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OT student tells Benton County board rural schools underutilize occupational therapy
Summary
An occupational therapy student presented data to the Benton County Board of Education saying only a small share of students who might benefit currently receive OT services and urged the district to consider expanding school-based therapy and billing options such as Medicaid.
Cindy Baker, an occupational therapy student doing a capstone placement in Benton County, told the Benton County Board of Education that district students who could benefit from school-based occupational therapy (OT) are receiving services at very low rates and at infrequent intervals.
Baker said the district has about 65 students with Section 504 plans and about 662 students overall who might benefit from OT; of those, she said roughly 43 students (about 6 percent) were receiving OT services in school. "It's a big misconception that OTs only do handwriting in the school because there's so much more that they're able to do," Baker said, listing supports such as sensory regulation, emotional regulation, social skills, attention and classroom adaptations.
Baker described her capstone needs assessment at an elementary school, where she observed teachers pausing class an…
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