We are excited to bring you a guest post from Traveling Occupational Therapist Sydney Stahl about her experience working in different school systems as a travel therapist. She provides great insights for prospective travel therapists (OT, SLP, PT) looking to work in schools providing therapy services.

Every School Contract is Unique

If I’ve learned anything so far in my travel therapy journey, it’s that no two contracts are the same. This is even more evident in the school setting. Occupational therapy (as well as physical therapy and speech language pathology) in schools is far different than in medical-based settings (e.g., skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehab settings, acute care), and the learning curve is real. Discussion with my colleagues about their school sites helped shape my expectations for this learning commitment. Those discussions have also highlighted the many differences across school settings. Each educational institution has their own protocol for the finite details involved with providing occupational therapy services. Everything from the documentation system, IEP team responsibilities, service models, and so on. I’ve learned a lot—and am still learning, so welcome back to school!

School District vs. Education Service District

Typically, most school contracts are through a school district. This was the case with my first travel therapy school contract, where I worked through a travel therapy company who contracted directly with the school district. It was the responsibility of the school district to provide specialty services in the schools, such as occupational therapy. And this is where I came in.

What I didn’t know was that there are “education service districts” in addition to the regular “school districts.” The education service district provides specialized services to the surrounding counties and school districts. I’ve learned that sometimes smaller school sites and districts in more rural areas can’t necessarily fund their own in-house specialty services. That’s where the education service district comes in. They partner with school sites and districts within their region and provide specialty services to children in those areas. While working a travel therapy school contract on the Oregon coast, I got to serve kids who lived in and around coastal towns like these, via the education service district. 

As a service provider, this partnership does require a bit more paperwork, as these schools are receiving services from another institution. It’s common for this extra paperwork to delay services, which is important to keep in mind. It can also disperse the demographic of your caseload, meaning you might serve kids across districts or counties. There’s the potential to be handling multiple documentation systems and protocols across your caseload to accommodate the systems in place at each school site. I encountered multiple sets of check-in procedures, staff, and schedules in a single day across multiple schools. It can be quite exhausting exerting your energy in so many different places, so focusing on your work-life balance and self-care are a must! It’s a learning process for sure, but I think a variety of experiences builds a well-rounded therapist.

Health disparity is a prevalent issue, and oftentimes families are only able to access therapy services through the school system. Some kids on my caseload were unable to attend school in-person due to medical conditions, making my ability to provide services in the home all the more meaningful. Inclusivity and advocacy are hallmarks of the occupational therapy profession, and I found the structure of the education service districts supported those attributes by increasing access to therapy services.

Direct Services vs. Consultation

Most of my professional experience has involved providing direct occupational therapy services. During one contract, I was working hands-on with students, supporting them to reach their goals in the classroom. This site was an alternative school, meaning all instruction was part of a special education curriculum. The convenience of this was I didn’t need to worry about pulling kids from their general education class, and I had the freedom to provide support wherever I felt it was most meaningful. What I didn’t know at the time was this “convenience” was more of a “luxury”.

As I would learn later, providing occupational therapy services to kids in the school system can be a beast to schedule. Often, students cannot be pulled from classes in their general education classroom. When you start coordinating multiple sites and student schedules, finding a way to provide direct service minutes can be challenging.

The education service district that I worked with followed a consultation model, different from direct services. Consultation involves the provision of therapy services via collaboration with school support personnel (i.e., teachers and staff). For occupational therapy, this could vary from training with teachers on strategies to improve handwriting in the classroom, to implementing methods of sensory regulation with school support staff.

As with direct services, consultation is individualized for each student and their goals. Consultation services do not negate the importance of direct observation, assessment, or rapport building. While the service model focuses on consultation, I believe it is best practice to try to get to know your students in order to best support them—whether that’s directly or via collaboration with the school staff. 

