Effective School Occupational Therapy
Quality Indicators for School-Based Practices
Our Mission:
To have a set of guiding, actionable principles that school-based occupational therapy practitioners and other stakeholders can use to demonstrate occupational therapy’s distinct value through evidence-based decision-making, and high quality occupational therapy services in the schools.
Our Vision:
The quality indicators are a reflective, evaluative, and actionable summary of key principles of quality school-based occupational therapy services. They can be utilized by occupational therapy practitioners and educators as well as other stakeholders, including administrators and family members, in order to determine the presence of quality services and identify opportunities for quality improvement. Additionally, these indicators could be used to guide evaluation of school-based occupational therapy practitioners and programs, to develop occupational therapy programs, to inform program updates, to identify competencies and to identify continuing education priorities.
Our Goals:
The quality indicators will:
- inform occupational therapy practitioners and educators regarding effective school-based practices;
- provide administrators and other stakeholders regarding effective school-based practices
- support improved student outcomes;
- support the attainment of local, regional, and national school-wide objectives;
- support interdisciplinary collaboration in the service of student and school-wide goals.
Our Story
Providing high quality and high value care leads to consistent, reliable, and effective outcomes and is a hallmark in nearly all public policy conversations and guidance documentation. To meet the demand for high quality services, indicators of quality have been developed across disciplines and practice settings. Quality indicators are multidimensional and actionable measures of the quality of services and lead directly from observation of practice to professional advocacy, development, and planning. Quality indicators provide tools to track practice strengths, need, and change over time and identify areas that need further research.
The Quality Indicators for School Practice (QISP) have been developed to offer school-based occupational therapy practitioners a reflective tool to ensure:
- Delivery of the best possible service delivery value and outcome.
- Effective prioritization of planning for practice and program improvement.
- Informed advocacy for the needs of students, families, schools, and the profession.
The QISP was developed over a period of six years beginning with an exhaustive systematic search of the literature addressing school occupational therapy practice quality. The literature search led to the development of guiding principles and key concepts that were supported by the evidence. The principles and guiding concepts were then shared with audiences across the United States to refine our concepts and ideas. During the third step of the QISP development, the content validity of the guiding principles and key concepts was tested in a qualitative study through structured interviews with identified school based occupational therapy leaders, scholars, and practice experts. Finally, seven principles were adopted, key concepts were refined, and technical specifications for each of the indicators were identified. In the final phase, the abstraction elements developing, proficient, and exemplary were chosen to support reflection and professional reasoning.
This website supports the mission and vision of the QISP and their application by all stakeholders of occupational therapy practice in school settings, and proves a pathway to resources for high quality practice and Effective School OT outcomes.
About School Based OT
School based occupational therapy services are made unique by the alignment of the federal, state, and local regulatory and policy that defines it. Since the mid-1970’s, the passage of historic education legislation has brought about sweeping changes in the provision of occupational therapy services in school settings, expanding the opportunities for practitioners to meet the diverse needs of all students with and without disabilities. Providing high quality, educationally relevant, occupation-focused, and evidence-based services has become paramount to our work as occupational therapy practitioners with students, their families, and school teams.
As occupational therapy practitioners, we provide services to support students access to and benefit from their educational program within the least restrictive educational environment. Educationally relevance in school settings is characterized by its unique focus on the early identification of and intervention for students in need of learning, behavioral and functional supports to maximize skills that enable lifestyle sustainability and community participation after high school. Educationally relevant interventions must support learning and participation in the classroom and children in their role as a student learner.
Leveraging our training as healthcare providers, we translate our knowledge of health and wellness, childhood development and learning, and engagement in occupations, routines, and roles to foster participation in the learning community. To effectively provide educationally relevant services requires occupational therapy practitioners are attuned to a) processes that promote reflection and professional reasoning, (b) best practices in educational settings, (c) promoting student self-efficacy, empowerment, and belonging, and (d) developing and maintaining collaborative partnerships. The Quality Indicators for School Practice are designed to promote just that.
Meet the Team
Yvonne Swinth
Dr. Swinth is a Professor and Program Director at the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington. With more than 30 years of experience working in pediatrics, primarily in school-based settings, she has not only provided services for children ages birth to 21 years, but has been involved in the development of programs, grant writing, leadership activities, completed research projects, and worked on different local and national committees. Currently, her scholarship has addressed the development and implementation of the Quality Indicators for School Practice, the effectiveness and outcomes of dynamic seating in general education classrooms, and how to build resilience in children and families that have experienced trauma. She is a past chair of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s School Systems Special Interest Section, has presented locally and nationally regarding issues of school-based practice for occupational therapists, and has authored several chapters in books on this topic. She is the founding editor of the Journal of Occupational Therapy: Schools and Early Intervention.
Patty Laverdure
Dr. Laverdure is Assistant Professor and Program Director at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. She has worked with children and youth and their families across the care continuum from neonatal intensive care and in and outpatient services to early intervention and school services in roles of provider, consultant, and program administrator. Her research focuses on knowledge translation and science implementation in education-based practice and scholarship of teaching and learning in occupational therapy education. She has worked to develop resources to support the development and translation of occupational therapy theory and practice knowledge and advance the professional development and competencies of occupational therapy practitioners. She co-developed the Quality Indicators for Practice and is conducting research to advance their utility for advanced clinical reasoning, innovation, and outcome advancement in educational practice. She currently serves as the Chair of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Special Interest Section Council.
Quality Indicators
Principle 1:
Children and youth learn best; build authentic social relationships; and experience …
Principle 2:
Regulatory, policy and guidance requirements (such as licensure requirements, …
Principle 3:
Information regarding strengths and needs that influence occupational performance …
Principle 4:
Prioritization and decision making regarding relevant educational outcomes, functional …
Principle 5:
Interventions are embedded into the context of natural activities and routines …
Principle 6:
Building trusting collaborative relationships with caregivers, teachers, …
Principle 7:
Obtaining, maintaining and enhancing clinical competence through professional …