Written by Whitney Eakin, PT, DPT, ATC

For PT’s, OT’s, SLP’s and assistants interested in taking travel contracts working with pediatrics, sometimes these jobs can be harder to come by than other settings. The most common settings available for travel positions include home health, SNF, acute, and outpatient orthopedics. But for those looking to work in peds, school contracts may be a great option!

You might be wondering how school contracts are set up for a traveler. Do you have to work the full school year? What is the pay like? Do you get paid during school breaks? Since this setting is a bit different than others, we wanted to provide some key information to working in school contracts as a traveler.

The Basics of Working School Contracts

Most school contracts will typically be for the full school year, but some schools are open to just doing half the school year with the possibility of extending, or a little less than that even. Every situation is different, so if you’re unsure if you want to commit to a full year, work with your recruiter and the facility to find out what’s possible.

When school jobs are listed with an “ASAP” start date and it’s the middle of the school year, that contract would be from now or as soon as you could start, until the end of this school year. If you see a job listed with a July or August start, that would be for the upcoming school year.

Schools will typically have a very low facility cancellation rate, making it a pretty stable commitment on your end. This is helpful to know because as a traveler, you need to consider planning your housing for the duration of the contract.

The typical hours you will see for a school contract are between 35-37.5 hours per week. There are some contracts with 40 hour weeks, but it’s not usually the norm. Although most are not 40 hour guarantees, the rates are usually a bit higher in this setting which can help to offset the lower hours. This may bring your weekly take home to be similar or even better than a normal 40 hour work week in another setting.

A cool perk to working in schools is you have all of the school holidays off, so you know your days off in advance, and they are setup around desirable holidays/days people want to take off anyways. The uncool part of this, is you may not get paid during school holidays. So you will have to plan accordingly around this.

If you are off for the entire week for a school holiday (such as Spring Break or Winter Break), you will not be paid at all for that week. However, if you are off for only part of the week for the holiday, you may still receive your full week’s per diems, or part of the week’s per diems, in addition to the hourly pay for the days you did work. It’s important you clarify this with your travel company to understand how your pay will work around school holidays.

What Disciplines Are Most Needed?

The majority of school positions tend to be open for SLP, but there are options for PT’s, OT’s, PTA’s, and COTA’s as well. The market can vary across different states and school districts with different needs.

School positions often accept and support CF SLPs as well. However, this may or may not be a desirable setting for a lot of SLPs coming out of school that may be more interested in medical job settings.

What Questions Should I Ask During an Interview?

Not all travel therapy school positions are created equally. There are some important questions you should consider asking during your interview to decide if a contract is right for you, which might include:

• How many children will be on caseload?
• Who are the other staff members? (PT, OT, SLP, aids, etc.)
• Have you had a travel therapist there before?
• What is the facility like? (equipment, etc.)
• What will my hours be?
• Will I be covering more than one school?
• What age groups will I be covering?

What Are Some Pros & Cons to Working School Contracts?

There are some benefits to working in schools pertaining to taking a longer (full school year) contract, which include more job stability; moving less often between contracts (as opposed to the typical 13 week travel contract); exploring an area for a longer period of time; and potentially saving on housing costs with a longer lease.

Another benefit is that you have planned time off to be able to take trips, and this time off is usually around holidays when you may want to spend time with family and friends.

Another potential benefit would be building your skill set in a different setting. This could be especially important with pending changes in Medicare, which could affect the market for settings such as Skilled Nursing Facilities.

However, for some people, there could be cons to taking a school contract. Some may consider committing to a full school year as limiting their ability to travel and see the country. They may also have fear of getting locked into a long contract without knowing if it’ll be the right fit for them. Fortunately for this concern, we as travelers have the option of a 14 or 30 day cancellation notice if placed in a bad situation.

Another con can be the paperwork and IEP meetings involved in working in schools. As with every setting, you have to take into consideration the documentation and meetings involved, which is the not-so-fun part of our jobs as healthcare providers.

And the last consideration would be not getting paid during school holidays. This may require some additional budgeting on the traveler’s part, or working with the recruiter to rearrange the pay package as needed. But for many travelers who tend to take a week or so off between their normal 13 week travel contracts to travel for leisure, relax and recharge, or go home to visit family and friends, these school breaks can provide the same thing, just structured a bit differently.

Is a School Contract Right for You as a Traveler?

Some clinicians absolutely love working with pediatrics and in the school setting. For others, this may be a totally new experience. As with any travel therapy job, you will have to take into consideration many factors when choosing if a particular school contract is right for you.

If you have questions or would like help getting started with your travel therapy journey, please contact us!