How Many OT Treatment Hours are Possible in a Week?

How can two school-based OTs have identical caseload numbers but vastly different workloads?

This episode promises a fresh perspective on evaluating the true demands of our roles, focusing not just on the numbers but the actual time commitments involved.

Join me as I introduce a new series of short, five-minute episodes designed to provide quick, actionable insights tailored for the OT Schoolhouse community.

Together, we'll explore:
• Misconception of measuring your caseload vs another
• Understanding the significance of workload in daily practice
• How different treatment frequency impacts your workload
• The implications of the 24-hour treatment threshold
• A shift in OT conversations from caseload to workload

So, let's break away from the norm and start asking the right questions to truly reflect the demands and responsibilities of our roles. Share your thoughts and let me know if this new format resonates with you!

Do you know your workload?

Grab your caseload spreadsheet and Identify your workload here.

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CLICK HERE to save $50 and secure your spot with code PODCAST25

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See you in the next episode!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
the schoolhouse community.
What's happening?
It's just me.
Today, this is going to be whatI hope will be an ongoing
series of just quick five minuteepisodes that I hop on here and
do very, very briefly, one ofmy favorite podcasts that I
listen to.
They do this from time to timeand I really appreciate these
short, actionable, kind of justto the point episodes, and so

(00:21):
we're going to try them out hereat the ot schoolhouse and let
me know if you enjoy them.
Reach out to me via email orcomment.
Wherever you're listening tothe podcast, whether it's
Spotify, apple Podcasts,wherever it might be Just drop a
review or comment, whatever youcan do, and let me know if you
enjoy these.
So yeah, I'm just going to kindof go into it because I don't
want to spend too much time heredabbling around.

(00:43):
So today I want to talk alittle bit about caseloads and
workloads.
If you recall, a few episodesago, I kind of made this my
focus for 2025.
I just kind of wanted tore-emphasize the difference
between measuring your caseloadand measuring your workload and
why, as school-based OTpractitioners, we need to get
away from like that firstquestion.

(01:04):
So when we meet a newschool-based OT, like asking
what's your caseload?
And comparing our caseloads,because you might ask someone
what their caseload is and theymight say their caseload is 50.
Now, for the sake of thisargument or this discussion,
we're going to assume that yourcaseload is also 50, right?
So when you ask this otherschool-based OT practitioner

(01:26):
whether it's an OT or a COTA,and they say their caseload is
50, you are automaticallycomparing yourself your caseload
of 50 to their caseload of 50.
And you're probably thinkingwell, my caseload is probably
pretty close to yours, right?
But that might be true, but italso could be completely untrue.

(01:47):
And what I mean by that is yourcaseload, which might be 50
kids at 30 minutes per week, andtheir caseload, which could be
50 kids at 30 minutes per month,are vastly different.
Right, you still have 50 IEPsto go to both of you on a given
year, give or take.
Right, you still have 50 IEPsto go to both of you on a given
year, give or take.
Right, you still got 50progress reports potentially

(02:08):
that you need to do.
However, when you break thisdown, your 50 kids at one time a
week for 30 minutes comes outto 25 hours of sessions per week
.
And that other OT practitionerwho has 50 kids but it's 50, 30
minute per month sessions has 25hours of treatment sessions per

(02:30):
month.
That breaks down to about sixand a half hours per week.
That's a big difference, right?
Six and a half hours per weekversus 25 hours per week, that's
huge.
And maybe another OTpractitioner has a caseload of
50 kids, just like the two ofyou do, but they see most of
their kids every other week for30 minutes.

(02:51):
Well, now you're looking at 12hours per week.
So this is just why the ideathat we are calculating our
caseload by the number of kidswe see just doesn't work.
We're not comparing apples toapples.
And this could be the samething within your district,
right?
Like, maybe you have five OTpractitioners within your school
district or your county ofeducation office, whatever it

(03:12):
might be, and you all have 45 to50 kids, have 45 to 50 kids.
However, one of you leans moreheavily on using a consult model
and two of you lean heavily onusing a weekly model of
treatment services and the othertwo kind of try to go the
bi-weekly route with a lot ofkids, not to say that you

(03:34):
probably have like a mixture,right?
You don't have all kids thatare one time a week, but on
average maybe you lean one waymore so than another therapist
does.
Well, your cases on paper andas the district might see them
looks very similar, right?
You all got 45 to 50 kids.
That's pretty equal, that'spretty even.
But when you actually breakdown the work that those 45 to

(03:57):
50 kids take, it is very, verydifferent.
So I guess my point today is Ithink we need to stop asking one
another, hey, what's yourcaseload?
And instead start asking oneanother what's your workload?
How many treatment hours areyou providing any given week?
Or maybe you want to calculateit by month, whatever it might
be, but we need to start keepingtrack of that number, the

(04:20):
amount of time that we'respending in treatment any given
week.
I don't want to go too far intothis in this episode, but if
you're looking for a number, mynumber tends to be around 24
treatment hours per week.
I think that is kind of thetipping point for school-based
OT practitioners.
Anything above 24 hours perweek becomes very unmanageable.

(04:41):
You don't have time forevaluations, for IEPs, for any
sort of RTI or MTSS involvement.
Basically, you are just doingtreatment.
I mean, kids are only in schoolfor about 30 to 32 hours per
week.
When you calculate it alltogether, so that's about six
hours per week that kids aren'tin school, that you're also not
providing treatment, and thenyour other time is spent,

(05:02):
obviously, in documentation,meetings and whatnot.
So yeah, again, just let's stopasking one another what our
caseload is and move on toasking one another what's our
workload and how much time arewe actually spending on
treatment any given week, andthen we can also ask what we're
spending outside of those 24hours, or whatever it might be,
what else are we doing?
I think that's a very importantconversation that we're not

(05:24):
having.
So with that, I'm going to signoff on this very first five or
so minute episode.
Very little editing here, butyeah, again, let me know if you
enjoyed this short little tidbitepisode.
I think it's going to be funfor me.
I appreciate it Sometimes.
Just not having a guest andjust talking for a little bit is
going to be fun for me, but Iwant it to also be beneficial

(05:46):
for you.
So let me know Email, text,comment, concern, whatever it
might be.
Let me know any way you can andI'd be happy to continue this
on for you, take care.