one of the first people to kind of say, look, I can do so much with this student for this particular area, but we need the PT. We need the speech therapist, we need the adaptive PE teacher, whoever it is that we need. So I don't know we're great advocates, and I think that also helps to build rapport. 

Amy Fehr   

Absolutely. Yeah, that goes a long way. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. All right, I want to move on to the second half of our conversation and talk about advocacy and district leadership and professional identity and confidence, but I do have one more question for you, kind of related to onboarding a little bit, and that is as a new school based ot contractor walking into a school. What are some of the questions that they might want to ask, whether that's of the administrator of a fellow OT, you know, how do they go about just kind of learning the rope? So what should they speak up about? A little bit. Does that question make sense? 

Amy Fehr   

It does, and it's it's going to vary, obviously, from district to district based on their onboarding processes. Some districts, you know, for all people who come in, whether they're contracted or direct employees, have a system in place that makes a lot of that. The questions unnecessary, but the biggest things for me are always where, like getting that caseload, which schools am I going to be at, which IEP system are we using today? Which that you can google anymore to find that out. Do I have access to that system? Who do I talk to to get access to that system? You know, gosh, the headache, yes, it's all coming back to you now, isn't it, but the nuanced things, if you How do I get access to that system? How do I get, you know, am I going to have an email address that's associated with the district? Who do I need to talk to about, you know, if a laptop is being provided, who do I need to talk to about that? Who do I report to, from a district standpoint, that can be a huge one is, who do I direct my district questions to? Because even if they have a mentor outside of the district for the therapy side of things, an outside mentor is not going to be able to to assist as much in regard to questions about district systems and district programming. So having a person that they can can, that can be their go to, I think is one of the best, like, one of the best tools that they can ask for? 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah, totally agree. All right, I have a follow up to this question, and we will get back to that right after this short break. All right, we are back with Amy, and as promised, I do have a quick follow up to that. A little bit that question was about what ot practitioners should be asking of the district administrators, other practitioners. There one thing you didn't actually touch upon, and I want to get your take on this, is ot practitioners coming in and getting an understanding of supplies, available, evaluations available, maybe any sort of like, just like all the tools that we use, day, day in, day out, and maybe even a report, you know, a template for a report. What should an OT practitioner come in, and should they have questions about that? Should that already kind of be in a handbook? Or what are your thoughts? 

Amy Fehr   

I think that that's something that you know, is when it comes to the day in and day out supplies, then I do encourage ot contractors to ask for those resources. As far as, where can I find these things? What do I have access to? A lot of times, though, that doesn't come from the administrator that you're meeting with day one. A lot of times that's going to come from somebody else within the OT team, or maybe your your go to district supervisor. So it really depends on who's, I guess, greeting you in that first day. But once you kind of get into that rhythm and you know where you're supposed to be going. You have some of those other basic things down. Then absolutely find out where your treatment space is going to be. Find out, you know, hopefully you have one of those. Find out what resources you have access to, which evaluations they use within that district, where you find those. Do you have to check them out? Are they on site? What do you Who do you need to go to if you need to order more those types of things? And then I always spend some time my first day or so, rummaging through some of the resource supply closets and seeing what's there, like, what kind of tools and toys and activities do I have already there on site that I can, that I can work with and use for for services and for treatment. And then I think the other piece you mentioned was the template, the evaluation templates. And absolutely you want the contractors to follow the district template. If there is, hopefully there is a district template. There's not always one, but you absolutely want them to follow that district template. This is something that the district has put forward, saying that this is the format we would like you to follow, that all of our practitioners follow. So we always encourage that. They ask for that as well. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and again, I just have a bunch of follow ups to this one. If you come across an evaluation, say, you know, you you start working at a school district and like, Oh, you have access to these three assessment tools that are random letters that you've never heard of before, then what recommendation might you have for that contracted therapist to just kind of learn about evaluation tools that they've just honestly have never heard about before. Maybe they don't have the bot two or the bot three, maybe they don't have the Peabody. Maybe they don't have the M fund, and they've got all these other ones that just are random. Any suggestions for that? I 

Amy Fehr   

think the biggest thing is my first go to is the manual I'm I'm kind of old school with that. I go right to that, that manual, and kind of look at it a little bit. I like to go through the actual protocols and see what exactly am I assessing for here? What is this, looking at what's asked of the kiddo, talking with other therapists on the team, and maybe even asking if you can observe an evaluation that they do, if they're utilizing those tools, that can be great. If it's a smaller team and, you know, you're the sole OT or maybe you there's just not the chance for that observation. You know, as silly as it sounds, YouTube can be a great resource when it comes to some of that 

