OTS 33: Lessons Learned Transitioning from One School District to Another

Jayson Davies
Jun 24, 2019
37 min read

Updated: May 13

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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 33 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.

In this episode, Jayson shares what it was like transitioning from one district to another and the lessons that were learned as a result of doing so. Join in to hear about:

Some pros and cons of both contract and district jobs
Distinct differences between working in districts big and small
The importance of advocating for yourself
The role of occupational therapy in assistive technology
Why Jayson feels there is a constant change in school employees
What to consider before taking on a new job

Don't forget to share what you learned as you completed this past school year with me at Jayson@OTSchoolHouse.com or on social media @otschoolhouse

I hope you enjoy this episode! Be sure to check out the resources below.

Links to Show References:

Quick reminder: Links to Amazon.com and other websites on this page may be affiliate links. Affiliate links benefit the OT Schoolhouse at no additional cost to you. I appreciate your support by using these links.

The below references were mentioned throughout Episode 33

Edjoin.org
- A place to find School-based OT Jobs in California and some other regions

iPhone & iPad Apps (Some of these apps can also be found using the Goole App Store)
- SnapType (free)
  - SnapType Pro (necessary for full access)

Freebies!

Be sure to subscribe to the OT Schoolhouse email list & get access to our free downloads of Gray-Space paper and the Occupational Profile for school-based OTs.

Have any questions or comments about the podcast? Email Jayson at Jayson@otschoolhouse.com

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Episode Transcript

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Jayson Davies

Hey everyone, and welcome to episode number 33 of the OT school house podcast. My name is Jayson Davies, and I am so happy that you are joining me here today for this episode. So this episode is going to be a little bit different than most of the other episodes. It's summertime, so I thought, What the heck? You know, let's just change it up a minute. Let's relax a little bit. There's not going to be a guest today, and things are just going to be a little bit more relaxed. It's just going to be me and you. So I guess you could say this, this podcast is going to be a little more qualitative versus quantitative, as I'm going to be talking a little bit about the things I've learned over my ot career, as well as this past year as I transitioned into a new district. So we're going to get into all that in just a second. But first, let's Cue the intro. I'll be right back.

