Collaborating for Student Success: A Guide for SchoolBased Occupational Therapy,Used

It is widely accepted by occupational therapists working in diverse ettings that collaboration is a valuable part of teamwork. But what collaboration actually looks like in educationand how to do it effectively to promote student performancecan be vastly different depending on one's perspectives and experiences. This practical work highlights how occupational therapists can collaborate effectively with family and education partners in the schools and connects collaboration to the mandates of IDEA and NCLB to help all students participate in the general curriculum. The editors and contributorsexperts in schoolbased practicehave collected evidence from the occupational therapy, school psychology, and education literature as well as reflected on their own experiences to describe the successes and challenges schoolbased occupational therapists encounter daily when providing collaborative services and supports to students, teams, and school systems.Collaborating for Student Success is designed as a textbook and continuing education (see AOTA's web site for details). The editors were guided by the following objectives in their selection of content that would meet the needs of advancedlevel readers: identify the characteristics and challenges of providing collaborative occupational therapy services and supports within a historical perspective of working in inclusive schools; illustrate the collaborative roles occupational therapists engage in to support students with disabilities in multiple school contexts within the context of a general education curriculum; analyze the contextual variables the influence how students, families, and education personnel collaborate in an interactive team process; describe strategies and approaches for building team partnerships, including mentoring and coaching; review the evidence for providing incontext team supports to ensure students' participation in inclusive environments; donsider practical strategies for resolving challenges related to participating on collaborative teams to provide occupational therapy services and supports; recognize the communication and teaming skills needed to effectively engage in collaboration to support student learning within different environments in a school; and identify the process of initiating and sustaining changes in practice and influencing families and education personnel to engage in collaboration with occupational therapists.Each chapter includes Voicesperspectives of students, parents, educators, administrators, and occupational therapy students and professionals; Collaboration in Actionvignettes from practice; Remember Thiskey points to keep in mind; Resourcesprint and electronic; and Reflectionsquestions that apply the chapter's content to specific situations. A collection of blank forms and worksheets is included in the appendix as well as on a CDROM for ease of use in the classroom and in practice.