This consultation model allows the therapist to capitalize on the rapport and relationship already built between school staff and the student. The efforts of teachers and school staff play an important role in consultation. In a profession that promotes occupational balance, we are in a great position to facilitate wellness and prevent burnout among our school support personnel. This is relevant because the care we provide is only as good as the care we give ourselves. By providing the appropriate expertise and judgement, occupational therapists can empower teachers and school staff to better support their students and ultimately improve students’ participation in school. 

What Have I Learned?

One of the biggest reasons I chose to pursue travel therapy was to explore different areas of occupational therapy. I’ve learned the school setting can look very different depending on where you’re at. Like any job, every site has its own set of pros and cons.

Building relationships with my patients, clients, or students is one of my favorite parts of this profession. With my experience in these two different school-based service models, I’ve learned I prefer direct service because it provides me more opportunity to build connections with the students. Inquiring about service models is a question I never would have known to ask during an interview, and now I do!

Working for a school district was a great introductory experience to occupational therapy in the schools. I was exposed to a unique educational setting and was able to focus all my efforts on one student body. In contrast, providing services for an education service district broadened my caseload a ton. While more challenging to manage, I’ve gotten to experience a variety of education systems and serve a broad demographic of students. 

Learning to shift my service provision from direct to consultation was, and still is, an area of growth. Sometimes consulting with adults can be harder than working directly with kids. However, the adults in these kids’ lives have a huge impact on their participation in school, so I believe it’s a model worth implementing. It takes a village, and kids benefit from consistency, so collaborating with their routine staff encourages carryover of the interventions and strategies we provide.

I have also gotten to experience two very different schedules. Being at one school site really allows you to focus your time within that community of teachers, students, and staff. At multiple sites, it can be more challenging to build this community. However, I do love the variety it adds to my day. It can be chaotic at times dealing with commuting and other environmental factors (e.g., weather, traffic), but I enjoy the time to reset and refresh before entering each school. It varies per person, but I prefer a little stress at work rather than my routine being too mundane. Working at multiple sites ensures there will be some variety in your schedule. And at the end of the day, kids are pretty adventurous, so most of the time, a little excitement during the work day is guaranteed. 

In Summary

There is no one size fits all. Not for the people we serve, nor the sites at which we work. You never know exactly what a travel therapy contract will be like until you get there, but whether or not it’s a perfect fit, you always finish knowing something you didn’t before—and that’s growth! I think we, as therapists, deserve to celebrate all our progress just as much as the people we serve. Working in different school settings has taught me so much, and it’s knowledge I will continue to use going forward—wherever my next adventure is! I feel very grateful to be working in a field where the learning never ends.

Thank you, Syd, for this very informative post about working in different schools as a travel therapist! If you’re looking to get started with travel therapy, send us a message at Travel Therapy Mentor and we can help you get started! You can also check out our Travel Therapy 101 Series and fill out our Recruiter Recommendation form to get connected with the best travel therapy recruiters. Don’t forget to check our Hot Travel Therapy Jobs List as well!

About the Author

Hi, my name is Syd Stahl. I am a traveling occupational therapist and began travel therapy straight out of graduate school. Born and raised in Minnesota, I got my bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science with minors in Spanish and Psychology at North Dakota State University. Go Bison! Then I attended Belmont University in Nashville, TN where I earned my Doctorate in Occupational Therapy. While completing an international fieldwork placement in Ecuador, I gained the confidence to learn and explore the adventurous world of travel therapy, and I am so glad I did! I’ve gotten to see beautiful places and meet so many cool people. I spent my first year traveling in California, where I completed travel contracts in skilled nursing facilities and schools, before moving to Oregon for my next school contract. My pup, Cedar, is the best travel buddy, and I am so grateful to have him as a companion on this journey. We love being outdoors, and are planning to convert a small van into our little adventure home on wheels! If you’d like to connect, the best way to contact me is through social media, @sydstahl, or email at rawsalmon98@gmail.com.