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

All right, and I'm back, and like I was saying, I just wanted to share some some things about myself and my career as an occupational therapist in the schools, as well as some of the things I've learned in the past. So those are the two things that I do want to go over. I'm going to start off by just sharing you a little bit about the three different school based ot jobs that I've had, and then I'm going to dive into some of the things that I specifically learned this past year, or maybe some things that kind of built up and eventually, you know, just came to fruition this past year as I transitioned into a new district, actually. So for those of you who don't know, I've talked about it a few times, I think. But this was my first school year at a new district. I worked for the district, as opposed to being a contractor like I have at one district previously, and so I'm going to talk a little bit about that, the differences between being contracted as well as in house or a district employed therapist. So yeah, I've done some reflecting, and I'm excited to get on with this episode. So this is typically the the time in the podcast where I get to introduce our guest, but since you know there isn't a guest, I'm just going to talk a little bit honestly, kind of about where I've come from and the jobs I've had. So let's get into that right now. So I am now at my third job as a full time school based OT, and I have had a few side gigs over the years, you know, working at a skilled nursing facility or through a home health agency on the weekends or on my way home from work. But it just didn't last too long. I'm definitely a school based OT. That's where I belong. So I have worked as both a contractor and as a district in house employee for schools. And I am currently employed at a district as opposed to being a contractor. And that is my that is my preference. I did move from my contracted gig to a district gig because I wanted to get into the actual district. No, there's some benefits, pros and cons for each, and I just kind of I prefer the benefits that come with being in a district, so hopefully we can have a whole nother discussion about all that in another episode. But yeah, it's just something that I prefer right now. Currently, I also have a role as a thesis advisor at a local ms ot program here in Southern California, I actually have two groups of four students, which I advise and provide guidance on a thesis manual and project that they work on. I work closely with them about once a week. I hop on Skype or something, and I really enjoy that. Actually, I could see myself potentially working as a educator at a ot school, or maybe a a C Ota COVID school or something like that. I think it'd be really fun to do so something that I'd be interested but the last role that I kind of work in as an OT is that I do actually try to keep up with the California Occupational Therapy Association, or OT, as it's called, Occupational Therapy Association of California, actually. But that's actually one role that I tend to struggle in a little bit to keep up with between all the other things I got going on with the podcast, the thesis advising, and, you know, the actual full time gig. But I do try to keep up with that, and that is something that here in California, we're working on educational credentialing for OTs in schools. And as you've heard on previous podcasts, I am passionate about that, and so that's kind of the area with ot that I try to focus my time to, all right. So like I said, I want to talk a little bit about the jobs I have had as a school based ot so let's start with the first job. I actually had, this right out of OT school, and I'm gonna explain a little bit as to how I got the job. So if there's any new grads out there, this is for you. I'll leave out the names of people and the companies, or I'll just create fake names or something, just to keep things fair. Nothing is bad. I just don't want any. Going to feel like I'm using their names for my own purposes. So my first job, I actually had no idea that I was going to be a school based OT. I really thought I'd be in a private practice or something, because that's kind of where my roots were, where I kind of learned about occupational therapy. But my friend had gotten this job as a contract occupational therapist for schools, and it was a company that was pretty well established, at least here in Southern California. I think they've even gotten bigger now, but she set me up with an interview over the phone with someone at the company, and my friend kind of shared with me she had a little more experience in school based ot through her field work experiences, as well as like a track at USC that was for school based OTs. So she shared with me a little bit about the ins and outs of school based OT and then I had my first interview with the company over the phone, and it was very chill, actually. You know, it was more of a conversation than an interview, and things that I didn't exactly know the answer to, they helped me with the answer. They knew that I was fresh out of college, and so they understood that, that I wasn't going to know everything. And actually, because they were a contractor, a contract occupational therapy company, of course, they need people in order to fill roles or fill positions that other districts needs. So they actually did help me with the answers. And then I had a second interview with not only them, but also the district that I would actually be employed through, I guess you could say. And I knew all the answers then, because previously, I had already talked to my previous my colleague and I also had talked to the contract company, and they had kind of helped me out with some of the answers. So by time I did the interview with the district, you know, I knew what idea was. I knew what an IEP was. I knew a little bit about collaboration and the need for collaboration, all that good stuff. So yeah, I basically got that job, and I had secured that job even before I passed the NBC OT, and so I was basically just waiting for my boards exam scores to come through, and then I was good to start working. So there was a contracted ot at a school district where most of the OTs were contracted by the same company. There were no in house OTs at that position or at that district, I guess I should say. And this isn't always the case, you know, sometimes there are some district OTs and others, times it's all contracted, but sometimes it's also a mixture of in house and contracted occupational therapists. So overall, at this job, you know, it was a really positive experience, and I learned a ton, you know, this is where I learned how to start treating kids in a school based model. This is where I learned all about IEP is how to write reports, how to complete evaluations. And, you know, when I look back on that year, it's almost like a blur, but it was an area of high socioeconomic status, you know, and so we had some high