Sometimes an equipment meeting starts with the student and slowly drifts toward the catalog. The vendor may be knowledgeable and well-meaning. Still, the team has to keep asking: What does this child need? Where will this be used? Who will support it? How does this fit the school day? If the product is driving the…
Equipment vendors can be very helpful. They know products, parts, ordering, repairs, and options the team may not know. But vendor expertise is not the same as clinical judgment, educational relevance, or IEP team decision-making. The vendor can inform the decision. The team still has to own the reasoning.
This checklist helps review whether staff have enough guidance to carry out PT-related supports during the school day. Because “the staff know” is not a plan unless the staff actually know.
Yes. If staff are expected to support your child during the school day, it is reasonable to ask how they will know what to do. This is especially important when support involves equipment, positioning, mobility, safety, transitions, or routines that need consistency.
School-based PT often works through the team, not only through isolated therapy time. If a recommendation depends on staff helping with equipment, positioning, transitions, mobility, safety, or routines, staff need to understand what to do and why. That may involve modeling, consultation, written guidance, follow-up, or problem-solving when the plan meets real life. Training is…
A plan can depend on staff follow-through while never quite making staff training part of the plan. Everyone agrees the student needs support. Everyone agrees staff should help. But no one has clearly shown staff what to do, when to do it, how to handle the equipment, how to support the transition, or what to…
Assistive technology is equipment, tools, or systems that help a student access, participate, communicate, move, learn, or function more effectively. In school-based practice, the important part is not just the device. It is whether the tool fits the student’s educational needs and is supported well enough to work during the school day.
This checklist helps teams and families review whether school-based equipment has a real implementation plan. Because equipment does not help much from a closet. Or from the wrong classroom. Or with staff who were never shown how to use it.
Ask how the equipment will actually be used during the school day. That includes who knows how to use it, where it is needed, what routines it supports, how fit or safety concerns are handled, and who you contact if something changes.
A common pattern is that the team names the equipment but skips the boring part that makes it work. Who adjusts it? Who knows how to use it? Where is it stored? What happens on the bus? What happens during specials, lunch, bathroom routines, assemblies, and field trips? Who notices when it no longer fits?…