Jayson Davies   

true true. There's a lot of students like ot students who have to, like, do assignments about how to administer the bot two, or how to administer the bot three, or the SPM. And, you know, they're, they're not professional YouTubers. They're sometimes hard to hard to get through. But they can be helpful for, you know, getting a sense of how to use a specific tool. So, 

Amy Fehr   

and I know I feel those types of questions too, whenever I have therapists going in, and they're like, I have never seen this before. What is this? And you know, if it's something that I'm familiar with, I can give them my take on using and my perception and like how I've used it in the past, that sort of thing. But sometimes it really depends on what type of learner you are too, right? Are you somebody who can just read through the manual and figure it out, or are you somebody who needs that visual of seeing somebody else administer it? And some companies are great about having their own videos out there on YouTube now over administration? 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, I was just gonna say WPS and Pearson have some decent free videos for their for their tools. You just have to go to the page and then, kind of you go to the page for that specific tool, and then at the bottom, sometimes there's, like a Videos tab. And a lot of them, I think, will have like a paid, you know, type of course, for it specific tool. But a lot of them have free videos that are like an hour long presentation on how to use the SPM to like that. They have some good stuff for free. So check that out. Absolutely, I think, kind of along a similar role. Here is, you know, once you've been there for a little bit and you're starting to understand how to complete an evaluation. You've got that report template and whatnot. What are some of the advice that you give to your or to the therapist that you work with on being a little bit more confident in IEPs or standing up for you know what OT is, and sharing the role of OT in staff meetings, like, how do you get them just to feel a little bit better sense of confidence in what they're providing to the teams? 

Amy Fehr   

So the first thing I always want to tell them is you're not alone in that, especially coming in as maybe somebody newer to the district, or if you're a new school based therapist, or new graduate school based therapist. You that feeling of, you know, I'm not sure if I should speak up or everyone else knows more than me. Those types of, those types of feelings and those thoughts are not uncommon. So first, I just want to say you're not alone. Secondly. Me, I want to share a phrase that one of the contractors I work with shared in our new to schools community last month. This is something that a coworker shared with him, and he said it really helped him with this exact scenario. He was told you are the expert. There is no one else at that table that knows the role and scope of occupational therapy as well as you do. So remember, you were invited to that table for a reason. You bring a perspective that nobody else in the room has, and whether you're at that school every day or just a few times a week, you've seen things with that student. You've tried strategies that have worked, and your input can make a real difference for that kiddo. So I always suggest kind of anchoring back to your purpose. Ask, how can I use my voice to support this student's success? Then that kind of also gives that shift from the focus being on your nerves and puts it back on the impact that you can make. 

Jayson Davies   

That's great advice. Yeah, I I always tell therapist something similar, in the sense of like, anytime you have the student at the center of what you're talking about, you should never feel insecure about what you're talking about. If you were talking about supporting a student, you're probably on the right track. Just keep going. So, yeah, I love that. You're the expert. Yeah, you're the expert. And you have that there, and you have the student in mind, like, anything that you're doing to support that student, go for it. Yeah, 

Amy Fehr   

yeah, yeah. It's okay to feel nervous, right? We all get there. We're all we've all been there. No matter how many IEPs you do, there's still going to be some that bring those nerves. But we need to speak up anyway, like you were just saying every time we use our voice, we're not just advocating for ourselves and for our roles as OTs, but we're helping the team to better understand the student and their needs, as well as what ot can bring to the table, and that's where that holistic approach really shines. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, we've been putting a lot of focus on the contractor or on the therapist for the first, you know, two thirds of this episode. But I want to turn it around a little bit and talk about a little bit from the actual district role and what they can do to support therapists. So as someone who's kind of been in a coordinator role or a few coordinator roles, what can districts and special education leaders within a district do to better support and include contracted therapists? 