maintenance cases, but part of that, like, that's why I learned so much. You know, I had to deal with parents. I had to be very I had to learn how to communicate very well. I had to learn how to work with the parents, work with the kids, the teachers, all that good stuff. And, you know, this was a district that is known for having good special education services, and so we had actually people that would move to this area specifically for the special education services. And overall, you know, it just felt really good to be in a place where I got to learn a lot. We had a fairly big ot team that provided some mentorship and taught me the ropes. And I'm just so grateful for all those people that I had a chance to work with. And so about a year later, an occupational therapy assistant friend of mine actually who worked in that role with me at the job that I was contracted, she actually informed me of a posting on what's called Ed join.org It's E, D, J, O, I n.org, and this is a site in California where most districts post their openings, whether it be a teacher opening an occupational therapy position or any other administrator position, whatever it's on edjoin.org and so I checked out the job and I actually applied. It wasn't in House District job which I was keen on because of the medical benefits, the retirement plan, stuff that I mentioned kind of earlier, a little bit, but it also paid very well, according to the ED join posts. And you know, that's always a plus. The downside to this job, as I found out during the process of applying and interviewing, is that it was over an hour commute from home, and it was actually a relatively small district. So previously, the district I was in was pretty darn big and in a well established area, this one was small and in a rural area by California standards, they were interested in switching over from using contracted OTs through the county, over to having their own OT and OT assistant. So I interviewed, and that went well. I basically left the office feeling sure I had the gig. You know, it just was a very comfortable, relaxed interview. And the people there, we just kind of clicked really quickly. And so that all went well. But because of the small district, the HR department took forever and a half to get back to me, like I had almost accepted, I kind of basically accepted another ot job. And then they finally got back to me, or like, hey, we want you here, come up here. And I had just felt that connection with them, so I did go up there. And I just want to thank the sped director, special education director up there, Jennifer for, for making that call to me and just saying, hey, you know what, we really want you up here. Come on up here. I just so glad that I did, because it was such a great experience. So working as an OT in that small district, you know, directly under that special education director, myself and an assistant, you know, we worked to transition all 90 or so kids, about 90 from the county services over to the district services, and we developed the OT program there from the ground up. We developed the OT handbook, we developed referral forms, we created the RTI programs there, and we established some handwriting groups to try and cut down on some of the referrals. And what I really appreciated there was that we were actually contracted to work through the district for over 200 days, and the typical school year is about 180 so that gave us time, not only to service extended school year, but it also gave us the time that we needed in order to get ready for the school year, you know, get organized and develop programs and forms and stay organized because it was a small district. You know, our director relied on us the OTs as well as the SLPs and the psychologists to be almost like program specialists of sorts. They didn't have program specialists because they were a small district, so we, as the specialist in the IEPs, kind of had to fill that role a little bit, also because of the small district, I had time where I could actually develop trainings, and I conducted trainings, you know, before the school year started, or sometime in the middle of the school year or after the school year ended, I got to put together training on fine motor skills, on handwriting, on some sensory stuff and and it was just really cool because we had that time to do that versus, you know, if we only have 185 contracted days, you're basically there for an additional, you know, five days before and after and during the school year. You just don't have that time to do that. So also at this district, you know, that's where I got to help hire Abby perrona, and which many of you know, she helped me to start this podcast in the OT School House blog. Abby's no longer with ot school house as there were some things just to attend to as time went on, but we're still friends. We keep tabs on each other, and hopefully she'll come back and visit us on the podcast again and and share with us what she's up to. So she's actually in the process of moving from California to the other side of the country, kind of closer to where she grew up and has family. So I wish her the best of the luck, and you know, we'll always stay in contact with her. So over the course of those five years in that district, again, Abby and the certified occupational therapy assistant, you know, we grew that ot program, you know, from the ground up, and it was just really fulfilling. You know, we got to start from nothing, from zero kids, and we transitioned all the kids over from the county, or the self, as they call it out here in California. And we built that program. We got to interact with the teachers, the parents, the students, everyone at the school, you know. And so it's just a great experience. The other thing that I learned from this small district is that I worked directly under the special education director, like I was saying. And so I just learned so much about how a special education department worked. You know, from the roles that the that the administrative assistants play, and, you know, all the paperwork up to the referral process, and then even just how the IEP works, you know, I got to sit in on meetings to hear, you know, what the state wants to see from the district and what the district and what the district wants to see from the special education department. And just like kind of the the vertical orientation, I guess you could call it of just all the different programs that go up the line and down the line from the individual schools all the way up to the district, and even beyond that, a little bit. So it was just really fantastic job. I got to work in that small location there where everything was just so tight knit, and I got to learn a lot about not only occupational therapy, but also special education in general. So definitely love that job. And that brings me to the beginning of this past school year, 2018 Those in 19 school year, I was at that job, that previous one for about five years, but last summer, I