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.

Here are a few tips to make scheduling easier:

1. You can start with this free schedule form to write down your schedules from Therapy Planner.  You can edit it in Word or just print it out and start writing in pencil of course with a huge eraser.

2.  Try sticky notes – check out this on Pinterest where the therapist uses sticky notes on a file folder.   Seems pretty genius to me but knowing my luck, I will carry that in a wind storm and good bye schedule!  Maybe little flag sticky notes on the printable schedule above might help when considering who to move where when conflicts arise.

3.  Push in – sometimes the easiest way to make everyone’s schedules work in to provide push in therapy.  Children won’t miss important academic time.  You can role model for teachers and parents techniques and suggestions.  Another huge bonus, is that you are seeing the student in his/her natural environment.

4.  Out of ideas already… So let’s share – what is your BEST TIP for scheduling?

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, keeping organized all school year check out the Therapy Planner for 2016-2017 or watch the video to see the sample pages.  It is available in 4 different styles (one being white background to save on printer ink). This is an electronic document with all the materials to stay organized this school year starting July 2016 through June 2017. More pages added this year!  The planner includes the following:

General Information page
Caseload
Schedule
12 Full Page Monthly Calenders
12 Two Page Monthly Calenders
12 IEP Review/Eval/Screenings Monthly Reminder Pages
12 Attendance Records for each month
1 Daily To Do List
2 Weekly To Do Lists (print as many as you need for each week)
Lesson Planning Page
Consultation Notes
CEU Tracker
Communication Log
Progress Report Tracker
Evaluation Tracker
Notes (print as many as you need for the year)

All you need to do it print out the pages, punch holes and toss them in a binder. This planner will help you stay organized all year long.  FIND OUT MORE.