Amy Fehr   

So that's a great question, and honestly, the answers are more simple. They just take a little bit of intentionality. So first and foremost, treat a contractor like part of the team. I know that sounds kind of obvious, but there have been situations that I've you know, I've heard tell of where contracted therapists aren't included in emails or professional development days or sometimes even invited to staff meetings. And it's not usually out of malice. It's usually just an oversight, but those little things can really affect how connected and how valued a therapist feels. Another big one is clear onboarding. So even if it's just a quick hey, here's where to get the supplies, here's where to go for the tech help. Here's how we schedule IEPs, those basics help therapists hit the ground running. And we know how important hitting the ground running is in our jobs. Oh yeah. So when you're itinerant or contracted, you don't you don't know what you don't know at that point, right? Especially when you're trying to do this across multiple sites. So any little helps with that can help and or any little tips like that can help a quick 15 minute check in at the beginning of the year can make a huge difference. I also always encourage leaders to assign a district point person we talked about that a little bit earlier, so someone on site or in the district who the therapist can go to with questions, so not just about the clinical stuff, but about the systems. You know, even where's the copier code? That's a huge one. So that's another big one. Is encouraging that point person, it's 

Jayson Davies   

always fun when you have a copy code at like, three different sites, and you have three different 

Amy Fehr   

numbers that you have to remember, or you have to borrow, the psychologist's copy code because you were not given. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah. That's why you make friends with the secretaries. Make friends with the secretary. Absolutely 

Amy Fehr   

no and, and honestly, one of the easiest and the most impactful things that districts can do is acknowledgement. I mean for any leader, whether it's a site leader or a special education director, you know, a quick email saying thanks for jumping in so quickly, or we appreciate the work you're doing with our students. Those are, those are huge. It goes a long way, and it reminds contracted therapists that their work matters, and they're not just there filling a spot on a case. Load and helping them stay in compliance, because at the end of the day, you know, they're there to help the students, and they're there to help the school, and they just want to be respected and included. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 

Jayson Davies   

You've worked with a lot of contracted therapists, and you so you yourself have been a contracted therapist. What has been the best onboarding experience that you have heard about or experienced and kind of what did that look 

Amy Fehr   

like? So I actually just had a meeting with a program specialist who oversees OTs and PTs at a district that we work with, and she was talking a little bit about their onboarding program that they do, and they actually for all of their OTs, regardless of if they're contracted or or direct hires, they have a two week period that they use to get them ready and up and running. So they do training on their IEP systems. In that time, they keep them secluded for the first week to where they don't even introduce them to the the rest of the team, because they know that the rest of the team is going to just overwhelm them. So they focus on those district level things. First, you know, the getting all of the email set up, getting the tech stuff going, getting any trainings done that need, need to get done. That's the first priority. And then in that second week, they use that second week to introduce them to their they all have a buddy within their the OT team, so they all have somebody to go to that's been there for a bit, and then they transition them into going and observing them they've they basically shadow them for a week while they're also getting to they kind of use the mornings to shadow, and They use the afternoons to get set to hit the ground after that sounds pretty good. It sounds like a pretty ideal situation. So I, you know, I'm used to starting school day one and then just jumping right in. So it's, it's nice that they offer that transition time and that they acknowledge that it's needed. 

Jayson Davies   

What would you recommend to an A therapist who is the only therapist on campus, the only OT and could use that mentorship from a buddy, but they're just, you know, isn't one in their district? What could that therapist kind of do to maybe get some external support. 

Amy Fehr   

Yeah, that's that's a really good question. The first place I would go is, you know, if you don't know this answer already, talk to your recruiter. Ask them, Does the company have a mentor they can provide you, as far as you know, that ot side of things you know, somebody like, what blazer works provides for for our professionals that we put out there whenever it comes to that mentorship and advisory support. So, you know, a mentor in that sort of way. Another thing is you can look onto social media. There's obviously the OT school, house collaborative. You have that community built in there, where you get that professional learning in addition to the community forum. And then it's always important to have somebody on site, I think too. So finding another related service provider that you've connected with. For me, it was always, it always seemed to be an SLP. I don't know what it was about the SLPs, but I was always able to find an SLP, if I was, if I needed to say, how does this work here? What do you do if, have you ever had this? And they're usually great. I mean, they're, they're busy too. So I don't always like I sometimes would feel guilty taking their time, but I just tried to be very mindful of that, and they were always very willing to help. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, I loved my SLPs that I worked with, and I also loved the school psychologist. They were always so hopeful. That's 

Amy Fehr   

who I leaned when I first, when I first came through, I mean, the school psychologists were, and the OT A that I worked with, I don't know that I would have made it through my first position without them. I asked a million questions. And I, you know, I think sometimes you just have to be okay with putting yourself out there. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We're going to take one more break, but when we come back, I want to ask you about the therapist who's ready to take on more responsibilities. All right, we're back, and I'm looking at the therapist now. They're feeling. A little bit more comfortable in their role. They've onboarded and maybe they're starting to see that the school that they work with is including other related service practitioners, maybe into the general education system. Maybe they've got MTSS going on. Maybe there's others that are doing some of those professional development opportunities for teachers. But the OT, the OT a the OT department, is not included in this yet. What advice do you have for that therapy practitioner that wants to be a little bit more included? 