decided it was time to work closer to home. So I exchanged an hour plus long commute for a 10 minute commute at a local school district, you know, I must say it was a bit overwhelming. You know, I moved from a district that had 13 schools, two OTs and a coda to a district with over 30 schools, more than 10 occupational therapists and a preschool through adult transition program. I forgot to mention that the district I was at previously only had K through eight, so this was a big change, you know, going from servicing kids of eight or nine grades, all the way up until the full spectrum of services. So, but, you know, I made it through the school year. It took a little bit of time to get used, to figure it all out, but I did make it through. And you know, I made some new friends. You've heard some on the podcast, and I've just had new experiences that I thought you might like to hear about. So that's what I'm here to share. I know some of my current colleagues listen to the show. So real quick. Hi team. Don't worry. I don't think anything that I'm about to say in this lessons learned. I think I have about six lessons learned. Nothing's too crazy, and I'm pretty sure we talked about most of this. So let's get into it. Here are the six lessons that I have learned through transitioning this past school year into a larger district that's closer to home and just a little bit more well established. So here is lesson number one. I'm going to start with what I've already talked a little bit about, and that is that the district was a lot larger, and I just came to realize this past year that larger districts are not always the most organized, especially when it comes to the onboarding of OTs. This was realized very quickly, like within the first day or week of working there in August. And so I want to share that with you a little bit. So back in June, July, maybe I got the job. And so I signed all the paperwork with HR, and they gave me a calendar with 190 work days on it. All was dandy. And, you know, I was ready to show up on August 5 for my first day of work at Special Education Department, you know. And so it was a new employees training, or so, I thought. And I had heard that there was another new ot starting this year with me, so I was excited to meet him or her. Didn't know. But other than that, I had no idea what to expect. So I show up and find out that I'm the only ot there among about five new school psychologists. I don't think there are any SLPs, but there might have been one. So I thought to myself, what happened? You know, maybe the other ot isn't coming today. Maybe she didn't get processed yet. I don't know. So I'm sitting there in the small conference room with some school psychs and the director of special education, a coordinator to a special education all are mostly going over like psychologist info, you know, talking about the psychs telling them where they're going to be and telling them that they have like a central hub at this one school side. But I seemed a little shocked when, or they seemed shocked actually, that, you know, there was an OT there a little bit, you know, they played it off pretty well. They they made some copies for me. Told me where my schools would be, and stuff like that. But at the end of this roughly hour long, maybe hour and a half intro to the district, the schedule the special education department, the coordinator, shares with the psychologist that they can go to that that hub that I was talking about a minute ago, and to me, they simply say, Well, you can head over to your school sites and start to get ready. You know, mind you, I had not met anyone at my school sites. I my site administrators had no idea that I was going to be their occupational therapist, at least, I don't think they did. And I had no equipment. I had no access to caseloads or other online programs that I might need access to, you know, but I did as they suggested. I went to one of my school sites, and I remember not being able to get into one of the school sites, so I was like, I don't know what's going on here. So I went to my other school site. And this was about a week before school started, you know. So not even the teachers were on campus yet, the doors, all the gates, were locked in, any and everything. So like I said, I went to my other school site. I got into the OT room. It was in one of the portables, and I must have found an email list of the OT department, or maybe they gave me one back at the special education department, because I emailed the OT saying, hey, you know, is anyone else working today? And to my surprise, most of them said no. Actually, I think one said yes, but she was just kind of working for a few hours and then going home. But most of them said, No, we're not supposed to be working for another two days. Yeah, so I'm sitting here on Monday, and all the other OTs are like, No, we're not supposed to be working till Wednesday, and that's how the school year started off. So. Apparently the other ot that was supposed to start at the same time with me. She had heard that she was supposed to start the same day that I did, but she had gotten a hold of the OT department and found out that, no, they weren't supposed to be starting until the seventh as I finished out the rest of that day, you know, reviewing some files that I found, I couldn't help but wonder what the sped department staff were thinking when an OT showed up to the psychologist training that day. Honestly, I gotta admit, like I said, they they played it off pretty well, and they were very accommodating on me and and they did give me all the papers, or at least most of the papers that I needed. But, yeah, it just was a tough first day even, you know, just because the HR department, the special education department, just kind of wasn't synced up. And so to follow that up real quick, I also want to say that it was tough at the beginning of the school year, you know, going forward, because I didn't have access to the district online programs. To start the year off. I think I had access to my email, but it took a good week in the school year to get access to like my caseload, we use sase out here. I know some of you also use sase, and then it took me almost two months to get access to our billing program called paradigm. And I have no idea why it took that long. I think maybe someone had left the district, but just to get a simple login and be able to go on there and start accessing my or to input treatment notes. Took me, like, two months. So the first two months of school, I was keeping notes in Excel spreadsheet, and during the last week of school, you know, like a month ago, I was inputting those back entries into paradigm. And so that just took up so much extra time that could have been avoided by a little bit of organization among the special education department and the use of their programs that they have. So it wasn't the worst problem to have, but, you know, it could have been a little more easily facilitated. So getting access to all