Public Education

OT Month: School Supports 101

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Most parents only hear about school supports when something feels off. Their kid may be struggling with reading, falling behind in math, or having a hard time staying organized or regulated. While we may be familiar with supports like OT, PT, and/or speech, schools have far more tools, services, and interventions than most families ever realize.

Support begins the moment your child walks through the door.  Every school uses a layered approach to helping students succeed, much like climbing a ladder. The first rungs include everyday supports that all children receive. As you move up, the next rungs offer extra help for students who need a little more. At the top are individualized plans for students who require more intensive, personalized support.

What many families don’t realize is that most of this help happens long before an IEP or 504 is ever discussed. That’s because frameworks like MTSS and RTI are designed to catch challenges early and provide support right away.

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OT Month: The 504 Plan

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

If your child doesn’t qualify for an IEP, a 504 Plan might fit. It may sound like a highway number or a health code, but it’s actually a legal support that ensures students get the access they need to participate in school.

A 504 Plan is a school-based support plan that provides students with disabilities the accommodations they need to access learning alongside their peers. Its purpose is to adjust how a student learns, not what they are taught.

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OT Month: The IEP

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

When you’re navigating support services in the school system, it can feel like an alphabet soup (OT, PT, MTSS). This post is all about the IEP.

An IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is a legal, written plan that explains exactly how a public school will support a student with a disability in order to facilitate their learning and make progress. It’s part of the federal special education law called IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), and it guarantees students access to a free appropriate public education (FAPE).

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Child(ish) Reads: The Most Important Year

| Patti Webb

It’s kinda serendipitous that I picked this book this month. The Georgia PreK Lottery opens today!

In Fulton County, Georgia, incoming 4-year-olds looking for free, public PreK enter a lottery on March 1st. You apply for the public elementary school that you are zoned in, and each school has a limited number of PreK slots. If you don’t get selected, you can be waitlisted for other schools if space allows.

I have absolutely no frame of reference for the odds of getting selected. When we moved last year, I was satisfied with the elementary school we were zoned for, looking at the GreatSchools scores and stats. From reading The Family Firm, Troy and I were able to weigh our options for how we were going to tackle this very big school year. But still, some of our decisions would be null and void depending the outcome of a lottery that is in no way in our control.

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