School Administrators’ Perceptions of OT’s Role in General Education Initiatives

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 has outlined an expanded role for school-based occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) as specialized instructional support personnel in general education. However, OTPs have continued to be viewed as related service professionals under special education due to barriers of high caseloads and decreased administrative support (Clark & Polichino, 2021; Hintz et al., 2022). This phenomenological study sought to understand school administrators’ perceptions of occupational therapy’s role in general education initiatives. A qualitative sample of ten school administrators was utilized to answer the research question. Data was acquired through individual semi-structured interviews. Data analysis indicated three key themes which include school administrators highly regard OTPs, believe occupational therapy’s role should be expanded in general education, and are open to occupational therapy’s full scope of practice in the educational setting. However, administrators noted time and budget barriers hindered OTPs’ role expansion to support general education initiatives. The results of this study impact how occupational therapy moves forward in school based practice. OTPs must educate all school staff on OT’s full scope of practice and advocate for their positions to reflect whole school needs. Shifting from a caseload model to workload is necessary so OTPs can support general education initiatives more naturally.

References

Clark, G. F., & Polichino, J. (2021). School occupational therapy: Staying focused on participation and educational performance. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 14(1), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2020.1776187

Hintz, L. A., Fletcher, T., Cahill, S., & Poskey, G. (2022). Teachers’ experiences with occupational therapy multi-tiered systems support: A qualitative study. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2022.2112361