these programs in a big district, it can be tough, you know, because there are just so many people and very few people actually know who to refer you to in order to get the correct access. I remember sending a bunch of emails being like, Hey, can you help? And they're like, No, someone else takes care of this. They email that person be like, Oh, no, someone else takes care of that. So yeah, it was just tough. Likewise, at my previous district, I had access to a program that allowed me to see what classes students were in. So, you know, I could pull up Johnny Garcia or whatever, and say, oh, okay, he's in this teacher's class at this school. But at this district, I didn't have access to something like that. And so they actually had the same program. You know, they both use Aries, but at this district, they didn't allow me to have access to it. As you can imagine, at a high school, this made finding students very difficult. I had to email either the case carrier or the attendance office to try to get a copy of each student's schedule. But of course, as many of you who may work at a high school know, schedules are always changing, especially in the first three weeks of school, and so just trying to keep up with that, you know, I'd get one kid's schedule. I try to see him the next day, and his his entire schedules change, you know. And so that can be a little difficult, I guess. What I'm trying to say is that just be mindful that with with more people, comes more to be organized, and the likelihood that things will not be as organized, that's a tough pill to swallow sometimes, you know, especially for people like me, who you know, I use spreadsheets for just about everything. You can actually see one of them up on ot schoolhouse.com When you subscribe, I share one of my treatment, not treatment, sorry. Caseload templates that just helped me to keep track. I still use something similar to that. But yes, when you find someone, as Sure, many of you know are very organized, it can be a little frustrating when a new job just isn't quite as organized. So moving forward from that point, all this disorganization led to the need to advocate, which is actually lesson number two. And this starts before you even work a day at your new at your new job. I could argue it even starts during your interview, as you share your experience and how you have likely advocated for students or yourself at another job, maybe you just share that you listen to a podcast to better support your needs and the needs of the students. But you know, I think it's important to show that you are willing to advocate from day one, the first time I actually advocated for myself at the school district was the day I was actually offered the position. They said, hey, you know, you've got the position. And maybe it wasn't the same day, but eventually, you know, I wanted to know where on the five step pay scale that I would start, and I was excited to be moving closer to home, but I knew that it was likely going to be a pay cut, and so that was something I was a little concerned about. And I can tell you right now, it's not common for districts to just offer to move you up on the pay scale, you know, unless you advocate for it. In this sense, I was told that all OTs start on level one, and the clerk informed me, you know. If I wanted to potentially petition that I could submit an email with my current pay stub and ask to be raised higher, but that it doesn't always happen. But you know, I did. I drafted an email to the director of HR, I believe it was and, you know, I just said, Hey, this is what I'm making at my current job. And I really want this job, but, you know, I can't, I can't afford to take, you know, a substantial pay cut. And so I advocated for myself. And sure enough, I ended up getting, or starting at a higher pay level because I had advocated for myself a little bit, I sent in that, that extra email that it took in order to move up a little bit. And so that's something that was a little tricky. You know, I kind of sat there for a few minutes developing this email, thinking, like, why am I doing this? I'm getting a brand new job. And maybe it's I don't want this to affect, you know, my job here. I don't want them to say, oh, you know what, never mind. We can go find an OT that's going to start, you know, for 10, $15,000 less a year. You know, that's something that could potentially happen. I don't think it would, but you never know. Another common reason OTs need to advocate is for their caseload or workload. You know, the OTs in the district made it clear when I got there that shifting to a workload approach had been kind of addressed a little bit in the district, but was completely shut down by the school administration or district administration. And, you know, part of me understands why it is more costly and requires more work on the district part to figure out each person's workload rather than just managing, you know, here's 60 kids to you, 60 kids to you, 62 to you. You know, it takes a little bit more work. It also, in a roundabout way, can promote therapists to increase services in order to have fewer students to manage. So for instance, if someone's seeing 30 kids twice a week, and another therapist has 60 kids and they've seen them once a week. You know, that kind of, I know both of those are really large caseloads. I'm just making up numbers, but yeah, you know, it kind of could potentially promote therapists saying, Oh, well, if I give this student more therapy, then I won't have to take on another kid potentially. So just just my kind of being devil to advocate. A little bit, I fully think that a workload approach is more appropriate, but I'm just trying to see it from all different angles. Anyhow, by February of this year, you know, 2019 my student number had dipped down a little bit. I think it was around 48 and you know, the district's trying to keep us right around 60. But I was doing a lot of assessments, so I was staying pretty busy. I did try to send out emails to some of my colleagues, saying, Hey, if you need some help, let me know I do have a little bit of free time. But at the department, the coordinator that oversees the OT department, around January, she sent out an email saying, hey, I want to see all your schedules. And so, you know, I sent him my schedule. And like I said, you know, it was a little light. I already knew that. And because of that, she asked me to take on an entire additional school with a caseload of over 30 kids, like 33 I want to say so that means I would have, you know, do the math real quick, 4833 81 I think. And so in that one to one meeting with my coordinator, after she sent that email, I nervously, but politely, you know, said, I can't ethically continue to provide treatments to that many students. And I suggested, you know, I was like, maybe I can take on 15 instead of the 33 that meeting actually ended with me asking or sorry that meeting ended with her asking me to consider it and to look at my calendar and