Amy Fehr   

So yeah, once you've had that time to settle in, I think it's a great idea to approach that conversation with the administration, whether it's site admin, that's where you would typically want to start with an NTSS program or something along those lines, or a coordinator, you know, I would just approach the conversation in a way that's open and supportive. So, you know, for example, I've really enjoyed working with the students and staff here. If there are any ways I can be more involved or helpful for the team, I'd love to know, you know that opens the door with putting without putting pressure on anyone, and without overstepping your role, it's simply letting them know that you're engaged, you're ready to jump in, you're ready to support in ways that align with those teams needs, right? And I think you can also be specific, you know, depending on your interest or skill set, so you can talk about how you've supported MTSS systems in the past, and maybe what that looked like, or if there's a particular area within MTSS. So if you're wanting to do, for example, a collaborative handwriting approach with some of the Kinder first grade teachers for MTSS, lean into your skill set, lean into your area of expertise. So and you may not get an answer right away, and I think that that's something else that you need to be okay with. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, that that's absolutely true. And to be honest, sometimes administrators, I don't think really know how to respond when you bring up questions like these to them and and I've said it several times on this podcast before, but sometimes I just go straight to the teacher, and I start with one teacher and start small, and then you kind of build that evidence to show the administrator how you can support, support them. Yeah, 

Amy Fehr   

I think that's great. And now that you mentioned that I've had instances myself where, you know, I've been able to build that rapport with like, one individual teacher, and then sometimes that builds your confidence as a practitioner too, right? And so then after you see it work, and you see it kind of get to that place where it's benefiting the teacher, it's benefiting you, it's benefiting the students, then it kind of empowers you to go to the administration from there. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, all right, as we start to wrap up this podcast, I want to play a little quick response game with you, and I just have a few topics that I kind of want to get a yes no and maybe a little bit of an elaboration on it. We'll start off with one that we've already discussed a little bit, but can contracted therapists participate in MTSS 

Amy Fehr   

Absolutely, they're there. They're on site. They're providing services for your students, for your for your schools. The one caveat to that might be if they were solely brought in for the purposes of evaluations, or, you know, completing compensatory minutes, that sort of thing, if you always have to look at that fine print right of what's in the contract, but I would say 90% of the time Absolutely, 

Jayson Davies   

all right, what about Medicaid? Can contracted therapists support the district by billing Medicaid. 

Amy Fehr   

Absolutely. They use the same systems that the District uses. The district helps get them set up with that, with the login information for the billing, and they bill just as any other occupational therapist would. 

Jayson Davies   

Okay. Can OT, ours that are contracted supervise OTs that may or may not be contracted by the same company. Yes, 100% 

Amy Fehr   

it doesn't matter what company they're from. It doesn't matter if they're district direct or if they're contracted. OT, ours can supervise OTs on site for at like for the district. 

Jayson Davies   

Have you ever experienced or heard about when a district, typically, a very small district, has such a limited caseload that they hire or contract a full time OT, A, but then have a very limited ot presence, whether that be contracted or part time. How does that, I guess, kind of you know, keeping on the realm of contracted, where a contracted OT is supervising a district ot A, 

Amy Fehr   

so. A contracted OT, can definitely supervise a district. OT, a I actually experienced that in my very first position. I think when it comes down to kind of the nuances of the amount of time and all of that, though, you always have to go back to your state guidelines for supervision. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah. Every state has different levels of supervision, whether it can be in person or it can be virtual, and if you need to cover the entire caseload, or 

Amy Fehr   

observations are required, all of those sorts of things, yeah. So 

Jayson Davies   

of course, as always, go back and get more information supervision. All you have to do is Google your state, OT, OT, a supervision and your licensure board, and it'll 

Amy Fehr   

come a ot A has a really great resource for that as well. They actually have a full resource by state for ot a supervision guidelines, yeah. 

