OT in Tacoma Schools (OTITS)

October 23, 2026

All the leaves are brown.

Dear TPS OTPs,

Somehow, we are nearing the holiday slide where Halloween propels us on the timeline to Groundhog Day. Thanks for a great Waiver Day on the 12th. It was great to catch up in person and cover so many great topics.

Sara W. took a recent side quest to see Larch madness in the South Cascades. Nature is so cool. Share your side quests and we'll use as our splash!

picture of a broken Western Larch branch with street and trees in the background

IEP Online 3.0 Updates

As 3.0 continues to be hotbed of despair, here are a couple updates that impact our group:

TPS has convened a 3.0 advisory group that is exploring options, updates (or lack thereof) from PCG, and statewide plans for the future. This group has asked for weekly updates/guidance from CAB that we can push out to the field. First one should be coming soon.
We can now utilize SAS for our services when writing IEPs. If you have held any IEPs indicating SAS by narrative prior to the correction, please send the student ID number to Carlton with the service that needs to be indicated as SAS and he will correct these for us.
Self-paced (asynchronous) training modules are once again available in Pathfinder for 4.5 hours of optional tech pay. Registration has been extended to June 1, 2027.

Health Equity Continuing Education

WAC 246-12-820 requires that health care professionals must complete a minimum of two hours in health equity continuing education training at least once every four years. Locate free trainings on the Department of Health (DOH) website.

Kami and the Read&Write Extention

Kami is an online document annotation and markup tool. You can highlight, underline, and strikethrough text in PDF and other document formats. You can also add text boxes, shapes, and images. You can even add audio, voice-typing and video.

Read&Write for Microsoft Edge extension is an assistive literacy support toolbar developed by Texthelp Ltd. It is designed to make web pages, online documents, and cloud files (such as Word Online and OneNote Online in OneDrive) more accessible.

Overage Pay

ESAs can now (as of Oct. 15) complete the form. Please refer to the TEA Collective Bargaining Agreement Section 72.H.2, 6 for details and language regarding caseload overages. Once you start filling out the form, “Occupational Therapist” appears as a drop-down choice. Since all your schools may not fit, just choose your timekeeper school and put the total # that you’re over by in the right-hand column.

Therapy Schedules

Per the CBA, Section 71.H, we are to turn in schedules to Sue Folker. I know that many of your are still navigating schedule changes due to lack of adequate funding in our schools and yet more resources being cut. The verbiage: "Schedules notating locations and student ID numbers at each building of service to be submitted to the Student Services Administration by Oct 10th. Staff are responsible for maintaining schedules and notifying administrators of changes." Tools to Grow has some templates if you are interested, but this should be low lift and NOT another job.

2026-2027 PLCs

Register at your buildings via Pathfinder. Sadly, they are individual late start registrations and I've confirmed that will not be changing. Only 2 more PLCs in 2026 with none in November:

10/28/26 - Our first practice topic PLC

12/9/26 - Program-alike PLC

Bulk Orders

Thanks to Randee & Licia for wrangling orders for our consumables, etc. This is such a great help and NOT an easy task. Here's to a faster approval time than last year!

HEALWA (repeat)

HEALWA brings together evidence-based health information at https://heal-wa.org/ and is open to all licensed Washington State healthcare providers as defined by state law and funded through a portion of our annual licensing fees.

OTITS Newsletter ideas?

If you have any ideas for other ways to make the newsletter useful, let us know! Featured student? Featured OTP? Article of interest? Practice idea? You name it, we'll consider it. Thanks so much. Looks like you can expect monthly newsletters as semimonthly was too ambitious.

orchestra continuing to play on the sinking Titanic

Sara Woodward

Occupational Therapist, Co-Lead

swoodwa@tacoma.k12.wa.us Mobile: 253.831.1476

Jill Ogata-Tucker

Occupational Therapist, Co-Lead

jogatat@tacoma.k12.wa.us Mobile: 808.345.3298

Sara Woodward

Sara Woodward is using Daystage to create professional school newsletters.

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