send that to her again, and just to consider if I could do it. So I did. I emailed her, I restated my concerns and again, offered to take on about 15 students, showing what my calendar may look like if I did, and then nothing. I didn't hear anything from her for a little bit. It must have been at least two weeks later, I received an email stating that she was asking me to only take on 12 students. And so I like, whoa. I mean, I offered to take on 15, and she's only asking me to take on 12, which then put me right at that 60 student mark, and so that helped, you know, I did go to that other school, I took on part of the caseload, and there was actually a contracted occupational therapist that took on the rest of the caseload, but it proved to me, You know, that that advocating worked, you know, using not only keywords, you know, using the words ethics and how that I can't ethically provide services to 81 students, especially without an assistant. I mean, I really, honestly did plan, because I kind of figured that that was coming, and I had to plan for what my words would be. And. I was asked to take on a caseload of of, you know, 80 kids or so, and so, I do suggest that you sit down and just think about, you know, what would you do in that situation? If someone was trying to ask you to take on more kids and more schools, then you could potentially take on what would you do? How might you plan for that. Or how might you react when your boss sits you down and says, Hey, I'm looking at your calendar, and I think you can take on an extra 20 kids. I mean, you know that a 30 minute session doesn't just take 30 minutes, and so you need to be able to express yourself and advocate for yourself as well as your student. All righty, on to lesson three, and then we'll see if we can take a short break this. One's a little bit more positive, I think, but I know there are going to be some of you which may disagree or feel you are inadequately trained for this, and so that's okay. You know, Lesson three is that OTs can be at specialists. Assistive Technology is what I mean by at and you know, very few districts have at specialists or someone that looks into at and thus they often are required to outsource evaluations for assistive technology. And this can be costly, like $10,000 per evaluation, costly. So districts are, you know, especially right now with with the technology age upon us, districts are looking for people who can fill this role. And for one evaluation this year, I actually had the chance to, in part, fill this role. I want to preface this by, you know, saying I have not received any special training or formal training for assistive technology. I do hope to do so in the future. But this evaluation that myself and another occupational therapist in the district completed together was pretty straightforward and did not include the use of augmented communication, ot com. In that case, if it would have, if it would have included some ot com, I would have said no. Or I would have at least, at the very least, been like, I need an SLP, a speech pathologist to join in on this with me. You know, I can look at some of the physical aspects, but I need that speech to look at the communication aspect so but in this case, the IEP just wanted to know if the student required access to more than just the classroom computers in order to access his education. So together with my occupational therapist colleague, we observed the student in a middle school classroom, his classroom, of course, we spoke to his case carrier, we emailed some of the other teachers to get feedback from them, and then we also conducted, of course, some formal and informal assessments. We looked at his typing abilities and compared his typing speed and legibility to his writing speed and legibility. We also reviewed some of the previous OT and psych reports, just to see if there were any underlining skills such as manual dexterity or maybe some cognitive skills that may inhibit either writing or his typing ability. Overall, the student was accessing classroom computers pretty well, but he didn't want to stand out. And I mean, what middle schooler does want to stand out? You know? So likewise, the computers that he had access to in the classroom were not really in a good location for him to learn while using the computer. You know, they were at the back of the classroom and faced away from the teacher. So basically, you know, the teacher would have been teaching to his back while he's at the computer trying to write his assignment. It just didn't make sense. So the district did, or the school did actually have Chromebooks, you know, carts of 30 Chromebooks, or whatever it may be that they could use. And so it was suggested that the school try using those before looking into further technology needs. This is definitely an area that I think OTs could and probably should be more familiar with as we move into and we are actually already in the digital age, this is definitely an area that if you feel comfortable with, then you might want to kind of take a few more trainings and get specialized in that, because there are other areas that you can actually do a lot more with it. And so I do suggest that, for instance, at the high school that I worked at, I became known as kind of the tech or app guru, actually in the IEP, so I would often recommend applications for students to try out. Some of those apps include snap type, which I know several of you are familiar with, speechify, which will actually read, it's a speech or, sorry, text to speech program. And so you can take, like a picture of a document, and it'll read it to you different homework apps and other organizational apps, especially at the high school level, for those kids that are just cannot remember to do homework or cannot plan out a a project, type of assignment, you know, that takes several parts to it, or several pieces to the puzzle. I also found some mindfulness apps for students to try out, such as breathe and breathe. For kids, two different ones that I did try out, and for students with physical disabilities, I worked with them to figure out a way to access their iPad or their computer in a way that made sense for them. You know, as OTs, we have a way. Say about our task analysis, that we look at the whole picture and not just the school. And so we often come up with ideas that other IEP team members may not this is definitely an area we can advocate for and take a larger role in, you know, because we do think about potentially, what the kid's going to need at home to do homework, what the kid may need even in the car or on the bus ride or something, you know. And so I suggest that if you are interested, you know, just just seek out that training. There's several different certifications or different types of classes that you can take. There's probably even stuff online. So one last comment on assistive technology, OTs can especially help students learn how to access their at devices in the community. I had the opportunity