Be Organized this School Year

The start of the school year is approaching or here for some of you. Start the year off right with these tips to get organized:

1. Create an organized caseload list of your students. Include all information such as teacher's names, parents' names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, frequency and duration of therapy sessions. If you have all the information on one handy list it will make it much easier to contact the team members throughout the school year.
2. Check your caseload versus workload. It can be very difficult to stay organized if there is not enough hours in the day to complete your daily job. Try filling out this caseload/workload calculator to determine if your workload is appropriate. This calculator helps you to determine exactly how many minutes per week you are spending on different services including paperwork.
3. Use forms to streamline paperwork. It is much easier to stay on top of mounting paperwork with pre-made forms. Check out School Based OT Forms or School Based PT Forms.
4. Be prepared with data collection. Create different forms or use retail data collection tools to follow students closely regarding attaining goals. You can create free forms using Google Docs for goals. Check out this blog post, Collecting Data in the School, Home or Clinic, for more information on using Google Docs. Try The Scale of Sensory Strategies (S.O.S.S.) Tool Kit™ for data collection for sensory diets.
5. Leave time for paperwork. Don't forget to schedule paperwork time into your schedule. Perhaps the last few minutes of a therapy session you can jot down a quick note. Use a voice recorder following each session that transmits to text for you. Make it routine so it does not pile up on you.