Jayson Davies   

Last question, does the way that contracts with contracted ot practitioners, the way that they're structured, does it sometimes limit a therapist ability to support students? I think 

Amy Fehr   

that's when you that's that's a hard that's a hard question, because I think it goes back to the way that the contract is drawn up, and so that's one thing that I always say, you know, talk with your agency about make sure that you understand them, the ins and outs. I've heard instances, not from the people that I support, thankfully, but I've heard instances where contractors say, Oh, well, I'm only paid for services delivered, so essentially, when you're with a student, to those direct services, or potentially those indirect services in regards to a consultation, potentially, but sometimes we know there's a lot more to our jobs than that right there. Yeah, we there's so much more than just delivering services, because there's the paperwork, there's the evaluations, there's the treatment planning, there's the collaboration. I mean, you can go on and on with those things that happen without the student present, and that's all part of your job, that's all necessary for the student's growth and development and for the impact that your services are going 

Jayson Davies   

to have. Yeah, yeah, I know that's a tough question. Thank you so much for for, you know, taking a chance at it because, you know, it's hard, and I think it really speaks to the need for us as individuals, not even just as ot practitioners, but just as individuals. So make sure that we know what our role is based upon the contract, and then maybe we have to decide whether or not we want that contract based upon what that is. And maybe we decide that we want to advocate or we want to take it as it is now, but advocate later for expanding it. You know, situations change at different schools right now, maybe they only need you to do evaluations, but maybe a year from now, maybe they they need more services or consults or whatnot. So, yeah, very, very unique situation, so thanks for taking that on. All right, one more question, and then we'll wrap up here, and that is, what message would you like to leave with contracted ot practitioners who may be struggling to feel like a valued part of their school team. 

Amy Fehr   

So I think the biggest thing is to know that that can be a completely normal feeling, so you're not alone necessarily in that, but also know that your work matters, so even if you're not at every staff meeting or looped into every conversation, you're still showing up for the students in a way that makes a real impact for them. You bring a unique lens and skill set to the team, and that perspective is so, so valuable, even if it isn't always recognized right away. So keep taking those small steps to build the relationships. Make sure you celebrate the little wins, yours, as well as those of others. And you know, don't be afraid to advocate for your role. So you deserve to be at that table. You are the expert, and you're doing important work. So keep going with it. Absolutely, absolutely 

Jayson Davies   

great way, great way to wrap this up. Well, Amy, it has been a true pleasure having you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us. And before I let you go, where can others go to learn more about yourself and also about blazer works, which sounds like you're doing a pretty amazing job with the team over there and supporting people. 

Amy Fehr   

So you can find me on LinkedIn at with Amy fair, and you can also find me on the blazer Works website. It's Blazer works.com if you go to the clinical advisors tab, you can actually check out my little about me page, and you can even message me directly from there. 

Jayson Davies   

Awesome. And we will be sure to link directly to those as well to make it nice and easy for you, just head on over to the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Really appreciate you being here, and we'll definitely, uh, keep in touch to see how things are moving forward with in the contractor world. Thanks again. 

Amy Fehr   

Awesome. Thank you, Jason. 

Jayson Davies   

All right. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the OT school house Podcast, episode 182 with insightful and inspiring Amy, fair. Amy, it was an absolute pleasure having you on the show and learning from your wealth of experiences as both a practitioner as well as a clinical advisor, your advice on rapport, building on advocating for our role and navigating the unique challenges of being a contracted ot practitioner will no doubt resonate with so many of the school based ot practitioners that listen to this show. So thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your passion with us and to you you know listening out there today, thank you for spending your invaluable time with us today. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review if you're on Apple podcast, or you can also comment on this specific episode if you're listening on Spotify. It really helps us to reach more school based ot practitioners, just like you, and it also helps us to know that you're enjoying this episode, so that we continue on with more episodes just like it. Before you go, I do want to remind you to check out the OT school house collaborative that is an extension of this podcast, and it is a fantastic space where you can access exclusive resources, professional development opportunities and mentorship to help you grow as a school based ot practitioner. Amy is actually a valued member of our community, and you can connect with her inside the collaborative. If you want to learn more about the contracted role as a school based OT or her role within blazer works, I also want to thank Amy, as well as our other amazing member, for being a part of this supportive network of school based ot practitioners. I'd love for you to join us too, and you can learn how to do that over at ot schoolhouse.com/collab, and sign up today. Thank you again for listening, and I'll see you next time on the OT school house podcast. Take care. 

Amazing Narrator   

Thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast for more ways to help you and your students succeed right now, head on over to OT schoolhouse.com Until next time class is dismissed. 

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