to do this again at the high school and in the adult transition classrooms a little bit, because every week they would go off campus, they take a field trip, or they'd walk to Albertsons, or they would go somewhere. And so often at the beginning of the year, these devices were being left in the classroom. They weren't going with the students, and so myself and the SLP, you know, we work together, and we're like these kids need cases on their iPads that are strapped to them some way, you know, whether it's an over the shoulder strap or something, so that they can take this with them. This is their communication device. You know, how do we expect them to actually participate out on the field trip if they don't have this device with them? So again, just a that's kind of mixing assistive technology and advocacy. All right, so we've been going on for a while now. I want to take a short break before I get to the last three and I want to ask you, what is one thing you learned this school year and share with me on twitter or instagram using the, you know, the tag at ot schoolhouse. Or if you aren't quite ready to maybe publicly announce what you learned, you know, send me a direct message, or even just say it out loud to yourself in the car to make it more tangible, if you want to take a moment to reflect on this past school year, you know, feel free to press pause if you need to, and just take a moment, take a few deep breaths and think about real quick. What is one thing, if everything else you had to leave behind, what was one thing that you really learned this school year that maybe you need to jot down just so you remember it come August or September, when you go back to work? All right, I hope you all took that quick moment to just jot something down. We all need to take a moment to just reflect and learn from our own experiences. So this next one, I don't think, is specific to large districts, but this year, we seem to have a revolving door of special educators, including occupational therapists. The district I now work for, actually lost two, at least two therapists before I started. And then over the course of the year, including myself, we hired four OTs this year, and so we are losing one of those OTs this summer, you know, again, just continuing the revolving door. And likewise, at one of the elementary schools that I was at this year, we started with two brand new teachers, special education teachers in both the primary and the upper grade special education classroom, both of them resigned during the school year, and we now have two new teachers, or we had two new teachers to finish out the school year. Hopefully, I think they will both be back with us next year, but in that time that we transitioned, you know, we either had long term subs or several, one, two, maybe three day subs. And that just hurts the kids who need that routine and then who need that continuum, continuum of services. You know, when they're gone, when you're having new people every day, you just can't keep that consistency at the high school. We also lost one special education teacher halfway through the year, and we're actually losing three more special education teachers this summer, as well as the two SLPs that were there are being reassigned or are moving in one way or the other. And on top of that, I have been reassigned to a different school within the district. So several district psychs and SLPs, they've also left the school for one reason or another. The district for one reason, you know. So next year, both the teachers and the students are going to have to get to get used to a whole new IEP team. And ultimately, that just hurts the kids, unfortunately. So it's sad, but at the same time, you know, we have to ask ourselves, why is this revolving door? You know, why are people coming and going, coming and going so often? And my theory is partially because of high, high case loads, lack of training and support. You know, a tendency to respond to adversity as opposed to planning for adversity. You know, it's just school districts as a whole. I find we tend to wait until caseloads are impacted, rather than to anticipate that we are going to be bringing on new students this year, or anticipate the kids will be transferring to us. You know. Know, it's just something that happened. And typically caseloads, if you look at at least my past seven years, the caseload tends to be higher at the end of the school year than it does at the beginning of the school year. I don't know about you. Let me know if, if you see something different. Unfortunately, you know, at that point where the caseloads are too high, it's too late. You know, that's when people get frustrated and potentially want to leave, and the paperwork is endless, and there's just not enough time in a day to catch up and get the help one needs. You know, it's a little ironic that we are trying to implement RTI in the schools, as opposed to a wait to fail approach for our kids. Yet we wait to fail when someone is overburdened with a high case load or too many assessments, you know, when it comes to those teachers and the service providers, not just OTs, SLPs, psychologists and so with that, I also want to just say, you know, it's not your fault if you're feeling overwhelmed and like you can't get work done. Well, then we need to go back to number two, which was lesson number two, which was to advocate, schools are under pressure financially from the top down. Everyone is being pressured to cut costs. And unfortunately, special education is an expensive department and takes up a large part of the budget in most districts, and that's why we're kind of being asked to cut, honestly, not just OTs, but special education as a whole. And so when you have this revolving door going on, you know, it can have a negative impact on the students and your ability to make progress with with every new staff member, new rapport has to be developed. You know, whether it's with a kid or the staff. For me, this affected my ability to run a classroom RTI group last year at that school, where I told you, we had two teachers both leave in the middle of the school year. I had set up an emotional regulation group with a teacher, and then she was gone two weeks later. Then we had substitute teachers for several weeks, which make it hard to make plans, you know, like, how do I come in and say, Oh, hey, you're here today. I'm coming in, and you and I are doing a group together. And then finally, you know, a new teacher comes in who I kind of felt bad for because she's trying to take over a classroom in the middle of the school year, like, how am I supposed to go in and say, Hey, welcome, by the way, next Tuesday, we have a group together where we're going to be talking about the zones of regulation or something like that. You know, it's a difficult task for her. It's something that I don't really feel comfortable because she's already overwhelmed, and I don't want to, you know, just add on to it. But again, this ultimately