In most states, occupational therapy practitioners are restricted from advancing to formal school leadership positions. The absence of pathways to leadership may limit the ability to fulfill AOTA's Vision 2025 and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This study investigates how limited opportunities for career advancement affect school practice…

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for health professionals, including therapists working in school settings who experienced increased stressors and decreased support. The goal of this study is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the stress levels of school-based therapists (SBTs), determine the methods they used to…

Inclusive education is endorsed for children with disabilities or special needs attending school. In inclusive settings, support services by health care professionals are essential to support their integration and participation in school life. Collaboration between school health professionals, such as occupational therapists, and school personnel…

A student's ability to participate effectively within a classroom environment is dependent on a multitude of factors. However, two such factors, sensory processing and self-regulation skills, are often not well understood by teachers due to limited training and education on these topics. Current research indicates that teachers report managing…

There is no research on the lived experience of school-based occupational therapists providing sensory-based interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The purpose of this study was to investigate how school-based occupational therapists are addressing sensory processing limitations for students with ASD. A phenomenological…

Context-based collaboration between teachers and occupational therapists has shown promise as a strategy to enhance teachers' capacity to enable the participation of children in elementary schools. In this study, we applied the Canadian Partnering for Change (P4C) model as a collaborative, coaching- and context-based approach in the Netherlands…

Children in the United States face higher rates of childhood obesity than in other developed countries. A literature review examined eight different articles to discover why these statistics are so high and how occupational therapists can address this issue to reduce rates of childhood obesity. From the age of five, children spend almost 30 hours…

Background: Occupational therapists and teachers often collaborate for the benefit of students. Purpose: This work aims to develop a conceptual framework for collaboration between occupational therapists and teachers in a school-based setting. Methods: A multiple method, qualitative methodology was employed. An integrative analysis of findings…

Awareness of executive functioning and its relevance to both occupational participation and special education is expanding. This study describes how school-based occupational therapists address executive functioning in practice and determined if this differs from traditional areas. Fourteen occupational therapists from four districts in Michigan…

Most American school-based occupational therapy (SBOT) practitioners do not report utilizing research-supported collaborative models of therapy (Gallagher & Richards, 2020). The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to determine whether a 4-month-long training and coaching program could improve interprofessional…

Education to address sexual education that prevents unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and misinformation is necessary for promoting health and safety among school-aged children. Teachers provide sexual education in educational settings in several states across the country; however, teachers are not prepared to educate students…

An American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) Transition Community of Practice (CoP) subgroup engaged in a knowledge translation strategy as demonstrated through their process and product development. The CoP members first coalesced regularly to discuss their common interest in promoting occupational therapy's value and in advancing…

A clear gap exists between what evidence states as best practice for school-based occupational therapy and what is feasible for practitioners to implement. Evidence establishes that collaborative and contextual practice have a positive effect on student outcomes. Emerging evidence demonstrates that workload models, as opposed to caseload models,…

The practice of occupational therapy (OT) has been extended to include not only a hospital-based but also school-based setting. School-based occupational therapists (SBOTs) work as health professionals in an educational team that provides a transition service in special education schools, and encourages students to meet their goals and become…

This paper describes the application of an integrated theoretical framework that consists of behavioral change models to plan preventative educational programs and target interventions to facilitate parent implementation of tummy time (prone positioning) to promote infant development and prevent flattening of the infant's skull. A qualitative…