"Serving All Students: Integrating OT and PT into Multi-Tiered Systems of Support"

Calling all school therapists! School systems expert Dr. Susan Cahill, PhD., OTR/L, FAOTA will lead a one-day conference specifically addressing the needs of school OTs and PTs. 

Any registration change requests must be made by 3pm PST on November 10, 2017 as we need to confirm meals and seating arrangements with the venue.  No refunds will be given after 3pm on November 10, 2017.

7:30 AM-8:00 AM Registration
8:00 AM-12:00 PM  Content to include:

• The needs of at-risk students in educational environments and federal legislation
• Overview of multi-tiered systems of support (RtI, PBIS, public health model)
• Role of OT and PT in using an early intervening approach
• Problem solving teams and inter-professional collaboration

• Writing goals and behavioral indicators aligned to learning
  standards
• Developing progress monitoring and data collection tools;
  challenges and opportunities associated with data collection
• Assessment strategies for school practice
• Best practice in school documentation
• Strategies to highlight each profession’s distinct contribution to the educational team and student performance
  

Instructor Bio:

Dr. Cahill has been in the field of Occupational Therapy for 20 years as a school-based clinician, administrator, educator, and investigator. She earned a B.S. in Occupational Therapy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, and a PhD in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Cahill has worked in public school administration as a special education program supervisor and is currently the Program Director for the Occupational Therapy Program at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.

Dr. Cahill has been a Co-Project Director and a Project Director on two federally funded personnel preparation grants. The focus of both of these grants was to prepare related services providers to work with students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act.  Dr. Cahill has numerous publications and presentations related to therapy practitioners working within multi-tiered systems of support. She also served as an author and a reviewer for the new edition of the Illinois Practice Guidelines for Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy Services in the Schools.

Dr. Cahill’s research interests include the study of interventions and models of practice used to support the occupational performance of children who are at-risk for learning and social emotional disabilities at school. She also studies the clinical reasoning and decision making of occupational therapy practitioners and is engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Her diverse areas of service to the OT profession include being the Editor of the Developmental Disabilities Quarterly, a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s workgroups on Response to Intervention and School Mental Health, a reviewer for the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, and Journal of Occupational Therapy Education. She currently serves on the Illinois Occupational Therapy Association Board as the Pediatric Special Interest Section Chair.

Dr. Cahill is a recipient of the AOTA Roster of Fellows award (FAOTA).