Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists September 2016 | Page 18

SCHEDULING FOR SCHOOL BASED
THERAPISTS IS NOT FUN!

When back to school starts, school based therapists have to hit the ground running. There is
rarely time to organize supplies, review IEPs or even go to the bathroom haha! Most therapists
start the school year off with scheduling. This is BY FAR THE WORST part of being a school
based therapists in my opinion. Please if anyone has any tips to create super easy schedules with
loads of kids, classrooms and schools I know we would all love to hear them.
STEP ONE: SCHEDULE – You get your list of students and schools and you head off feeling
super optimistic. This is the year that scheduling will go super smoothly and you will be done by
the end of day one making you ready to work with students day two.
STEP TWO: CONTINUE TO SCHEDULE – We all know that scheduling never comes off
without a hitch. You know you try to out run all the other school based therapists and beat them
to scheduling but you can’t win that race in every classroom. So maybe you are the last to
schedule a child who receives almost every related service and you say goodbye to the schedule
you created yesterday. Retrace your steps, quietly interrupt again in the classrooms, and change
your schedule.
STEP THREE: RESCHEDULE – Just when you thought you were done and you are almost
writing your schedule in pen you get an email that Johnny’s IEP is wrong and he actually gets
therapy 3x/week for 45 minute sessions but all your sessions are 30 minutes long. Not only do
you have to reschedule again, you probably just lost your lunch or evaluation slot. Maybe I am
being dramatic, but I am 100% sure you can all relate to the nightmare of scheduling.

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