affects the students. So yeah, the revolving door of staff, it's, it's definitely something that altered my ability to provide services this year, and so I recommend that you do what you can do to support your teachers and other OTs so that they feel valued and they feel confident in their ability to make progress with their students, because maybe that's just the one thing that they need in order to not go looking for another job, or to Not even decide to get out of education completely. Because I don't know the exact numbers, but I've heard that in education, it's one of the highest rates of people wanting to completely leave the profession that they're in. You know, it's not just that they're looking for a teaching job at a new district. It's just that they don't want to be a teacher anymore, and that's sad. So or maybe OTs, you know, school based OTs, maybe they just don't want to be school based OTs anymore. They just want to go do a whole nother realm, because it's overwhelming here. All right, number five, it's going to be a quick one, but it's a good one. This year, I learned that a 10 minute commute is not to be underestimated. Like I said earlier, my previous job, I commuted over an hour to work each day, and then closer to 90 minutes in the afternoons to get home. There are actually days that I would stay late at work simply because I didn't want to start the drive. You know, now I work about 10 minutes from home, and I don't even have to hop on the freeway. It's awesome. That old commute that was spent listening to podcasts most days. So I do miss a little bit of my podcasting time, but instead, I'm here producing a podcast for you rather than listening to podcasts. So I do have time to take care of my own self care and, you know, duties as a husband and and likewise, I've learned a bit about what it's like to live in the community that I serve. And you know, it's not too bad. Every now and then I see a a student at a movie theater or a parent at the grocery store, but so far so good. No no awkward conversations or anything like that. So not too bad. All right. Last one, and again, this one's a pretty short one, but for those of you who don't like cliches? Well, I'm going to end this with a short cliche real quick, and that is that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. It's just a different type of grass. And what I mean by that is that every district is different. They all have a system that keeps them well watered for the most part, but they all have some yellow patches, and there's just really no. Way of avoiding that. So just like in an IEP, how we use a strength based approach to solving problems, if you do the same thing as an employee and stick to a positive growth mindset over time, hopefully you can start to minimize the amount of yellow spots and start small. Don't be too ambitious. Collaborate with those who are willing to collaborate. You know, forcing change on anyone who's not ready for it is only going to end poorly. So don't do that. Find a small group that you can collaborate with. OT is still not a household name for many people, especially in the schools. People have no idea what we do. Sometimes I use IEPs as a way to educate staff. I might explain ot in a great detail at an IEP meeting to the parents, per se, but I'm hoping that the staff member may just kind of happen to catch on to what I'm saying a little bit, and over time, you can see that happen. By the end of the school year, even my assistant principal, like knew what I was going to say before I did, and so she could advocate for myself, even when I wasn't there, and that's just awesome, because I now know that that she knows what OT is, and understands OT and knows when a referral may be appropriate and when a referral may not be appropriate, you know, so just keep in mind that people are always listening, and that can help with You being able to collaborate. The same goes for the word sensory, which is commonly misused or not misused, but used in a different way by different professionals. A little teaser for you here. We're actually going to talk about the word sensory and how it is used differently in the next episode. So stay tuned for that. But going forward, I just want you all to know that every district is just a little bit different. They all have their yellow spots. And if you're thinking about potentially going to a new district just because you think it's going to be better, you know, talk to some people there, find out what are the good points and what are the bad points, because you might find that it's just the opposite of where you're at now, or you might find that there's just different things going on there. So just try and see what you can find out. All right, one last bonus for the new grads and the younger OTs out there, every year goes by faster than the last. I'm sure many of you out there have already figured this out, but take advantage of your time now. You know, if there's a training you want to attend, view it as an investment in your time and your money. The same thing goes for small mistakes. You know, learn from them and definitely find an organization system that works for you. You know, time is so valuable, and if you don't advocate for your own time to yourself, you know, stop lying to yourself. You know you only had 24 hours in a day, and you got to spend time sleeping. So you need to find a way to organize yourself, your time and everything that you do. And you know, if you don't do this, you're going to end up working past 5pm every day, at least during the school year. And so figure out a way to manage that time. Alrighty, well, that is a little bit about me, my experiences and some of the lessons I've learned this past year or so. And I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little bit better. Perhaps you learned something similar, or maybe you learned something completely different. I don't know every school is a little bit different. Every person's a little bit different, and every ot has their own works and things that they learn. So again, if there's something that you would like to share with me. You can reach out to me at ot schoolhouse on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or shoot me an email at jason@otschoolhouse.com and share with me what you learned. I'm excited to hear about your school year, and I'm excited for the next school year. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure just to hit that subscribe button up at the top, just to make sure that you don't miss any of the future episodes. We've got a lot of good stuff coming up. We're gonna talk a little bit about trauma. We're gonna talk about the integration of services into the classroom, into recess and other areas. So just stay tuned and we'll see you next time on the OT school house podcast. Take care everyone.

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 otschoolhouse.com Until next time class is dismissed.

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