Denice Tucker, OTR
Manager, School-Based Therapy Services, Harris County
Dept. of Education
Have you
ever started a job in a school district and on the first day of work, you
realize there are no student folders? No current medical referrals? No initial
evaluation much less a current evaluation? No identifiable Plan of Care or IEP
goals marked for your service? No list of students with
time/frequency and campus? And, of course, no way to find the
whereabouts of the previous therapist to get answers to these questions? Where
do you start as a therapist new to the district, especially if you are the only
OT or PT without benefit of a therapy team with memory of previous
services?
To
make sure no one has to walk into the situation described above, the time to
start planning for the end of the year in a school based job is NOW.
Even if you feel certain now that you will be returning in the fall, get
your documentation in order for the upcoming school year. Life has a way of
changing the best laid plans, and it may very well be someone else who must walk
into your job in the fall.
Use
this quick checklist to help you organize and get prepared NOW for the upcoming
year.
· Do you have a student folder (sometimes
called a “soft folder”) for each student receiving services? Or,
if your district keeps electronic files, is there an up-to-date “folder” for
each student?
· Does each folder include a copy of the
student’s current evaluation, IEP goals/objectives and the related services page
with time and frequency specified?
· Have you included copies of your progress
notes and attendance sheets in each student’s folder?
· Is a copy of the current medical referral
in each folder? If new medical referrals are needed, has the appropriate
physician been sent the district’s form for completion over the
summer?
· If yours is the service responsible for updating the
IEP’s in the state folder, have you updated them? (Note: This would be the case
if your service has primary responsibility for implementation of the IEPs. If
you are a collaborator and instruction is primary, the teacher would update the
IEPs).
· Have you made a list of first things to do
in August to get started (check on students changing campuses, get student
schedules, meet new teachers, etc.)?
· Have you let district administration know
where your updated student folders are stored over the summer?
Change happens! Making sure a working folder with current
documentation is available for each student is also the right thing to do for
the students you serve. Do your best to create a stress-less situation for the
start of the new year - it is an act of kindness to a new
therapist who may find him or herself in a new school district position. Who
knows -- it could be you!
5/16/2016
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